I dont think people should be downvoted if there self voting is not excessive. as you know Steemit has no set rules. I personally think that small account holders should self vote to grow their accounts. but within limit. Like self voting on a post to give it that initial boost, or self voting a comment because it adds value and by voting that comment it will raise it to the top and be noticed more. But self voting comments for no reason I don't think is good. I use to do it too, but when you look at the 'outstanding' steemit community users and you wonder why they are so well respected and you are not, the penny will drop.
I hardly flag, I would rather show people another way and discuss it. You missed out on votes I was giving on that post because you left so many comments and self voted all of them. You just dont know how many other votes you may have missed out on because of this.
Steem on my friend :-)