True. But you have to upvote near 1k posts to get 1 STEEM.
If all you're doing on Steemit is curating, you'd need to invest a large chunk of change to make a difference. Let's assume most minnows are also commenting and posting blogs. Those .001SP, added to the STEEM and SBD gained from being upvoted by others make a difference.
Looking at it another way, if everyone on Steemit decided to only upvote themselves, how soon would it be before the platform ground to a halt? The whales, dolphins etc getting richer and the poor minnows and redfish getting nowhere, swimming as fast as they could for $1 per 1000 self-upvotes?
I doubt I'm the only one that thinks 'If you'd rather upvote yourself than upvote anyone else, good luck to you, you'll get nothing from me'? In fact, I know I'm not alone in that thought.
What people don't seem to grasp about this platform are a few facts.
Everyone started with nothing - or close to it (I believe I had $5 to start my account, new accounts get $15 delegated).
It takes time and effort to get anywhere - not only on Steemit.
You have to speculate to accumulate. In other words, a 100% self-upvote, once noticed, will get zero from others when they realise. Whereas a 100% upvote and relevant comment on someone else's post may gain a follower, a reciprocal 100% upvote and perhaps even a return visit or resteem.
Which is more valuable? 1000 self upvotes or 1 10% upvote from someone that has been here a while?
I tried to learn as much as I could about the platform when I first arrived. It's no more difficult to gain information now than it was then, but some new users seem to think that because we have more Steem, we owe them a hand-up.
Added by Edit I've been her 18 months and I've invested a small amount of fiat - mainly because I wanted to go to SteemFest in Amsterdam and I didn't have the funds in Steem - the rest of my investment has been hard work, writing, researching, commenting and promoting Steemit to others. I've brought friends with me and some are doing better than others, but I support those friends.
You can see how much I earned last week from curation:
Estimated curation rewards last week:
28.424 STEEM POWER - approximately 0.01048931BTC - the rest I made by writing, commenting etc.
That's why Steemit is alive. Cause there are people that invest their time and efforts in posting/commenting some really nice and interesting information. And I hope that we will have more and more such Steemians. This is one of the most important condition for Steemit community growth and health.
You're right. It's not just important, though, it's vital :)