I still think that posts that are heavily botted would actually benefit despite the 50/50 split because they would stack more and more paid votes onto a post to take advantage of that slight superlinearity.
But it is beta, I'm game for trying anything. That's what this phase should be about
Perhaps the promoted functionality of Steem should be developed out? People shouldn't have to use bots for advertising. It should be built in.
People aren't really using those bots for advertising you know. Mostly the bot votes nearly pay for themselves. Occasionally they are even at a net profit (negative advertising "cost"). Its advertising in a very, very vague sense, but cheap/free advertising.
The reason those bots exist is that every paid vote funnels rewards out of the reward pool and back to the bot (mostly back to the delegators). It's mostly a scheme to disguise and automate self-voting.
But there's no profit in using the bots, though. The only advantage you get is the potential whale vote you can get by having your post visible on the trending page.
That's not true. I bought votes daily for burnpost and sometimes they were net profitable. Not usually, but occasionally. Mostly they are break even or a small negative which as you say can be viewed as advertising but it isn't the total amount paid for the vote that is advertising or anything close, it is a tiny fraction.
I world be much happier if the promoted feature worked somehow so that there was visibility over that which was promoted
Say no more..
https://steemit.com/steemit/@nonameslefttouse/turning-rage-into-the-soothing-steem-now-blowing-out-my-butt-as-i-mince-my-words-for-you-the-reader-of-this
it's not the most necessary part for now
it's only problem in an otherwise working economy where most rewards are going to half decent content that people will try to hide their vote farming by spamming 10-50c posts over hundreds of accounts etc. as this would likely beat out curation in returns
but we can worry about that once we get to a better economy. 50% curation and extra downvotes are essential, although I think 100% separate downvote pool is far too excessive
but really, anything is better than what we have right now unless you actively try to screw things up
Agreed, anything is better than nothing.