Last week, I did some analysis on @randowhale's use since its inception. It isn't the only voting bot out there. I was approached by @reggaemuffin (thanks @suesa for the introduction) to look into the @minnowbooster bot to provide some stats on its usage.
I was provided some data, and today, I'd like to present my findings.
First, some information about @minnowbooster:
- @minnowbooster is not just a bot you go to do upvote content
- you can powerup minnowbooster, and get a return on the steempower you contribute.
- you can delegate SP to Minnowbooster, and make it more powerful.
- you can lease SP from Minnowbooster to make your own votes more powerful.
My favourite feature is what happens when you request a self-upvote:
@holoz0r, pictured as a dirty self-voter
There's a lot of features, and you can read about them in the Introduction Post
Sample Size: 5422 Votes
Votes for Others: 655 (12.04%)
Self Votes: 4787 (87.96%)
Top 30 Users who have voted for others
| User | Votes for Others | SBD Spent |
|---|---|---|
| @cardboard | 10 | 8.332 |
| @kkkttt05 | 10 | 0.28 |
| @botmarley | 8 | 1.2 |
| @renat242 | 7 | 7 |
| @anetchen | 7 | 8 |
| @rkrijgsman | 7 | 1.8 |
| @vinayakn | 7 | 6.5 |
| @cheeto.blue | 7 | 3.5 |
| @gpfelizco | 7 | 0.07 |
| @dwightjaden | 6 | 0.06 |
| @bhightech | 6 | 0.51 |
| @foxycat | 6 | 7 |
| @suggeelson | 5 | 0.9 |
| @slayerkm | 5 | 6.45 |
| @gee-world | 5 | 1 |
| @kennyskitchen | 5 | 3.1 |
| @deveerei | 5 | 0.81 |
| @welcomesteemians | 4 | 6 |
| @steemshiro | 4 | 0.8 |
| @loveisintheair | 4 | 5 |
| @rensoul17 | 4 | 3.59 |
| @travelingartgal | 4 | 3 |
| @geke | 4 | 4 |
| @sandaraclark | 4 | 1.41 |
| @mdsquared | 4 | 5 |
| @artcurator | 4 | 4.83 |
| @zest | 4 | 3 |
| @steemislove | 3 | 0.03 |
| @quotesteemit | 3 | 1.543 |
| @voghera | 3 | 2.485 |
| @gamerpool | 3 | 4 |
Top 30 Users who have votes for themselves
| User | Votes for Self | SBD Spent |
|---|---|---|
| @cryptopie | 309 | 4.661 |
| @gwapology | 209 | 13.39 |
| @aboutall | 108 | 3.53 |
| @qasimwaqar | 51 | 14 |
| @aniksh | 44 | 6.46 |
| @duckmast3r | 33 | 6.8 |
| @styleyfrancky | 28 | 6.12 |
| @angrezi | 27 | 7.39 |
| @asim | 26 | 31.364 |
| @bhightech | 25 | 13.95 |
| @rkrijgsman | 24 | 8.6 |
| @writemore | 24 | 62.832451 |
| @pennystockhelp | 24 | 8.4 |
| @sam99 | 23 | 15.5 |
| @pastzam | 23 | 7.9 |
| @fairgirl | 23 | 5.92 |
| @better-life-tips | 23 | 8.29 |
| @abh12345 | 22 | 11.463 |
| @thedonfreeman | 21 | 7.23 |
| @bloomberg215 | 21 | 13.912 |
| @ghasemkiani | 20 | 26 |
| @tamiil | 19 | 8 |
| @saveron23 | 19 | 6 |
| @alexthemagician | 19 | 13.007 |
| @shahabuddin222 | 18 | 6.2 |
| @pioner888777 | 18 | 6.6 |
| @kishan | 18 | 4.7 |
| @morpheus03 | 18 | 10.924 |
| @coolwitch | 18 | 1.839 |
| @lgfurmanczyk | 17 | 5.9 |
| @arthestically | 17 | 12 |
The bot is also fair, it refunds invalid bids, and is altruistic and fun in its design. With the data provided, we can see that just over $4000 SBD has flowed into the coffers of @minnowbooster.
It is fully transparent (just like everything else on a blockchain), however, @minnowbooster proudly streams its votes here .
I'd love to see a larger quantity of upvotes gifted to others with bots like minnowbooster, randowhale and booster, but from the ones that I've looked at so far, @minnowbooster does seem to have the most potential to allow the community (especially minnows) to be able to support each other (and themselves) within reasonable limits.
The picture that you shared is so relevant:
To the top with you 🐐
You have to post this under each post by @suesa xD
This is a great post! There's always a strange feeling when I use boosters for myself, but I'm glad to know there are brothers like me out there, who give themselves the old reach-around. Hahahah
Keep up the great work Mr. @Holoz0r. Looking forward for more! :D
Thank you, appreciate the comment. My ideal ratio of self votes to other votes would be 80/20 on voting services like this; perhaps with curation rewards earned from the person who "found" and upvoted the content being split between the bot and the person who paid for the vote.
