Greetings! Thanks for the comment.
I do get a lot of automated votes which isn't appealling to me as it doesn't represent people who actually gained value from my post...
Thanks for pointing out my mistake I will edit that. I do agree it is natural for friends to vote for each other. However, if this is to become a decentralised system (which it is of course) then friends upvoting friends isn't going to make this an attractive platform for the general public. Basically we've become like a "clique", where we almost know every active member of the community and to come in as a new person without friends puts you at a disadvantage even if your content or just your presence and engagement offers more value to the community. Upvoting your friends as a minnow is fine in my opinion, but if you are a whale or your part of a guild that uses delegated voting, well it costs you and the entire community to vote in an anti social or nepotistic way. With less chance of catching that "whale vote" like we all gambled for back in the summer, I see the game as rigged and I see that others see it that way. The price of steem won't rise until people feel like their vote could have significant impact and be worth it... competing against anti social whales makes it not worthwhile and so they are really shooting themselves in the foot here...