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I think he means upvoting. You can upvote at any time within the 6 day cut off, but the first to upvote normally will get the most curation.

Commenting lets the poster know you are alive and occasionally they will check out your content.

Exactly! However, the problem is that people all over social media create groups just to beg for votes. This will negatively affect their reputation along with Steemit. If you check to Facebook Steemit groups and post an article for reading, you will be surprised by the bunch of comments asking to exchange upvotes! People are not even reading the content. And this is not the purpose why Steemit was founded.