This post is following on from a post titled 'Being an outcast and steemit' which I would recommend reading also.
In the post I talked about how big of a problem vote for vote is along with how it only hurts steemit in the long run and for this post I am going to expand on that.
I found it pretty funny that from that post I had four separate people messaging me saying; vote for vote? Along with another person asking if I wanted to sell my vote. The first thing I asked them was you didn't read the post did you? They of course replied with a no, I then said they should read the post as I talk about why you shouldn't vote for vote (none of them did).
Now I was happy that I got these replies at first as it just showed how bad of a problem this actually is, however I then realized that the issue is ruining steemit. From the messages I got it only backs up the point I made of how vote for vote ruins content, these people had absolutely no idea what my post was about yet they would still vote just for the return vote.
There are just so many issues caused by doing this; firstly people are doing this to get money as votes = money however only other minnows will take part so you won't really be making any money and you will never grow as people don't actually read you content.
It also promotes bad content because people know they are going to ask vote for vote so it doesn't matter what they post so why would they try to post good content, then if you only post bad content you will never get any recognition from whales and bigger accounts.
Growth
This also harms the growth of steemit massively, it seems the vast majority are drawn to steemit because they can get paid and they can talk about whatever they decide but when they actually come to the site if they only see what is essentially shit posting they would have no reason to stay. It makes the site appear as being full of spam.
From this new members of the site will only follow the top whale accounts as they cant be bothered to wade through all the shit posts which just stops small accounts from ever growing and that's if they stay at all. Then when these new comers vote they will end up asking the same vote for vote as it seems like the only way they can get votes.
If this doesn't change, if people don't stop vote for vote steemit will never grow to the size we all want it to and only a very small portion of posters will make any money. Personally I am not on steemit to make money, I just like sharing my opinions and knowledge along with hearing other peoples opinions and if I happen to make money then it's just a bonus.