Yesterday I posted an article titled "A post of very little value", which was wildly successful receiving more than 200 up votes in a few short hours. The vote count of that post was of course "helped" along a bit.
The post was created to demonstrate very bluntly the type of vote manipulation that is COMMON on Steemit and how trivial it is to perform yet potentially very profitable. In addition to showing vote manipulation, the post incorrectly used the introduceyourself tag (for 3 hours). Tag misuse has sadly grown into a real problem. I plan to identify and publish users that routinely do this via an SQL query in followup articles
Before I begin, I want to clarify my position on vote enhancement techniques.
I personally feel that if this situation is not resolved it will significantly reduce the value of the Steemit platform for both users and investors alike. That said, I am VERY sure there is nothing the small fish can do about it. No amount of crying foul will cause those at the top from utilizing these voting techniques which enhance their financial well being so dramatically, unless - EVERYONE is doing it and it is no longer profitable and they cannot benefit from it anymore AND in fact they finally see it diminishing the value of their platform with new eyes.
Here is a comment I made yesterday on the "little value" post.
This post could have just as easily been jacked up to well over 500 SBD or more -- money that would have been pulled directly from the rewards pool.
....
If it is good for the platform, then EVERYONE should be doing it. If it not good, then no one should be doing it. If everyone does it and it is not good, then it will be corrected at the top level.
Today I want to show you some of the techniques used to achieve these results.
I will continue to re-introduce this education series so that this information is kept in the forefront for new users as well.
Oh, one last thing before we get started.
More than one curator correctly pointed out that the post did in-fact have great value. The picture alone was priceless! Agreed, these ladies are spectacular -- can you lift your leg that high :) But did the image really have anything to do with the subject matter? It certainly caught my eye when looking for something that might grab one's attention, so indeed it had value in more ways than one. Thank you ladies, keep it up!
Using Bid-bots and Minnowbooster
Minnow Booster -- https://www.minnowbooster.net/ is probably one of the most widely known services designed to enhance your vote count and profitability.
You can use it indirectly by simply sending SBD (from your wallet) to @minnowbooster along with the URL link to the post you want "voted up" pasted into the memo. This technique, however is clumsy and also VERY visible in your wallet.
In addition to up vote service, Minnowbooster adds several other services that can be extremely useful. I'm going to split these services up into multiple posts for the moment and then once they are all detailed, I will create a summary post linking to all of the features.
So let's get started with Minnowbooster -- Right click on Minnowbooster and choose "open in a new tab" (varies from browser to browser). You should now have a new tab open and be located at the minnow booster home page. (See image below) -- Click on the down arrow next to My Account. Login in using your Steemit password. Minnow booster uses steemconnect to perform the authentication and does not store your password. This is thought to be very safe, however, I am not an export in regards Steemconnect.com
Once you have logged in you can browse the many features minnow booster has to offer. I am going to review all of them, but only one today and the remainder in the following posts.
Before you can begin having your favorite post's vote count enhanced, you have to transfer some SBD into Minnow booster. If you are really short on SBD, then you can sell your voting power to minnow booster to get the process started. I'll cover vote selling later.
To transfer SBD, select the "Balance" option under the "My Account" drop down.
Half way down the screen is the form to transfer SBD or Steeem into and out of Minnow booster.
Use the DEPOSIT form to move funds from your wallet into your minnow booster account and the WITHDRAWAL form to transfer funds back into your Steemit wallet.
Once you have some SBD in your minnow booster account you can up vote your post.
Use the upvote from balance. Enter the full link to your post in the memo field (copy and paste this directly from your browser) The link will start with "https://steemit.com/" for example.
Next enter the amount you want to spend for this up vote. Then press enter (twice).
Once the page refreshes, scroll down to see if you were successful.
If you get a "Sorry we could not upvote" message, then you need to try another amount (generally smaller).
Once you are successfull, your post will receive a SINGLE upvote from another member of minnow booster who sold their voting power to minnow booster and fit the mathematical criteria to upvote based on your request.
So how can you tell which up votes are likely to be the most successful? Easy, just click on the home button on the left pane (see image below).
As you can see almost all voting power is used up at the time of this post. The only vote capability left is for .16 SBD and lower. You can add a lot of smaller votes by using .1 or even .05, but it is pretty time consuming. Also of note, small votes do not add to your reputation nearly as fast as larger votes do.
So it is VERY easy to add a lot of up votes to your post. But how does the math work out.
