Operation Clean Trending

in #steem7 years ago (edited)

This whole article takes into assumption that all bid-bot operators, delegators, or users, are all doing it for profit only, and have no intention of creating value in the network. That's what I personally believe. Bid-bots are just leveraging on the STEEM rewards mechanism to create a win-win transaction between both abusers (the bid-bot and the bidder). Nothing new, there's probably been dozens of decent articles talking about that issue recently.

The problem with the trending

Bots have been ramping up the rape against the reward pool ever since linear rewards. They have been here for a while, but they haven't had an impact like that before. The trending was usually controlled by notorious self-voters/circle-jerkers and by popular authors and the curation trails following them.


FUN FACT: At the moment of writing this article, the top 7 articles in the trending got 90%+ of their rshares from bid-bots publicly listed and advertising on steembottracker.com.

Today, bots control most of the trending, it is obvious to anyone who has been using Steem for a bit. Even the latest article from the official @steemitblog couldn't make it #1 trending (BY FAR).

The metagame has shifted, and more and more whales are delegating to bid-bots as it became a convenient and hands-free method of speculation. It gives out ROIs similar to self-voting, without having to get flagged by @berniesanders afterwards.

More and more users are also stacking bid-bot votes to reach trending. I'm not sure if they use automated tools to automatically optimise their bids through multiple bid-bots, but it surely looks like it, and it's scary to me.

Suggested solution

I totally believe that delegating to bid-bots, or even running your own, to be the best way to speculate on the STEEM blockchain. They convert upvotes to liquidity while syphoning the reward pool and there's no way even the best curator in the world can beat that when 75% needs to go to the real people who create valuable content. The ROI of running a bid-bot is probably very similar to self-voting, i.e close to 100%.

What I believe we can fix easily, is the trending. Just like how back in the past @grumpycat pushed bot owners to enforce the 'no vote after 3.5 days' rule, I believe we should add more rules to bid-bots usage through downvote-pressure, this time by punishing creators who use bots to reach into the trending. Spending 2 SBD to get some visibility in a sub-tag is kinda fair, but scammers spending 400 SBD to promote their ICOs (without the content being marked as an ad in steemit/busy/etc) is terrible for our community (they get scammed) and gives out a bad image to newcomers and potential investors.


But @heimindanger, it's a lot of work to check every post! There's too many bots to check for !?

Not anymore -> https://steemwhales.com/clean-trending/


This brand new page on my dead website SteemWhales.com will allow you to quickly track the status of the trending contents. After you enter your username, it should fetch the list of all public bid bots, the steem natural trending, and show the % of the value coming from bots in the 'Bots' column.

On top of it, all contents that you haven't already voted on, and that have more than 50% of their value coming from bid-bots, will be selected, and by clicking the big green 'Downvote the trash' button, and entering your private posting key, you will quickly use your voting power to clean up the trending.

Basically, it's a weapon for fighting abuse, and punishing users who reach trending through bid-bots stacking. Try it, it's fun. And I believe it's the best way to use your votes in the current state of the system.

End result

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I only used bots because I thought they were a legitimate way to promote good quality content. Nowhere in Steemit's whitepaper is said this is wrong.

This automated tool that blindly flags content without checking it will destroy years of reputation building on this platform. I understand the abuse issue but think the automated approach is wrong. You should focus on fighting spam comments and bad quality content, not downvote everything trending blindly.

I'm powering down and leaving the platform, if I can't legitimately promote my content without risking ny reputation it makes no sense to keep posting here for a few cents hoping that whales see me which they never will. Advertisement is legitimate everywhere but I guess Steemit has become a place for the same big guys only, an echo chamber. Don't worry, you won't be seeing my posts on the trending list anymore. Bye now

You tell me I can still use bots for "50% of the total value of your content" how am I supposed to know what that is without running afoul of your gestapo list?

I'm already doing fine, I'm powering down and dumping this whale club for good. Heck, I might even come up with a tool and big ass campaign for people to do the same, just like you did to protect your posts while green with envy from others, it's not really about bad content is it?

See, you didn't do this out of your "love for Steemit", you are just protecting your monopoly on post potitions and that of your big whale friends. We are not stupid @heimindanger, you gotta let the little fish play too once in a while or they will just just leave the pond...

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Are your posts so good quality that they deserve $200 to $700 payouts? Give me a break, you use your Whale group for that, something a lot more questionable and damaging to the platform than using bots and that's the real problem with Steemit, it's a f... Whale Club...

Countdown to freedom:

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This automated tool that blindly flags content without checking it will destroy years of reputation building on this platform

All you need to do is stop buying bid votes and you have nothing to worry about.

I don't have anything to worry about. I'm dumping hard this whale club where only the big guys can play. You do have plenty to worry about: Will you be powered down by the time these whales pull their exit? Tick tock haha

Did you even read my post? I paid for advertisement on top quality content. You will destroy Steemit automating downvotes blindly without checking content. People will just leave. Bad content I understand but a human, not another bot, should decide that.

Sure, you read my posts... If you are superman trying to save steemit why don't you do something about the spam comments rather than downvoting legitimate, hard working content producers that paid for promotion? I understand your efforts, just think you are doing it wrong and are hurting this platform. You won't be seeing my posts in trending from now on. Downpowering and leaving.

I only used bots because I thought they were a legitimate way to promote good quality content. Nowhere in Steemit's whitepaper is said this is wrong.

This automated tool that blindly flags content without checking it will destroy years of reputation building on this platform. I understand the abuse issue but think the automated approach is wrong. You should focus on fighting spam comments and bad quality content, not downvote everything trending blindly.

I'm downpowering and leaving the platform, if I can't legitimately promote my content without risking ny reputation it makes no sense to keep posting here for a few cents hoping that whales see me which they never will. Advertisement is legitimate everywhere but I guess Steemit has become a place for the same big guys only, an echo chamber. Don't worry, you won't be seeing my posts on the trending list anymore. Bye now

Counting down to Freedom:

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