Hello @donkeypong,

After reading through what you and @kevinwong's take on vote buying and renting, I wanted to share my experience and thoughts as well regarding this somewhat taboo topic. I used to buy votes occasionally when I felt that I wasn't being noticed myself. This quickly became a habit of buying them after posting, and I have since then (about a week) refuse to press any button that gives me votes, bought or not as I feel that this behavior would harm my account's credibility in the long run.  

When talking about the "tribalistic support-for-support mentality", a lot of newer users including myself, have limited options outside of banding together with a circle that looks out for one another's content. However, when pulling back to see the whole picture, how often are these friends even reading, rather than for the sake of voting you because your article was good? 

One thing that lead to my frustrations on Steemit, was how long I would work on some articles, for no one to read, nonetheless vote, and these paid services evened the playing field just a little bit, giving newer authors a chance to be seen higher on the list for their category. 

One thing I really liked about your comment @donkeypong, was that I also agree that not every "great post" has to be the length of a book, along with barring myself from paid voting bots, I also have begun the process of varying the length of my own posts. Not every follower is going to read above 2000 word, hanging on every sentence, and at times, shorter pieces can also leave lasting impacts. 

As far as giving out my power to someone else's vote, I currently have most of my sp delegated out for curation and spam fighting initiatives. I may not be able to make a difference with the few hundred SP I was using, but I know that others do, and can hopefully make positive dents in Steemit's eco system. Thank you for this enjoyable read guys.

Mahalo,
@shello