Thanks for touching on the fact people are being misled by these advertising practices. That's my biggest issue. I don't want to vote for advertisements. I don't pay Walmart for dropping a flyer off in my mailbox. A simple icon that indicates the post we are about to read is a PROMOTION and not regular content would go a long way. Youtube keeps the ads separate, Facebook does it, Google does it... even the banners on websites now clearly mention how they are ads. When people advertise without mentioning the fact their post is an ad, that falls under false advertising. The only reason these ads on other sites are marked is so they don't get sued and end up paying fines.
Many who use the promo bots are attempting to mislead others into thinking their post is popular by placing money beside it. The honest content gets pushed down. If I vote for a struggling minnow, it's wasted the moment someone buys a vote and pushes that minnow away.
If the ads were marked and moved away from the trending page, at least other members can still use the platform as intended instead of feeling defeated within weeks and giving up.
▲▲ THIS! ▲▲
I'm fine with the underlying idea of bots existing, but let's call a spade a spade: If you are buying bot votes, it's PROMOTED CONTENT. As @fyrstikken said, it's advertisement.
So, when I buy placement on Facebook, twitter or anywhere else, it's clearly labeled as "Advertisement" or "Promoted post." So why don't we do the same thing here? That way there's no stealing of anyone's "freedom" and there's no "censorship," there's simply truth in labeling.
Of course, some are going to say "But then people wouldn't read my posts!"
Where's your loss? I see a bunch of posts with $50 in rewards, 13 upvotes... and 8 of them are from voting bots. Nobody's reading your stuff anyway.
Imagine the ratings and revenue a television network would get if they flip-flopped everything.
Just imagine: all of the late night infomercials(paid programming/promotions) get placed in the primetime slots and the actual programming gets pushed into the late night slots.
That is how you set yourselves up for failure in the entertainment industry.
That is what Steemit is currently doing.
That is why people are failing.
It is painfully obvious.
That is exactly what is happening.
...and unmarked advertising is what is convincing people this entire mess is a good idea. They promote their promotion services, disguise them as helpful blog posts, and people get duped...
Nearly every goddamn day.
Yeah, and to expand the TV analogy... the gleefully rub their greedy hands because TODAY the ratings were really good, while being utterly blind to the fact they will have no network on which to even run their stupid ads, a few months from now...