The problem child
Infrequently upvoting for visibility is one thing, but since HF19 a tremendous shift in the way users interact on this site has occurred. Some have welcomed the change feeling empowered to better shape the Steemit economy by finding a newfound interest in curation. However, there have also been a much larger faction that has decidedly ventured out on their own. Forsaking the Steemit economy and thereby also the very fabric that enables them to indulge their greed.
Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about all of this is the fact that these users only reason for getting on Steemit is to continue to shower themselves with upvotes. They may pop up on your own post soon enough. Oh, you'll be unsuspecting at first. You'll engage with them and probably comment back and forth if they are the type to bait you into making more comments, if they are extremely lazy looters then you'll get a simple "good point" or "great work".
The aim is only to upvote their own comments, of course! If they were to venture into the community and make meaningful connections to other users by reading and posting, NOT EVEN creating content they would do much better in the long run. However, their only goal is to snatch whatever amount comes most readily with minimal effort. These self-upvoters aren't self-congratulatory (sorry, my meme is a bit off for this point but it's close enough). They don't carry the mark of prideful person. They should use this tag: Gimme-dat-MONEY!
How it will impact the REAL community, the vested users
The whole economy is being pulled down by the equity being sold off. The users that dip their hands in the reward pool, only to pull out every cent they can as often as they can are similar to a boy taking from a jar labeled "allowance" in his mother's bedroom. Imagine if that jar is shared among siblings and the pilferer doesn't seem to ever do his chores. He will get away with it for a time, but what happens on allowance day? When mom finds the money is missing, she's gonna be pissed. There will be consequences. HF20 can't get here soon enough. That's when mom gets home, guys.
Here's the thing though... That bad little brother isn't going to get grounded. Like so many family units in the past, there will be group consequences. The authority over that jar is going to be delegated to the responsible ones. It's going back to the whales. They aren't the nicest big brothers, but they don't disrupt the economy as much because they have a wee bit more impulse control. Oh, they still get theirs. Sometimes they even act like little brother, I've heard, but mom trusts them more....