@reggaemuffin how hard would something like the above be able to implement in order to drive greater incentive in using @minnowbooster for the posts of others?
We can give away comment rewards but sadly not the curation rewards of the upvote, that is something steem does not provide us with. Also tracking what curation came where is a nightmare.
But if we find a way to make this, I'd be all for it.
Hi @holoz0r! You have just received a 0.1 SBD tip from @reggaemuffin!
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment and get share in service profit :)
By upvoting this comment you support the service - thanks!
Really liking your suggestion btw. tip! link
@cipriang
nice comment...
if i have my way i help myself too!
i dont see anything bad in making some benefits for self...
Nice analysis, thank you! I've delegated some SP because I think it's a well-run project with potential to spread around curation and I like how they limit the amount which can be contributed to avoid over use and abuse.
This is one of the best features on the bot; the fact that it limits overuse, and isnt something that is going to obliterate the rewards pool to self voters.
Good work again mate. You cruising Hindley street in that? :)
Adelaide reference. Kudos.
I get around ;)
I think I'm too old for that these days. :p
I quiet picnic in Rymill Park then.
Nice work man.
A little embarrassed to see myself on the top 30 self up-voters with @minnowbooster - it is $ for $ the best bot currently though!
I'll have to try to show some love for others with it also, for that i mainly use @lovejuice - Maybe you could liaise with @aggroed and see if he'd like to see something like this produced for the juice?!
Cheers
Asher
@abh12345
how does the other ones work as you mentioned @lovejuice
dont feel guilty your name appeared... at this period of low ratings in hard worked contents...one need to find ways to create more values on his posts... wish you can also check out my posts and show some love dude;)
nice comment
Thanks, mo following. Check my wallet to see when I sent bot money to 👌🏽
I voted for @aggroed. Why? because if I ever have a problem, I send him a comment, and he IMMEDIATELY has me smiling again. What more could you want?
Indeed. Top 10 witness in the making, you heard it 1st (well maybe not) here!
I didn't know of the existence of @lovejuice! Would be happy to do a similar analysis if @aggroed would be happy to provide the JSON / Vote Data for the bot. Otherwise, I could go the long way and get the data from the chain itself. :)
Well I've messaged him on discord so let's see :)
replied to abh12345 in this thread.
@lovejuice is meant to be a pretty friendly bot. I haven't done all the research but I think we've made 2000 votes. It only has 12kSP so it isn't nearly as strong as the other bots. But it also only costs 0.1SBD and for a while it was 0.01sbd. From what I see it's mostly self votes, but I've done my best to message using it on others. Happy for you to take a look. I'm not sure about logs. Happy to help though.
Thanks @aggroed :)
Have you noticed me sending it .2 / .3 over the past month and failed to mention it to me?! haha!
The minimum bid is.1. If you do 0.2 or more it guarantees a higher share of the vote in the case others choose to bid at the same time. It's not a waste so I figured it was in an appropriate range. People bidding above 1sbd I would discourage.
Are you cool for me to pull the data and make a post similar to this to identify trends? (See if we have a similar ratio of voters, see who the biggest customers are, etc)
sure.
Ahhhh! Yes agreed, having a smaller bot encourages lovejuice for others 👍🏾
great post you shared here.. @holoz0r
whats the highest amount one can upvote using minnowbooster. i tried 1$ it worked...
also can i upvote same post once daily for the next one week?
i usualy take time for my content which is very undervalued...need to work on it...
also what amount and process can i use to buy delegated sp...
You can only upvote each post once from each individual source. So you can't use minnowbooster or any of the other bots more than once. Unfortunately, in my opinion; you can use all the pay for vote bots on one post.
thanks for the info
which to you is simple and the payout better
whats the max and min amount one can invest...
I completely disagree with people self-upvoting, especially using bots. The value of a post is supposed to be determined by the attention it garners from the community, not how much attention can be bought by the author.
The Steem Whitepaper talks about how algorithms need to be put in place to prevent reward pool abuse, yet I see no such thing from any bot I've encountered.
@randowhale seems to believe it's just fine for people to self-upvote, probably because that's where 90% of their profit comes from, and @minnowbooster apparently has just as high of a self-upvote rate. It's unscrupulous, bot as long as the people running the bots are profiting from abuse, it's not likely to change
There is really nothing stopping someone from creating two accounts to upvote each other. Otherwise we probably tried disabling selfgoats already 🐐
This is the same response I got from randowhale, but I still feel like preventing it would deter a large portion of the abuse, and might encourage people to act in an ethical manner.
I feel as though having the image of a goat licking its own backside amid your own comments on a serious post is enough to deter my use of a service to self vote. Perhaps if all the voting bots had similar disincentives to self voting we'd see a change in that trend?