Well surprisingly whatever amount you spend you generally get more than double your money back. Careful though, from this amount you have to pay curation fees.
Let's do the math. I entered an up vote for 1 SBD and received the following message back.
You got an upgoat worth roughly 2.55$ in post rewards that will be done by passive. We detected an open value of 0.098 SBD, worth 0.036 SBD in send and refunded that.
Here is the actual upvote viewed from SteemWorld
As you can see, I received an upvote on my post in the amount of 2.57 SBD -- worth around 5.71 USD. In addition I received a refund back from minnow booster in the amount of 0.035684.
So here is the math. I spent 0.964316 SBD (1 SBD less 0.964316 SBD) and got an upvote worth 2.57 SBD.
From this amount we need to subtract out the 25% curation fee. So 2.57 - 0.6375 = 1.94 SBD.
So basically we just doubled our money. Now this doubling is not always possible and is very much dependent on the vote capability on minnow booster and the value of SBD vs USD etc.
Possibly and even more importantly, we are causing the post to give the impression that there is a lot of interest here, come take a look.
The more votes an article gets and the higher the payout, the more others flock to it.
Both to find out what's going on and also to share in the curation fees. When curators' upvote a post that is worth a lot of SBD they get a share in the big bounty!
Hope this post is useful to you. Comments are very welcome. Up votes are especially welcome
Please support me in my efforts to find and explain these techniques so everyone has the knowledge to use them as they so choose. Each of us needs to decide if this is something we are comfortable with, but knowledge is the key, how we use it is entirely a personal decision.
Tomorrow I'll show you how to get some WHALE votes. Stay tuned!
Disclaimer -- I am still very new to Steemit and have plenty to learn myself!
Invest wisely for the future.
So in other words, pay for play. It's really a shame but inevitable. I have thousands of followers on Soundcloud. I got them but uploading quality music daily. I've never used a scheme like this. The best way for more people to see your stuff is to pump out content daily.
I really agree and do not like that Steemit has devolved into pay to play, but at the moment that is what it is.
I have some bots in the works that may offer some partial solutions, we'll see.
Quality is king, keep it up.
@joshmobley I agree! Let's NOT make steemit like every other social network out there.
Why not? LOL
Great info on minnowbooster. Thank you for sharing.
You are right dear @ebargains
👌
Yep things like this will ruin steemit.. guess you can't stop it either.
Awesome post @bycoleman,
I was trying for a while to understand how the whole post boosting works, i managed to get a few upvotes from minnowbooster by sending it sbd directly wrom my wallet, but it is way too transparent that way, as everything is recorded in the wallet.
Now i know there is a way to use the service without exposing your noobhood :)
Though i think those bots and services might be a not such a good thing for the platform in generally.
I have been writting posts of several thousand words for several days, just to get 9 views witout using bots, but i guess if i would invest more time in looking for "forced comments", "upvote for upvote" and all those other debatable strategies, and pehaps invest some money in the voting bots, and spend wayyy less on creating content, I would probably get more upvotes, and therefore earn much more from my posts.
So i am not sure the whole voting bots aspect of this platform is sustainable, as it might make us loose track of making good content and only concentrate on gaining influence and ratings (though it probably should go hand in hand).
But for now, steemit is a big ocean and to get ahead, you must try to cling youtr ass to a few dolphins or hopefuly a whale or two as best as you can, be those real life, human, steem-ocean mammals, or digital ones.
So thanks for the post for clarifying a few questions i have.
Once again @carpedimus, you have a indeed hit the nail head on.
First, I can tell you that it is VERY difficult to get your great articles noticed when you have no followers. I believe it is very important for you to write only one or two articles a week and then spend all the rest of your time engaging and curating. Build up the connections first, then write the killer articles.
I really do not recommend upvote4upvote nonsense, I have done it and it just does not match the character I want for Steemit or myself. But promotional tools can be very useful to get going, they are something that you should definitively use when the article is worth promoting.
If everyone uses these tools and it is not good for the platform, then market pressures will prevail and they will disappear, until then use them wisely.
Thanks for the tips @bycoleman , I have already re-read some of your posts 4 or 5 times, really helpful my friend!
And although I feel really awkward sending my hard earned steemit coins to some software, just to have this software visit my posts and pretend it is interested in them, strange...but hell... beats having 9 views on a post that took me 17 hours to write.
They are simply tools to help get quality articles some visibility.
