It's truly a relief to read this post from you. @personz sent me here to check this out after reading my post- he said he's working on some curating tools that will hopefully provide an alternative to vote buying, which I am definitely interested in. I suggested in my post that people 'peacefully protest' by refusing to vote on those who are buying votes.

I absolutely love @steemreports. I went from 9% self-upvotes with 60 outgoing votes a couple of weeks ago to a 6% self-upvote with 80 outgoing votes this past week just from monitoring myself with their tools. Thanks to my lovely, hilarious friend @meesterboom who gave me the link in chat. 

It's still not enough outgoing votes, but it's an improvement. 

 My husband is investing in steem in the next few months, and by spring my hope is to start a curation guild with a group of trusted friends. On our own we're currently worth between 1-3 dollars at a full vote- not substantial- but if I get enough of us on board it could definitely be valuable. And perhaps inspire others like us to do the same..*anything* that veers the platform off the track it's currently on.