Our subject today is conduct here on the blockchain, not government elections. I would like to remind you that the STEEM daily reward pool is a zero-sum game, and it is our responsibility to be wise custodians of that reward pool when we vote.
In the #newsteem climate, curation can be more rewarding than every before, and upvoting quality content helps improve STEEM. Downvotes also have a place as we fight abuse of the system.
UPVOTES
Support original content. Support substantive comments on your content. Support what brings value to you. Every little vote helps improve the reward pool distribution when those votes are used by honest curators for quality posts.
Upvotes can be abused, though, especially when they are purchased.
DOWNVOTES
Combat abusive behavior, plagiarism, spam, and bid bot abuse with judicious downvoting. There are many accounts that generate massive quantities of empty posts only to buy votes. This harms every honest content creator, and when these ill-gotten gains on both sides of such transactions are sold for Bitcoin, it kills the price of STEEM for everyone else, adding insult to injury.
Now that many of the former bid bot accounts are switching to manual curation, more careful consideration must be applied when following their voting habits, but we are on a blockchain where every transaction is public. A little sleuthing can usually determine what is really going on.
This can lead to retaliation, but remedies like @freezepeach are available, and many retaliatory downvotes have a negligible effect. Some do hurt, though. Small accounts may prefer to focus only on smaller abusers. This is perfectly understandable.