Junk articles will not benefit and are not worth throwing money at them.
In your case, you are creating quality and a visibility boost might be all that is needed to get a real following.
It is really hard to type with the kangaroo looking down at my key strokes.
Many blessings!
Lol, the Kangaroos are always looking...
Thanks for the compliment brother, trying it out with my huge claims on my latest post, lets see how it works out.
I would just start with MB and buy some votes from your balance. In order to really get things noticed it takes a LOT of promotion. The good thing about MB is does not cost anything in the long run, you will break even at worse.
Feels very awkward...but i will try to look at it as google adwords for now :)
Hi CarpeDimus!
I agreed with you. You briefed wisely.
Sharing similar thoughts... :) !
So please share them, steemit is all about sharing ;)
Ok... thanks for the encouragement :). When I manage to write something imho worth reading... I'll let you know!
Ps I'm missing some Private Messaging system over here :)
You just did my friend, at least for me...thanks for the awesome comment on my introduction post, it was much appreciated.
You are right about about the chat, would be nice tonhave it seemlesly built imto the platform.
But for now we have steemit chat, discord and telegram.
You are welcome to PM me on discord or telegram if you have any questions i might help with, or just what chit chat for a bit :)
Discord : carpedimus#3883
Telegram: @carpedimus
Peace
I'm fairly new to Steemit, is it considered acceptable to use services like this or is it frowned upon by other users. I'm always a little timid to try things like this because I don't want to get completely obliterated by a whale that thinks I'm doing things the wrong way.
Acceptable -- Yes unfortunately that is what is done by a lot of very large players on the platform.
Many whales are the very entities selling their votes. I do not expect you will have any whale down vote you simply because you used any of these tools. They are well know by anyone that's been around awhile and used by a large percentage.
Please note: I wish this capability did not exist at all but until it is resolved it is certainly available to all.
Much success.
I was just thinking the same thing. So new, but this just seems fishy.... Not sure if it is even worth it?
@bycoleman Thank you for explaining how that works so well. You made it very clear and easy to understand. As a 9 day old user I have been seeing a lot of this minnowbooster stuff and have even done a little preliminary research but your explanation makes everything quite clear. As a new user my biggest hurdle is getting those views. I have been posting quite a bit more than I had ever expected to post but I have become very intrigued with the platform and Want to learn to become a better contributor. Although I think I have had some decent post so far, as I said in my response to your last posting I am getting next to no traffic due to the fact that new post disappear fast and don't get seen. I can see why new users might resort to this as a way to get themselves out there. My goal is to build relationships through commenting on other users posts and hopefully have them view mine and eventually upvote me. A long journey is ahead.
Thanks for the infor and I look forward to more!
I'm terribly new myself--about two days old...(wah! wah1 (that's a baby crying--lol!) Anyway this is a strange platform albeit an interesting one. Having written umpteen articles on the WWW and seeing little results because of the overcrowded market on YouTube, in the blogopshere etc, I think Steemit is at least new enough, and perhaps with time they will iron out the kinks. Hopefully by then we newbies will be a bit more savvy. So don't be hard on yourself. It takes time to learn. I plan to write a lot and "engage" and who knows what the future holds!
Thanks again,
Hang in there, stay engaged with everyone who stops by. Go out and read and comment earnestly and honestly. You will be noticed. And use these tools to help the process along.
Great info.Thanks.
Thank you -- very glad you found it useful.
Well, I was skeptical. I was REALLY skeptical.
But after spending five days writing up what I thought was a whopper of an entry (this one for the record), and sitting on it for 3 hours, getting nearly 100 views and no votes, I threw some spare change (0.2SBD) at minnow booster. Immediately the value of the post jumped to half a buck.
Danged if I know how it works, but it works.
Knowledge is power my friend. Use it wisely!
Hope you can send some bigger bucks at the next one. :)
After browsing around this "minnowbooster," and putting it to use, I find myself to be of two minds.
In principle, I look at it as being a bit deceptive. I mean, the votes should come from the quality of the content, right? So this is contaminating that ideal.
But then again, what does a street musician do before he starts playing? He throws a few coins in his guitar case so passersby will think someone has already considered him worth paying. If he doesn't, people will just pass on by.
So from that perspective, I guess it's sort of a means of advertising, and Lord knows I'll be sprinkling a little of this into every post I make from now on.
