It's more important than ever as the minnow base is growing exponentially. Once upon a time, when the blockchain was the database to a sole website, and the price of Steem was such that votes were far more significant and powering up was fast-and-furious; I'm guessing voting everything and anything was conditioned as part of the community culture.
It's really not possible to keep up with that now that conditions have changed and continue to in the present direction.
Even trying to rebuild your VP after having voted for a few pieces in a short space of time seems to take forever, or maybe it's just that I keep finding things that I think deserve a little extra sprinkle of dust. I may even need to stay away for a day or two to get back to 100% haha
The dust vote really wasn't popular knowledge until just a month or go or so. I also wasted my votes. Still, some people do find feedback to be valuable — as valuable as money. When you find people like that, they're keepers. I keep them too. Although the upvotes are always a blessing for sure.
From a personal standpoint, the upvotes are a nice recognition (especially if they come with some value attached), but a brief comment to me is just as good, if not better. Acknowledgement and engagement, for me, is important as it keeps me motivated to stick with the slow growth of my account toward the point where my vote has a monetary value.
Same here. I think HF20 is removing the dust vote. You'll need a certain amount of SP to have financial value, but once you do- it will always count.
Just found something you might like @sparkesy43
Check out https://steemit.com/@dustsweeper
Thanks @omitaylor. I'm all over that one and have already received a few upvotes from the dustsweeper.