Thanks for the explanation--it helped us understand a little better! We heard about SteemIt based on your recommendations, and sometimes it feels like a game I don't feel like playing, haha. Our focus on the homestead is in getting things established in real life here, so much of our online work is tertiary sideline stuff--having an opportunity to have it potentially support the homestead, even if it's just a fraction of an amount, is helpful. You can only spread yourself so far! So having videos like yours makes our time a little more efficient.
Even so, I feel a little funny about the automatic vote bot-thing. I totally get the rationale behind it, if you look at this thing as a game and are leveling up. For some, that strategy gets their message further and helps support the smaller content creators, so this is not a commentary on them morally. For me, since I know that my votes probably will never hold much weight, nor my articles gain a huge following, I would only want to vote on articles I'd actually read. I may never be a heavy-hitter, but I value the interaction with other homesteaders so much more than gaining traction in popularity. So many ways to approach this online world! I'm glad that, at the end of the day, I can head outside and breathe the real air and close the computer. :)
At the end of the day, you have to just stop and live life. Just blogging about it will get you nowhere. :)