I guess the line between "throwing some change in your guitar case" and "a circle-jerk for whales to upvote each other" is basically a question of how much do you use it. Maybe some mechanism could be put in place to not necessarily prohibit these kinds of services but limit their use.
You are exactly right. You have to be OK with each tool and decided if it is right for you.
I do feel it is advertisement. As a CEO of two businesses, we spend an absurd amount of money on advertisement. Advertisement is only effective long term if you have a quality product to go along with it.
Do you have a quality product? -- Then advertise it.
As far as who is doing it.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@bycoleman/bid-bot-activity-report-02-12-18-for-previous-7-days-who-s-paying-the-most-to-promote-their-articles
Wow, you always know how to get people attention, I envy you for that. I've noticed many steemit community member used this approach.
But I thought, it's not a good business. But your explanation crack everything out and seeing that many people who doesn't believe in such approach, will now encouraged and have a bit more confident to start "trading" used the approach you explained to improve their upvote.
The post is very educating for community members to get an option "do or don't" as you give them clear details explanation on how it's work, sample as well as benefit of the approach. Keep educating, and look forward for you next post related to this issue. Is there anyway to increase voting count in the comment for the post? Is it works the same way or it's only for main post not a comment?
Thank you my friend for the very kind comments. I certainly appreciate them.
I'm going to show how you can get more votes on your comments soon, stick around.
Craig
You bet I will mate. I think now I know which post among other educational post that I shouldn't miss. One of it is your post, the way you wrap it up is so easy to understand. I believe there are no good knowledge and bad knowledge, what determine good and bad is the way and purpose of the knowledge used. Keep educating with the knowledge you have and let the people decide for them-self what to do with the knowledge they got. I believe your contribution will shape the future of the platform. Amin.
Great info...this can be very confusing!
Thank you, glad you found it useful!
Many blessings!
Sorry for asking silly questions if you feel it that way.
What if you upvote your own post at the time of publishing? Is the curation fee still charged?
That is not a silly question at all.
When you up vote your own post you are creating a higher payout for the author (you) but you do not receive any curation rewards. You can see your curation rewards in your wallet (under rewards) and notice you don't get paid for your own post. You can get curation rewards for up voting a comment that someone else made under your post. Such a reply is considered a separate post and has it's own reward pool.
Of note:
Last I read, curation that occurs within 30 minutes of the submission of the post is percentage based and goes manly to the author. An up vote on article just published gets less than the 25% and most of it goes to the author.
If anyone has any more information on this later portion please update us.
Thanks for the reply!
So when we upvote our own post that means others upvoting it get a lower payout? Seems like we shouldn't upvote our own posts. Is there a way to undo that for a post already published?
Hi, Thanks for the reply.
Up-voting your own post does not take away from the others. It may change the ratio a bit, but anyone that up-votes, shares in the full curation pool for the post.
Thanks for the reply. Very informative! :)
Great information! Im looking forward to reading more about the power of minnowbooster! Trying out this tidbit now! Thanks :)
Very happy to hear that you found the post useful.
Let me know how it goes on MinnowBooster
Thanks to your laid out details, it went very well! Very easy and successful. Followed so I can learn more and upvoted. Thanks again!
Excellent. Hope your posts do well for you now.
So you know if you try to jack up a worthless post, someone may take offense and give you a downvote.
Use this tool with articles that have value.
Gotcha :) Ive used on ones that are doing decent, just to add a little extra! I dont have a lot to work with just yet but every little bit helps! :)
That's how to do it.
Be sure to check out our 100 SBD contest (see the blog)
Craig
Wow... I definitely will! Thanks!
why I hardly get the sound like you get ... what may be because I do not have a high level so less trust from followers .. please guidance @bycoleman
Write about things you know and love. Converse with people that have the same interest and you will form a network.
You must work hard.
Thank you, my teacher...
the science you give me will apply for my progress ... and fore please guidance until the next may you become my guidance teacher ... hopefully I am able to work hard to love writing ... thank you for the amount
@bycoleman
Darn I just missed your post before payout for an upvote. I'm so very grateful you've taken the time to compose this. Thank you.
Thank you @futuremind. I just made another post, check it out you still have time to vote :)
Many blessings.
Awesome! I'm reading them in order. I surely will. I just did my first delegation with @minnowbooster. How exciting!
Very cool!
Hope these tools will help you as much as they did me.
Please resteem this if you think others can benefit!
I'm very new to Steemit. I thought it was mostly about creating great content, and socializing with helpful comments.
