Funny you approach things very similar to how I do. Do you use autovoters or all manual like me?

I simplified it long ago to to an equation of Content + Networking + Time = Success here. any one of those missing and people will soon come and go. I think you are referring mostly to the Networking in my equation which is connecting with other folks, supporting them with comments and upvotes and monitoring the return on investment of time and curation. I am a social business guy so I combine the 2 here to balance my social activity and spend it in the right places for me.

I have seen some of the dapp developers and other platform champions delegate most of their stake to those platforms. I do the same thing when I seen one of those upvotes come in at lower than expected value and check the wallet for power downs or delegations. From humble beginnings to equally humble stake now, I don't worry about it and try and cherish the network connection knowing they invest their stake in the community in different ways.

Starting out in 2018, I simply found my blog game and spent time commenting to find the people who valued engagement and rewarded them with upvotes. I would engage meaningfully and often reply with enough effort, content and images many would put into a post of their own. If that effort would be rewarded with crickets a few times, I chose to spend my effort elsewhere. Along the way, through repetition, I would subconsciously curate knowing the approximate stake of the people I follow and how much they valued engagement, and prioritized my effort and upvotes to those people. Partially for return on investment and increasingly from the value of the conversations and community building.

I think you were among the first people I followed and have since. I can't recall any $.34 upvotes on my Pulitzer posts ;) recently now that you mention it but I don't think of that as much as how you are one of the folks that constantly keeps the lights on here, like me, in your own way.