If the witnesses agree upvoting yourself should not be allowed, and the change is made, then I will go along with what the group decides on this matter. Let me ask you this though, which would you prefer:
- Someone upvotes themselves for everyone to see, using their influence to adjust the conversation accordingly. I've done this before when I think a comment of mine (on my own blog post, as an example) is important for the conversation.
- Someone upvotes themselves via proxy using an army of bots they cycle through randomly.
Which one, to you, provides more transparency and honesty? If they do release a patch to prevent #1, #2 will surely happen. The problem, it seems, is an underlying moral or philosophical disagreement about what is reasonable and what is bullshit. That, unfortunately, will not be solved with a pull request. It's a matter of ideas.