Now I've learned that there are also bots - good bots? And paying for votes? I'm not sure I like the latter.
I loved Twitter when it was new, and I found a lot of interesting people to follow there. Today, it's mostly bots chatting with bots, and I'm rarely there.
Hopefully the bots on Steemit stay good.
Welcome.
The bots are likely to be a real problem. It will be up to the community to flag the naughty ones to keep them at bay.
Thanks for the info. I'm new to Steemit as well and it seems really hard to get going regarding upvotes. I'll follow your future posts and hopefully I can pick up some more great tips on how to get moving on the platform. Following you also.
Thanks for the kind reply. I do hope they help you. Quality is always key. Use the tools to help people see great works.
Great post.. I'm fairly new to steemit and I would like to ask if this method is advisable to small fish like me?? Right now I only have little understanding how all things work around here and I'm just trying my best on posting blog and waiting for someone to notice it. Thanks I really learned a lot.. now on my way to the 2nd part of this
Same as me (steemit noob). it's all a bit complicated isn't it?
Yeah wish to see some explanation kind of blog on how this thing works. Heheheeh
Thank you both @bycoleman and @carpedimus for such great content, insights, and a very informative back and forth chat that radiated positivity instead of childish "social media" judgements and attitudes. I came across this article (actually it was part 4) a couple of weeks back and I'm glad that I bookmarked it. You both exemplify the commUNITY spirit of "We" instead of "Me". Refreshing to see and I learned a LOT! Thank you again for the time and effort that you are both putting into supporting others and the platform. Happy to be following & supporting both of you. 🙏 🙏
Thank you very much @sourceoftruth I really appreciate your kind words!
I don't like go around wining about things in general and do apploy the same approach in steemit.
Instead of complaining about the status-quo, it is better try to do something about it.
So instead of complaining how shitty some of the content here might be, or how people manipulate bots to their will, I prefer to simply try to write nice content and try to concentrate on my thing...
Thanks again...
And yeah @bycoleman is a great dude! :)
Really wonderful post
Your coffee cup profile picture is better than mine, have an upvote!
Thank you, glad you found it useful.
Upvoted and Resteemed. Still a bit woozy reading this (it's almost 1 am now). Will read it again later. Good job.
Thanks and have a good night!
Definitely much value here if someone is interested in using upvote services.
Thank you. There is much more information to come and ways to get MUCH larger voting power.
Hopefully ways that are acceptable to other users on Steemit.
Yes, they are widely used.
Not posting about those you want to expose?
I will be producing a weekly post that shows the top users of the bit-bots. I just cann't get things done nearly as fast as I would like. Ever have that problem? :)
Yes, I have that problem 😉
It gets worse as we get older I do believe. Soon enough I'l have to stop believing I have a chance at getting it started let alone finished!
Need to study this post. Thank you for sharing
Certainly. Let me know if you find any problems.
Have you any thoughts about using steembottracker site? I think this is much easier to get good results and a lot more options!
Best regards @everydaycoach
I'm going to cover that tomorrow. The problem with the bid-bots is they are often over-bid and you loose a bit in total return, but you work with much larger numbers so it still has much value.
I will read your post tomorrow and we can have a talk then:-)
I'm new. I am so lucky to follow you. Your shares are very sincere. And informative. We've been together for a long time, master. @bycoleman
Thank you for the kind words.
Glad you found our blog useful.
I'll be expecting your next post
Thanks -- Starting it now. Stay tuned.
Be sure to check out the 100 SBD contest -- see my blog.
Craig
Thnx for the usefull information. Im also new and struggling to get more votes and followers. Will upvote this post and read more. Once again very much thanx for helping us new steemians with the platform.
Us little guys need to stick together.
Thanks again.
Very informative for a Steemian newbie like me. Keep up the good work, @bycoleman!
Hi! I'm asking for your support through reads/views, comments, & upvotes. It's for my nonfiction piece for Supernatural Writing Contest. Thank you! :)
Here's the story:
When Your Presence Is Enough
Thanks, I will check this out.
spam
Thank you for sharing this. This is an issue that has to been looked into.
Thank you!
Ah, I need to wait to get some SBD. Thanks for the info. Will be trying this asap.
Since I wrote the article MB is pretty swamped so you can only purchase small votes unless it is quite at that moment.
Oh I see. No worries. Am still waiting on the SBDs... :D
great information @bycoleman,
it is very detail and useful info, thanks
Great to hear. Hope you are following as I plan on keeping everyone informed as much as possible.
