I agree, this is what I feel is important. However, the point you make about "vote up the good people", is curation, provided you are not voting up the same people every time. Then that's nepotism.
Vote good content, flag bad content, support new authors when you have the time. That's my method. And I think we are very similar, @steevc. Great comment!
That's a good point. I think his comment about upvoting good people, he probably meant "upvoting good posts created by good people using the system correctly"... but that's so long winded and lengthy. Sometimes it's easy to shorten comments and miss a few words.
Alas, good clarification point @evolved08gsr - I've upvoted quite a few new users in my past. Many of the became more popular and grew faster on this system than me and are level 70+ while I'm at level 66. However, if they deserve it, they truly deserve it, even if they are a low reputation level.
Some may be nepotism, some is certain people put out great posts or comments over and over.