I have been a member here in the steemit community for about 3 1/2 months. I have to admit that I really didn't know what it was all about and I am just starting to understand a little. I was watching a Dan Larimer interview on the Dollar Vigilante YouTube channel the other night and I was hit by an epiphany. Steemit is a community. It’s in everyone's best interest as part of the community to want the Steemit project to be successful. The community must be able to solve its own problems in a non-violent way. There are going to be people in the community that will plot and scheme and make huge profits. There are also people who flow within the ideals of the community that work very hard and also profit financially.

Downvoted

I have had been downvoted for the excessive use of voting bots on a steemit post that I was using a referral link in. I think I deserved the downvote. I was adding value for myself while offering little value for the community. From what I understand about the community is that its ideal situation is for content creators to create quality content and get rewarded for their efforts from upvotes from their peers in the community.

Whales, Minnows and Vote Abuse

It appears to me that the most voting power resides in the hands of the people with the most money. They are called Whales. I think that this is fair. These people worked hard for their financial success. So where do the poor people fit in in the community? They are called minnows. Minnows attempt to create quality content and gain the attention of Whales to upvote their posts. This is most often a long and slow process. Voting bots, and voting services offer a kind of instant gratification. Content creators send over there steem and SBD in exchange for votes. This practice does not live up to the ideals of the community. Many people in the community frown upon this. I have heard the protest of "vote abuse"

There are no problems, only solutions

I had a thought. What if I found content creators that interested and excited me? Content creators that shared the same interest that I have. I could support them by sending SBD or Steem to a Bot or a service in order to upvote their post. If I engaged with them, commented on their posts, maybe had some discussions in chat, they might be inclined to read my content and reciprocate. In that context voting bots and services would have a place in the community that added value in line with the ideals of the community.

While it’s true that the creators of these bots and services make nice income, it is also true that they deserve it. I think the idea is absolute genius and these people should be rewarded for their vision and talent. If used in the right context these services add great value to the community.

I believe that it is possible to look out for our own best interests here on steemit while looking out and supporting others in the community. It’s easy to take the moral high ground and decide what is good and what is bad. It’s much harder to find actual solutions that benefit the community as a whole. There are always those that are going to Game and Scam the system. Those people need to understand that they are also part of the community and that they are actually gaming and scamming themselves. I can only imagine the potential of this community in 10 years, in 20 years. Life, Liberty and Freedom my brothers and sisters

Image source : image.freepik.com/free-vector/coloured-robot-design_1148-9.jpg