This is a great write-up of what happened at Steemit since I joined, which was around HF19. Thanks!

I have noticed the many lame 'I follow you now you follow me' comments. I personally aim for engaged followers, not so much the highest number of followers. When you compare with building an email list, it becomes immediately apparent why. It's not about how many people you send your emails too, but how many of those people on your list actually open your email and engage with your concent, or click on a link if that's included.

I'm all for upvoting your own posts. As an author, you've put in hard work to create a post. Why not give yourself that first vote?

But...I'm against the whole idea of upvoting your own comments. I see it a lot, and it goes against what I feel Steemit stands for. When I see a self-upvoted comment (often only $0,01 upvote: come on, why would you ruin your reputation with me for a measly cent?!) I immediately feel like ignoring it. Why? Because it gives me the impression that you as a commenter don't actually care about my post, but only left a comment so you could then give yourself money.

You should only be able to upvote comments by other Steemians.

Resteemed.