One of the reasons we need to split the post rewards 50/50 between author and curators, like it was more than 12 months ago. The only way to end the self upvote, is to give people a more lucrative way to spend their voting power.
But will creating posts be worth it then? I personally would love a 50/50 split but I can imagine many problems with it...
Let's talk about them then :)
Most people are going to care more about a total than a percentage. It only needs to increase the payouts by 34% in order to make the change of net benefit to the author.
If steemers are madly upvoting anything they think will be popular, instead of hoarding their vp for self upvotes, a 34% increase is far from ambitious.
True that.
This could trigger an even bigger flocking on the top 1% because everyone wants big curation rewards (and educating them on the system seems futile). But that will solve itself over time I guess...
I think you have convinced me.
Hi @holoz0r! You have just received a 0.1 SBD tip from @reggaemuffin!
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment and get share in service profit :)
By upvoting this comment you support the service - thanks!
continue posting things like these holo...really helpfull..
-turtle here.
Ive never used any of the self upvote bots. Maybe thats where im going wrong. I just dont like the idea of boosting your own posts with @randowhale and the likes. It seems a little sad and desperate. Much better to create great content continually and earn your following and rewards.
G'day. I'm with you 100% on this one. Earn your rewards for interesting new content that people appreciate.
I'm with you all the way. Consistent Quality content = votes.
This is such a fair wish on your side! Hope it is fulfilled for the benefit of the Steemit Community!
I want to see truly good content rise to the top and be rewarded handsomely. I like to think of what would happen to the reward values on posts without self-voting; and a better distribution of rewards based on some quality metric that couldn't be manipulated.
Yep, I have written numerous quality content posts and received only a few pennies. Then @randowhale, and @lovejuice started to help me out. It certainly upped my game! LOVE These guys (and gals)!
I won't lie by telling that I am struggling with such issues, but I am not complaining! I will just try to write more interesting things and am trying to put my finger on the pulse of the community.
In the end it is all a learning process for everyone and it is a project in development.
If in the end the quality prevails over quantity will mean that we have succeeded in building something new, that the world haven't seen before!
Steem on!
@funit
wish so....nice comment
Awesome post!
!tip post
tip! post
(hopefully I remember the syntax @cardboard)
Yeah it's good:) You can also use tip link
@tipU is showing link to your blog because lately you were doing resteems (reposts) and it couldn't find your last post. but tip link will always lead to to your link, as far as I remember you setup it correctly :)
Upvoted & RESTEEMED! :)
I have upvoted myself several times... but I love to use the bots to upvote things I really like. I mean, my vote is 0.00 and that makes me feel so powerless sometimes that I feel I need to donate a better upvote.
The problem I see is that even if the bot was configured to avoid self-upvotes, it would be impossible to avoid trolls creating fake accounts to vote from...
Great insight holoz0r. Looking forward to your posts upvoted followed and resteemed
Thank you. More than happy to make the community aware of these intricacies of the ecosystem.
Continue posting things like these,really helpfull
I'm glad you found it useful. I am probably going to look at other bots next!
oh... thats how it works.... ill definitely follow you.... i learn something new.... thanks for sharing
I found this very informative and as a result I'm now following you to learn more about Steemit. Thanks a lot.
good post, I have used minnowbooster a couple of times, and I think its very good.
I do it for the goat picture!
Upvoted because I'm on the list. Woop!
I have to say, @randowhale has only ever done me good. I have used others and either never got the upvote and yes, lost the investment. Or it came too dang late to help me. @lovejuice does help and is fairly consistent as well. Discordia let me down a bunch, which is sad as I am the big fan of Eris. All in all, I am thankful for randowhale.
I will look at using this bot more closely. I'm still a bit confused on using voting bots. It seems a little contrary to the underlying principle of Steemit.
Great work man! 👍
The first time I tried voting someone else up with randowhale, I wasn't able to and I just assumed I couldn't. After your post a few days ago I went and double-checked and reread the randowhale instructions, now I am happily rando-ing others. I will check out the minnow version too. Admittedly, I don't have that much steem or steempower, but when I really like a post I now rando it so the person can get more than my 2 - 4 cent upvote. I am working diligently at getting my upvote power up so I can see the voting bar where you can choose how much you delegate for a vote, still have a way to go. So far it has been a fun journey and much more positive than I had expected to be honest. Thanks for your posts like these, they expand my view of the Steemit ecosystem. Sorry, I kind of rambled there for a minute. Thanks for upvoting my satire piece, I had to laugh till I cried while writing it. Cheers! edit p.s. I think I might use the minnowbooster, but that graphic of the goat really puts a dampener on the idea of a self-vote. I guess that's the point!
Cool share. I have never used any of these bots in the past, but I'll see them on other people's posts. Do you find that most people are using them? PS I also drive a Ford.
Great analysis , would love to get my hands on that data and see what else I can find.
You can set up a link to the public steem data base via a mongodb platform. More info is available at https://steemdata.com/
Thanks for the tip, would check it out.