Yeah, I decided to just power up 100% as well. There is no reason for me to try to cash out any STEEM or SBD at this point, it would be much better served increasing my voting power. I did exchange a litecoin for some SBD in case I ever want to promote someone with an exceptional post.
I've made two original posts, and they were automatically upvoted. I'm kind of torn because I hate to waste a vote there, but I'm worried that nobody will see it or think its a junk post if it's a few hours old with 0 votes, 0 comments. It would be great to hear other opinions on this!
Unfortunately, I've had to stop following one user because they were filling up my whole feed with one line posts, and resteems with seemingly no consideration for the content. Perhaps they were just trying to be noticed and stay on top of the general feed, but it was just too distracting.
My philosophy on resteeming is keep it minimal, and only do it when a post is incredibly valuable to me or I feel it is exceptional and it might not get the exposure it needs.
For example, A new user I ran across with 1 follower made a very insightful post and put some time into it. After sitting for an hour, it had 2 views, one of which was me! So I resteemed it to see if any of my 19 followers might also be interested in it.
I'm not really understanding the thing about the whales, people should not act like the whales owe them anything. If nothing else, they should be grateful to the whales for paving the way and stop whale hunting. Just like anyone else, If a whale likes your post, they will vote on it. Stop trying to spear Moby Dick!
Thanks for your insights especially on the resteeming. I do agree that not upvoting could get a post lost. I am also noticing users will now comment and not upvote the post.
I have occasionally been using PAL and Minnow Support to get some early automated votes if a post isn't moving. The votes have no real value but they do keep people engaged and sometimes it leads to quite a few more engagements.
I have been guilty of that! I sometimes have not upvoted when I comment on a post with about $1 or more. I figured at that time, the post is getting some exposure and my vote could go to an insightful comment on the page or a post with less exposure.
I also will sometimes hold a vote on a post that spends as much time asking for upvotes as it does saying something worthwhile. Every post is, by default, asking for upvotes. Dedicating 25% of a post to it is kind of silly.
I occasionally won't upvote when I comment on a one line post where my comment is intended only for the author, to share with them a link to how to steemit articles or FAQ that they seem to have overlooked.
Even still, it seems like my voting power is chronically depleted because there are so many good posts and comments that I love to upvote!
Yea I try not to deplete past 70% power. A good conversation I am having over at the PAL channel right now is that the self voting has halved the rewards pool dramatically.