I think you missed reading this part so I will post it again so you can read it..........
First, sbi1, sbi2, and sbi3 are real people. If a real person did not spend their own Hive, which they earned by writing a post and then gifting a friend a vote for life, there would not be a sbi1, sbi2, or sbi3 vote on that person's post.
When I started, I gave out a vote of one cent. Unless someone else came along, my one-cent vote was turned to dust on a person's post. If I remember correctly, back then, you needed votes of about three cents for it not to be turned to dust. HSBI helped everyone get over the dust thing.
Also, if you didn't post or someone left, that money I spent on them was/is gone. So that is a risk I take/took. It hurts no one. It is up to me where I decide to spend my Hive and who I want to spend it on.
Most of the people I have gotten HSBI for I also have on auto-vote. :D
Auto vote, to me, I use on long-time Hive people that I have followed forever and have been there for me. I can not always read or leave comments......... The past few years, with taking care of my Mom, it has only gotten harder and a reason I have not been writing as much either. So using the auto voter for that makes me feel better knowing I can still help my friends.
So I guess, in the end, I use auto-voting very differently than I do HSBI.
HSBI is to help new peeps get a vote on their otherwise zero-payout posts, to give them the incentive when they are new here to keep posting. I do not think you realize how important that one-cent vote can be to someone, even if there is no comment. If I send someone HSBI, I let them know, so they see the vote and see a person behind it. Plus, I know how thankful I was for those votes when I started.
I hope this helps make things more straightforward.
I have never seen gifting someone HSBI as buying a vote. I see it as using my Hive to give out a gift that keeps giving IF they stay on Hive.
HSBI = my personal onboarding initiative
No, I did read this, but you bought shares for yourself too.
I never brought up autovotes, because I would never tell anyone to use them. Without manual curation there's no engagement, and this place stays a desert.
Be honest, what's better for retention? Tossing a few cents to others automatically, or actually engaging on their content and giving a personal vote?
There's a good way to get over the dust threshold - power up the Hive you earn instead of sending them to a vote seller. Or maybe even buying some Hive from the open market (I know, shocking!)
I hope you have a wonderful day.
I hope you find a way to smile and laugh today also.
I am done with this subject.
Right now my real world is hard enough. I don't need to justify helping people in the only way I could.
I know what I do and did to keep good people on the Blockchain.
Nothing you say can change that.
I am sorry you do not understand how most of the people I have interacted with on the Blockchain feel.
but nothing I say will ever change your mind and that is okay too.
See you around.
Thanks, I had a great day with lots of time outside with the dogs.
I understand that - and I wouldn't have blamed you personally if you wouldn't have defended the scheme so hard without acknowledging the problems it has (and acted like you never bought shares for yourself). Starting your post with saying my statement would be incorrect. It wasn't - the only reason that SBI survived the bidbot era is that countering their votes would have affected too many innocent people who never bought a vote themselves. I say that as someone who actively fought the bots, and chose to ignore SBI for that exact reason.
The argument of helping others was used for all kinds of bidbots. That's a noble intention, and users like you aren't really the ones to blame for not knowing better. But it's just not how you retain people in a community. There is no community when all interactions are automated.
Thank you for your witness vote!
Have a !BEER on me!
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Have fun with it!:)Hello @pharesim