Bidbots are anti-social. Those are advertisers selling "visibility" while in reality; the operators and all those who delegate their SP to the bidbot are being paid to look away.
This was once called the "attention economy" and people are constantly talking about how the bidbots are becoming a problem; and nobody is paying attention to them.
These people cannot socialize with robots. They want actual eyes on their work, not 1000 eyes concentrated into one vote that isn't even worth the stated value beside their post. People have $50 worth of rewards next to their post and they don't even earn it. A massive portion of the reward pool dished out daily doesn't even go to these members who have it placed beside their work.
Hardly anyone is coming around to talk to them. The money seems fake and so do many of the members leaving comments. The actual feeling of being "rewarded" goes far beyond money and many of these people are being robbed of that experience. That experience existed at one time, before bidbots, and I know that because I was here enjoying it. I witnessed the negative anti-social impact of these bidbots since their inception and every step along the way.
That actual feeling of being rewarded and appreciated was one of the main contributing factors that kept me around for so long and I am damn lucky to still be one who gets to experience it to this day. That took hard work and dedication to maintain but many of these other members are not being afforded the same opportunities and ladder to climb. Many got duped into thinking this place was about easy money, they seem to think all they have to do is post and purchase their rewards to win, and they don't even give themselves a chance to learn about how hard work and dedication is a requirement if one wishes to succeed here. They get stuck between a rock and hard place and the anti-social elements caused mainly by these bidbots do not provide them with the incentive to stick around. They're performing in front of empty seats; and the audience that didn't even show up is earning more than the performer.
I politely disagree when you state bidbots are not a problem. They are a problem, but not the only problem. Maybe your cheeseburger will help. I hope everyone can put their heads together, combine everything we've learned here on Steemit so far through trial and error, and come to some sort of healthy solution that of course not everyone will agree with; but hopefully at least steer us all in the right direction.
You're right, it was part of the title I forgot to remove. Bidbots are a symptom of the dysfunctional economy. What I really meant was paying to get higher ranking like advertising. Now it's an issue because the cost is covered by the inflation, and even worse, with potential profit as well so it's at the expense of the network. Which all could likely be remedied as per proposal. Can't tell people to stop using or operating the bidbots, but the econs will find a new equilibrium that'll make curation groups more favourable, I think :)
Yesterday I've heard about some idea from @noisy ("Wise") that brings some voting automation that empowers humans. Well... I guess he needs to clarify his idea and do that in English but that is a promising. (Tagging him to bring it to this thread).
Oh thanks @gtg :) I've spoken to @noisy about it. It's not automation as in bots, but an easy to use service for linking up voters and niche curators I think.
For one I think it's a great and useful idea, but it won't meet its potential until a fundamental change in Steem's economy as per the proposal above. Vote trading services are at the moment 6-8x more profitable than curation services, easily. Left unfixed, people are just going to see the exploiters outpace them exponentially over time. Just too much of a sacrifice for SP delegators wanting to use it for the greater good. The gap needs to be closed in, for a new behavioural equilibrium to take place. Only then will only curation services like what @noisy is trying to do accelerate the platform's improvement..
I see now, you edited that portion out. They call it advertising. Mainstream media caught wind of our "advertising" and one of the first things they asked about was the obvious low quality paid programming style spam on our trending page. All that money that went to "advertising" shot us all in the foot.
The advertisers can have their money as well. Simply mark the posts using bots as advertisements, take them off the trending page and place them in the promoted tab. Then those who want to spend money on advertising can then pay ME, the content producer, to place a banner on my blog that leads to their promotion. Something logical like that works and there are far more winners. We see it on Youtube working great, daily.
I do see the potential there as well.
Great solution you've just proferred regarding bidbots, @nonameslefttouse.
I was a bit embarassed when the Bloomberg interviwer asked Ned Scott about how Steemit Inc. intends to solve the current problems of crappy content on the the trending page. Hopefully, most of the solutions would be considered by steem witnesses and core team members of Steemit Inc. for implementation soon.
@maryfavour.
Steemit was mentioned on the Joe Rogan Podcast as well and while watching on Youtube, I saw our trending page; along with over 1 million other viewers. We dodged a bullet that day. The content at the top was genuine and respectable. Two days before that podcast, the content was complete trash that involved members bickering and acting extremely unprofessional. Joe Rogan is a comedian and had he seen the trolling, there's no way he would have been able to resist making a few jokes.
This publicity is important. We need to get it right. We live in a time when cryptocurrency ads are being banned everywhere. One simple loophole to get around that censorship is to advertise Steemit, with no mention of cryptocurrency or any of the other wording they've deemed unfit for advertising such as "profit". That gives the STEEM blockchain another distinct advantage over all of the others; but not if people continue to fail at taking Steemit's potential seriously.
Or, the bots could require rewards be declined.
The posts still trend, the bots charge at least what they would have gotten in curation, and impact on the pool ends.
You know what? I'm done talking about it, once and for all. None of these problems are my fault. People have been offering up suggestions and solutions for over 6 months. Thousands have left since then. Their work, the visibility they gained after putting in the work for over year; it's gone. Talking is pointless.
Im there, too.
I almost packed it in last week, myself.
But then i remembered that abandoning the field of play is in their interests.
The greedy bastards win if i do that.
So, still here and as vocal as ever.
I got kicked out of two discords for my heresy of declined rewards.
I share the same opinion with you @nonameslefttouse on bidbots.
I joined last July and there were no bidbots and Steemit was awesome and i would feel good when people interact with my posts!
I could really feel rewarded for my content and btw its an awesome experience,however little the money besides the post was.
You could know a real human being read,upvoted and commented on your post,i felt encouraged.
The actual feeling if being rewarded is really now being missed by the new people as you say.
Its really rewarding to start from zero and grow on Steemit,make 10 posts and earn a combined zero,work harder and earn as you grow on the platform!
I have a challenge with the new people i bring to Steemit in Uganda(i am a Steemit promoter).
Whenever i tell them of the organic way of growth of commenting and starting small,most of them do not want to believe.
In fact am shocked when many ask me about Bid-Bots! I tell them to try as much as possible to grow organically as it is more rewarding than getting votes on a post which are all bidbots!
Anyway many people here are for the money(which is okay),but to me and may be others,we feel happpy when real people read and comment on our posts.
I also like the idea of 50/50 payment....it will make more people start reading and discovering more great content.
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