Still working on understanding this place. I wrote a blog where the gist is that self-voting and bot usage goes against my grain, but they seem an integral part of success here. For me the $$$ rewards are secondary, as my primary interest has always been the disruption of the centralized status quo, but to really help SteemIt do that SP appears essential. So I feel like a rock in a hard place...
It helps seeing posts like this. I remain on the fence on these issues, but you (and the commenters) have helped lean me back toward my roots.
As always, the key to success is being persistent and patient. Bots and self upvoting are a big part for now, there are a lot of pros and cons. Ideally voring bots wouldnt exist, but they do. As long as they do, I might use them :) thanks for your comment