In my opinion, minnowbooster contributes little to the community and does more to serve it's investors than the minnows it claims to help. It exploits a weak user interface and then by using accumulated resources helps to become a gatekeeper to the homepage of Steemit. Then users simply pay for access. Smart idea. But you aren't really helping anyone out and if more investors shift their money into delegations, Steem starts looking a scheme.
But there's an honest opinion. Buried beneath these desperate animals.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion but some opinions are simply that and not based on factual information. I know for a fact that @minnowbooster has helped minnows grow and become more successful on the platform. Why do I say that? Well, how about a fact to back up my opinion.
'ew-and-patterns (67) · yesterday
Without MB I would not have been able to grow my initial 2,3k steem to 10k (not all powered up) in only 300 days. You can check my track record, that is a fact.
I am forever grateful for that and will continue to buy leases. Maybe someday I'll have enough STEEM to fill lease requests of others myself and rely only on passive income.
Love you guys. Pls keep this up forever... 💗 like literally forever.'
This comment can be found at the following url: https://steemit.com/minnowbooster/@minnowbooster/mb-q-and-a-with-nelkeljdm-and-chance-to-win-steem
I wouldn't have said anything and thought your opinion had validity before you referred to people (human beings) as 'desperate animals.'
Now I have to ask myself are they the desperate animals or is it you sir who is truly a desperate animal that you may have lost all love for humanity and the common decency to refer to people as people. Goodday sir!
Just because you help some people doesn't necessarily equal a positive contribution for the entire community. I think about things on a more macro level and could really care less about the ROI of individual people. Long term sustainability and community health is the name of the game.
The issue with the above "factual information" is that it ignores the side effects that such bots have on newer users and uninterested parties. It makes it harder for them to get attention and it encourages them to sell out in order to progress. Sure a small group of minnows has benefitted from the provided service, but the overall collections of minnows as a whole has not.
Because it is more cost effective to delegate than to actually vote, the small fish community is not receiving as many shares as they used to as a large portion is being centralized to those that buy it. This prioritizes buyers of votes over non-buyers regardless of content.
As for "desperate animals", I guess I should stop using metaphors because some people take things too literally. Pet the sheep all you want, it does change the fact they are sheep begging for votes.
Bots on steem are a promotional tool. Maybe if steem changes the way content is discovered, we arrive at a point where bots are obsolete, but currently you really need them. And the community needs bots that take quality seriously.
Have you been a minnow on steem before the bots? Find a few of the 1 year old accounts and ask them for war stories 😊
Considering that I've made plenty of wealth starting from nothing in June, I would argue that you don't "need" them. Also considering the side effects of such bots on non-users of those bots, I would also argue that these bots come at the detriment to this larger population that you simply won't find on the trending page that are receiving less attention because it's easier to do nothing and delegate than it is to go out of your way and curate.
Curation groups have done significantly more to help the community than these pools that simply serve as gatekeepers of the trending page. You take money from people who want money in return and give them the attention they want. It may seem like a win-win, but the pool is shared and the environment is shared so of course there are losers in the arrangement. Perhaps you watch trending too much to see this.
Anyways, it is obviously more profitable to delegate than it is to curate. If we were all rational people, we would delegate to bots which would leave no one to curate. The end game is a "Ponzi" scheme that requires new users to buy the investing class (me and you) in order to be advertised on a site that the mainstream doesn't care about.
Who is going to use that? Why would anyone pay to get paid for their content? That's too much work. The ecosystem collapses and all this imaginary money actually becomes imaginary money. But I'm guess most investors could care less since they are being paid in SBD and can abandon ship whenever the tide turns.
As for "flag" wars, at least attempts are being made at social consensus. They aren't bad. Unless ROI is the only thing that means anything to you.