I have been using @steemvoter to give my own posts a boost. Since HF19 I could be giving myself several dollars each time. However, I have chosen to discontinue this. This is partly due to some posts I've read about this topic. If we all do this then Steemit will not work as intended and is likely to stagnate. By making this change there's a little more of my voting power available for others.
I make partial votes on posts and give less to comments. I may give a larger vote to posts I feel deserve it. Previous I sent small 'tips' to people for a good post, but now I can do that jut by voting.
Just thought I'd make this clear. I know some people are checking for certain behaviour and choose whether they want to support people who do things like this. I know some also don't support anyone involved in 'trails'. I am using some voting trails and I guess it's possible that may cause me to vote for myself. It will be a small vote anyway. Steemit will really work best when humans are curating the content. The trails allow me to let others use my voting power in a limited way.
Steemit is really a big experiment. There are few real rules about what you are not allowed to do. It's inevitable that people will try different models and create some interesting bots along the way. I just want to see it thrive and that requires real human interaction.
Steem on!
I'll buy guitar picks for Steem Dollars