Interesting choice of topic @thehive
This seems to be a recurring topic that keeps raring its head.
Indeed. It's very trendy to talk about it :)
Someone is voting on their own account for $50 and raping the reward pool.
I do agree with you, however it's hard to claim that all those who have little SP and cannot afford to be "a whale" are raping the reward pool. After all using voting bots is hardly ever profitable but it's still the only way regular people can compete with big players and push their publication to trending page.
Anyway the most important issue is the fact, that noone has any suggestion what could we do actually to make things "better". Removing bots is not an real option. So what really can be done?
Yours
Piotr
If you would like to discuss possibilities let me know.
We may never have a system that is not able to be corrupted.
There are ways to correct errors we made without removing bots.
All that is needed is community agreement. If community agreement means one might lose some financial benefit, It stops.
Hi @thehive
Thank you for your kind and mature reply. I really appreciate and value your comments a lot.
Yours
Piotr
Trending is completely pointless unless you are an aspiring author. Even then, you may not receive the feedback you want. The posts I have sent to trending have always had worse engagement than my regular normal posting.
Most seasoned bot users know how to use bots to turn a profit. Only amateurs stick with the big bots in hopes to gain visibility and/or profit.
Some money-driven individuals use bots to gain quick reputation scores to harvest airdrops available to Steemians (Byteballs, atomic wallets, etc.). The result is a bunch of empty shell 60+ rep accounts. It would be great if the bots could not raise rep, but that is only possible if their rep is reduced to negatives.
The problem is not so much reward pool rape, but more of "runaway printing of Steem". Most people don't burn their tokens at @null. The increased supply eventually becomes sell pressure to the overall price. So, it turns out, the "cheaters" always cash out first. Your average aspiring authors are left with the short end of the stick, or sometimes holding the bag.
Dear @enforcer48
Thank you for your kind and mature comment and taking the time to reply.
I fully agree with you.
That's very true. I finally start seeing bigger picture. Thank you.
Yours
Piotr