censoring jerry would be systematically flagging every post and every comment he makes to take it below the level required to be visible.
Removing his ability to be seen on steemit is censorship. This, this isn't wanting your product (bid bot) to be associated with someone like Jerry.
I think this is an interesting argument. I think Steemit or any platform has to have some rules, some best practices, etc, but ultimately the important question is who gets to decide what those are and who gets to decide who is violating them.
If Bidbot owners band together and decide not to allow Jerry to use their service they are harming his visibility on the platform and harming his ability to earn money. Now its totally within their right to do that but I think that's a dangerous path to go down. What if bid bot owners decide to band together and do that to anyone they dont like or disagree with? When some people are allowed to use them and others aren't it creates an unlevel playing field.
While I use them on occasion I think bid bots ultimately are kind of bad for steemit. its basically pay to play. imagine if the nba allowed people to pay to play in the league. do you think people would still come out to games to watch tim the accountant play basketball instead of lebron james?