Blessings!
Well explained. Now i understand why simple post tons of votes easily within a few minutes from posting. This is vert helpful to minnows like me.
@bycoleman
If there is a way, there is plenty of will to leverage the system!
Knowledge is power!
bad news it didn't work for me. I deposit the money and kick upvote and all the dollars gone.. going wait and see what happen though
What service did you use?
Did you send in at least the minimum amount?
I followed the steps and something went wrong, because I did not receive the vote I paid nor do I see in my balance the voting power that I have delegated. Who I can write to solve this problem? Thank you
Did you use minnowbooster?
They are running way behind on their votes.
nice info on minnowbooster. Thanks for sharing
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing. I've been on Steemit for 2 weeks or so now and didn't really understand this side of it all. So thanks for writing this series. I'll continue reading the rest!
Thank you. Hope it of help, these tools certainly can make a big difference when used properly.
It's not fun to be new here like me, I guess
It is totally informative for me.
thanks for sharing
This is so much interesting and thanks for your honesty @bycoleman but tell me; in which scenario can one lose with this upvote thing?
Thanks
@helpbot @remind.bot
With Minnowbooster, you almost always receive more back then you pay.
With the bidbots, this is not so and your ROI is much less and may be negative.
Thanks. It's helpful. I try it.
thank you for sharing knowledge about minowbooster for me the beginner.
really useful
Thank you and I hope for help and guidance
Thank you for your hard work to help us,,
You are very welcome. Have a joyous day.
thanks for this info.. i am on it.
This is grrrreat!
It's really really great information. Thanks a lot friend.
Thanks cleared things up for me..
this is not fair to everybody this is not ethical were building a fair and
strong community here gaining naturally is fulfilling to your self. that style is not appropriate.
You are so correct. I believe paying for votes should be abolished. But if you want to know how many of the bigger players get to the top, this is it.
Blessings!
Blacklisted by MinowBooster after using it on just 3 posts. Really no info out there to find out why and how to rectify. And if it's so easy to get blacklisted (just did the same thing three times in a row following your instructions above, and not even quickly so I definitely appeared human!) why is there not a simple 'do's and don'ts' on the landing page? any ideas/hints?
Did they not give you any comment on why you where blacklisted?
They have made changes lately. I would contact them directly.
https://steemit.com/minnowbooster/@minnowbooster/minnowbooster-update-automated-upvote-buying-is-officially-a-breach-of-mb-terms-of-service
Nothing, just a message at the top of the screen to say blacklisted. Definitely wouldn't have looked like it was automated as I was following your instructions at the time, hence it was slow. Asked the question on the discord after it happened, now can't load the discord chat, So to a newbie, looks kind of scammy as I now can't withdraw the balance of SBD that I put in (thankfully not much, but looks really bad all the same!)
Click on the link I provided and you will see this is now happening to many non-bots.
You might consider contacting them directly, there are several users in the replies that are associated with MB. Also, if you are up to the task, it is worthy of a post on your blog to let MB and others know how this experience has gone for you. I believe @minnowbooster is about to loose a lot of their credibility if they do not address the overly jealous blacklisting and no refunds. I understand their need to clamp down, but this is likely to backfire dramatically for them if they don't get it worked out very quickly.
I've messaged them, including advice on a really simple way to help people avoid it. Also then banning from the discord is just laughable. Thanks for your input. and btw, I so hate the whole vote buying thing, but its definitely the case that you need to join in though
OK, Let me know what answers (if any) you receive.
Yes, I really hate it as well. I wrote these articles to make sure EVERYONE can use if they want and was pretty sure it would eventually overload the system if they did. So perhaps my articles and others are having the desired effect.
Great post i had no idea that we could do this here it is interesting i will look into it thank you
BTW if you abuse minnowbooster service you get unvoted and blacklsited
Yes, they have made changes lately.
https://steemit.com/minnowbooster/@minnowbooster/minnowbooster-update-automated-upvote-buying-is-officially-a-breach-of-mb-terms-of-service
I believe @minnowbooster is about to loose a lot of their credibility if they do not address the overly jealous blacklisting and no refunds. I understand their need to clamp down, but this is likely to backfire dramatically for them if they don't get it worked out very quickly.
If you visit the MB Discord then you will see that there is a lot of work ongoing and most of the blacklisted users used bots to buy votes or upvoted 0.01$ content to 5$ or more