At first I read the heading and thought to myself, sounds like some kind of bragging. After reading, and weighing criticisms I've heard towards zaps in any denomination, I believe it's worthwhile that communities and strangers would do the same (read and weigh the importance as they see it.)

Over the year, I've adopted selectivity in v4v and try to show appreciation where I see value to myself. On SN, I'm more consistent (and more measured) in that I genuinely enjoy the community and various takes I read or interact with. I don't really write, so it's surprising and always appreciated when someone does the same.

Things that I get value from here might just be someone posting links to unpaywalled articles, privacy enhanced links. People don't need to do those things (obviously they know how to find and use resources for themselves) so it's like throwing a tip. Something not customary to my home country.

Anyways, what I wanted to say, there's this built-in tendency in all of us that migrated from the more insidious dopamine inducing 'like' paradigm, to the more legit world of tips. Moved back to, perhaps. So, it's almost as if we have to actively monitor expectations. Sharing thoughts, or interacting and not receiving a zap needs to be maintained as the standard. Which I guess you said in another way.

But maybe equal, measuring the value here and there with an extra zero or two, when is appropriate to you, however infrequent, maybe is also the way to go.