Thank you, @gank!
My question, what is the difference between someone 'complaining' and someone 'standing up for what they love'?
There is a huge difference: the mindset and the focus. You have always two options in life: either you point a finger at the things that you don't like, or you invest your time and efforts in the things that you like. The former will pace yourself, the latter will push you and bring you forward in life. Complainers are more likely to be unhappy in general.
I ask this because it seems taboo to even bring up the idea that any improvements could be made on the platform.
Why are you believing that? If you only think of the last hardfork (adjustment of the rewards curve), then you will remember that these changes were required by the community. Your voice also counts a lot when it comes to select the witnesses. Have you voted for them already? If not: https://steemit.com/~witnesses
I don't think that the possibility to self vote is a problem here. Users that constantly upvote their own comments, are punished by the community anyways. We've got a lot of cops out here, haha :-)
I've just seen that you won the WSOP, that's huge! You might enjoy reading one of my articles about player poker in Vegas then :-) https://steemit.com/poker/@surfermarly/lucky-girl-trying-to-have-brain-and-balls-here-s-how-i-won-at-the-poker-table-last-night
I will jump over to your article now.
Have a great day!
PS: You said that you believe that self vote(especially for comments) is a detriment to the heart of steemit. and then you upvoted your own comment...:-) Isn't that a bit weird?
I hate the self vote button, now as a long term investor, I really think it changes the site completely(as stated in my article) BUT that does not mean I am not going to use it when it is common practice. And that is my point, too many people get focused on how they can maximize their payouts it distracts from content and the soul of the site. I was not around before the last hardfork, so I am unsure how things were. Cops and people lining their own pockets........all from being able to vote for yourself!