It is a mix. I'm certainly interested in my own benefit which leads me to not only vote for what I think will be popular but also to incentivize good comments and conversations that are unlikely to get attention but promotes a good experience for new users and struggling authors. I'll often "sponsor" certain topics or authors I think are under appreciated or that I think will draw in more people to the platform.
I believe the largest gain I will see by curating is through an appreciation in the price, not necessarily in accumulating more rewards. So promoting a wide diverse quality trending page is my primary concern. Making as many people as possible happy with their time spent here.
That makes a lot of sense to me, and is a perspective I have not seen expressed in a lot of the content that it out there on Steemit.com about up voting theory and practice. I think it is something more whales should think about and express more actively to other users. Would you be interested in me writing up a post explaining the need for Whales to focus on voting in ways that contribute to appreciation v.s. voting to accumulate rewards directly through curation and you can push it once it is live?
Also, what topics to you tend to sponsor?
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Would you like to support this post to help forward the idea of getting people to buy and sell in SMD instead of just cashing out? The more people exchange SMD directly instead of cashing out, the more that help keeps the price of Steem higher because it reduces demand for USD:
https://steemit.com/steemit-market/@nathanbrown/i-have-usd50-smd-i-want-to-spend-on-content-that-i-will-use-to-promote-steemit-to-my-50-000-email-subscribers
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