There's nothing wrong with asking for upvotes in the proper channels and definitely not a problem to ask your friends for upvotes. - That's how social media is supposed to work.

We have #minnowsupport on Discord, for minnows who wants upvotes. A bot upvotes whatever article you want, to get you some rewards for your work. We also have #steemspeak on Discord where you'll be able to post your articles in #postpromotion. Then we have Steem.chat. Another way to ask for upvotes by posting them in the proper channels. - All these things are great and acceptable in every single way.

• What I don't like, is the private messages you get in the different chats.

Steemit and the community gives you basically every single tool you need, to help you in the best possible way... - But Steemit or the Community can't do everything for you. - You'll need to contribute and provide quality to be rewarded. - And that is the biggest problem for these people. They want the rewards without putting in work.