Familiar scenarios on Steemit:
Scene one: A user comments "nice post" on a bunch of posts and upvotes themselves $1.00 each till their voting power is down to 80%. Lather, rinse, repeat the next day.
Scene two: A user writes a good enough posts, upvotes reader comments to the tune of about 5 cents and then upvotes their own "thanks for commenting" replies to the tune if 75c each. I actually encountered that precise thing, a few days ago.
Scene three: A user spends 300 SBD on bidbots to upvote their fairly nondescript post to $750 and a trip to the "Trending" feed.
These are all things we see around here, on a daily basis.
What's Your Perspective?
Whatever we might think of the above actions is largely a matter of perspective.
Purple irises
Nobody's engaged in doing anything illegal; all three of these actions are within the boundaries of what the system allows people to do.
Some might say this is completely mercenary reward pool rape; some might say it's simple self-serving behavior and some might argue that it's simply someone acting wisely in service of maximizing the ROI on their investment.
The point of writing the above isn't for me to philosophize about what's "right" or "wrong," but primarily to point out that people have very different perspectives on the same thing.
On a personal level, I'm increasingly taking a similar stance to fellow writer 
Stay true to yourself and lead by example. And remember to ENJOY yourself — because isn't that really what the point of life is? even the "working" point of life?
We're ALL "Self-serving"
I believe the essence of the human condition is that we tend to act in our own self-interest.
Mountain view
In a sense, you could argue that right now I am being "self-serving" by writing about these ongoing controversies on Steemit, rather than simply ignoring them and writing about flower arranging or dog grooming, instead.
I am being "self-serving" because I am trying to build my Steem Power balance to a point where I feel like I can give a "decent" upvote to what I perceive to be content that adds value and relevance to the platform.
By extension, I am "self-serving" because I am adhering to a strategy I believe will help Steemit grow and thrive in the long run, because I still want to be here, getting rewarded for blogging, three, five and ten years from now. I don't want this to just be a quick "flash in the pan" we milk a few dollars from and then move on to... or move BACK to... Facebook or Blogger. Oh, the horror!
Are you beginning to see how accusing people of being "self-serving" is ultimately a pretty slippery beast?
Our self-servingness just serves different objectives. And there's really nothing wrong with that, as long we're not serving complete self-destruction by being excessively short-sighted.
How about YOU? Are you "self-serving?" Even if your immediate inclination is to say no, do you see how it's a difficult concept to define? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
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(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 180522 23:48 PDT