Of course you're entitled to choose. But like I said before, we are all on Steemit to make money. All of us. 100%. Nobody is here because the technology is superior or because it's the only game in town. There are other platforms that are more established with bigger audiences, more features, etc. We are here for the money.
So if you're already here to make money, why not make the most of it? That's what I don't understand. How are people having trouble making this connection?
I'm not saying we're ONLY here for the money. But if all of a sudden we switched to a Reddit-like system of "karma" for rating content instead of crypto, how many people do you think would stick around?
If people want to advertise the fact that they are using bid bots, that's up to them. I've been very up front about my use of bots from the beginning. In fact, I would even say that my first set of of posts that hit the Trending page and colorfully explained this phenomenon is what inspired this recent outrage.
You can buy whatever newspaper you want. And you don't have to read the ads if you don't want. You can skim right over them if that's your thing. But sometimes you see an ad for something that interests you or that you actually need. And you didn't even know you needed it.
Take this guy's course for example. Before today I never even considered signing up for a Udemy course on how to make money... from making Udemy courses? But after all this I'll probably at least go over there and see what this guy's about. It's not the end of the world. And of all the posts on there I find it strange that Mr Bernie decided to go after this guy. He is at least advertising a service that could potentially help people improve their financial situation (which is, once again, the main reason all of us use Steemit and not another platform).
Plenty of other targets to go after. In fact, why is nobody saying anything about @berniesanders using paid bots to promote his articles? He's making a profit from this post as well. I can't imagine that it took him very long to write. But because it presses a certain button that triggers a lot of the users on here, people either forget about that or choose to ignore it.
Not hating on the guy. We all have to get our name out there some how. And that's exactly what we're doing on here. For example, this is not a private message between you and I. We are talking on a forum where we both have an audience to argue our points. Some people will agree with me and vice versa. We build our cred slowly over time and solidify any supporters we already have.
Why does nobody like to talk about this openly when it's obvious that everyone does it? Using the bots is the same. You want people to put a disclaimer in their posts that say they're using bid bots? Do you think that's going to change anything?
The only reason people care is that the people who have money are making more money, ostensibly at the expense of people who "choose" not to use bid bots when in all likelihood it's just because they don't have the expendable income to do so. In the past I've said that in a not-so-nice way, but let's call it what it is.
If you have an ecommerce store that sells something and you put an ad on Facebook, are you now a bad person because your ad gets more visibility than a random post by someone that didn't pay to advertise their content? I don't get it.
"So if you're already here to make money, why not make the most of it? That's what I don't understand. How are people having trouble making this connection?"
You will go crazy trying to answer this question.
It's like everyone here is autistic about game theory.
Or maybe they are thinking that if you you can starve a lion long enough, it'll start eating grass. I also notice that these people who are "Autistic" about game theory tend to be communist leaning.
Most of these people aren't even honest with themselves. Won't admit they are here for money but happily kiss whale ass for upvotes then look down their noses at you for being upfront and paying for your upvote. Smh
I don't have the exact same opinion about bid-bots as many of those here. I believe there are good and bad bots. I want to support and use those bid-bot owners who don't promote poor content. This means, i wish to see a transparent process in place to place hustlers, spammers, scam artists etc, on a black list. Why? Not because i begrudge them a right to scam people. It is because I want to use a platform which also has longevity for me to make money perhaps or for me to reach an audience, -well into the furture. Scammy trash content serves only those unscrupulous scammers and the bid-bots who supplied them a means to get rich scamming people. There are other places to scam people. They can even stay here, but the community will eventually clean things up. Important thing is, it must be done transparently and everyone ought to have power to do it.
I don't disagree. But a professional marketer advertising his Udemy course is not "scammy trash." He's not scamming anyone. A scam is where he takes the money and disappears. He is marketing his course. A very successful course by the looks of it.
Maybe not scammy. Definitely spammy. It's unsolicited marketing, the kind of thing I setup filters to throw out before it arrives in my email box. And if he's successful, he wouldn't be the first marketer of that sort of thing to become successful. There will be bid-bots happy to take a portion of his profits, I just like to know which of them is doing so - so i can avoid ever supporting them.
One man's professional marketer is another man's professional bull-shitter.
A core tenet of sales is that you never know who is going to be interested in what you're selling. This isn't your email box, this is a public website where anyone can post whatever they want. If you don't like the post, just scroll down the page to the next one. In reality there are very very few individuals out there who have the money to promote their business on here. Business yes, individuals no.
I still don't understand the animosity towards someone who is just trying to promote his business. I think that if the post was maybe a little more polished, then he wouldn't be catching so much flak. Or if he had made even the slightest effort to make a post or two that contributed to the community before promoting his business. That's not good taste, that's just good marketing.
"Everyone" does not do it. There are some - like me - who think using bots to buy popularity and votes is outright bribery that ends in theft of the rewards pool, diversion of attention, and adding totally useless clutter to the daily traffic. Thieves always justify their malfeasance so they can continue ripping the system off. Create a bot-killer and see how many people surprise you with the amount of money they suddenly have available to fund it.