The bidbots are the reason for the flak. Seems people have a hard time explaining that.
You figured on this page as one the largest rewards made by bidbot votes: https://steemwhales.com/clean-trending/
I won't downvote you this time, seems you suffered enough, but I did make this link-image to explain why I am using my downvote (and I plan to do so against posts like this). Hopefully it gets the message through a bit better. Liked your post :) Cheers.
Well, funny that my post trended with 30 SBD. Who knew that trending would become a nightmare. So I get it that bidbots are no-no coz people believe that policing behaviors on Steemit will help Steem. What's the best way for a minnow like me to get attention to my posts without bid bots? I don't want to work on a post just to see it vanish into darkness. Do u guys also downvote when someone uses steemit promoted feature?
I am earning jack shit and I am not a whale. The Steem Power I have have been saved from three years of hard work. Not sure what you should do, but I know that the bidbots have succeeded in creating an extra layer of expense and that those Steem simply vanishes from the system. Neither you nor I earn anything from that.
I'm an artist and always wanted to get away from institutions that with little effort took a very large percentage of my work - art dealers charge 50% because they have prevented the artists from making sales directly (artists are fools if you didn't know).
The promoted feature burns the Steem and that way it gives it back to the community... Sadly it never worked.