Thank you again for the thoughtful reply.
I really agree, I think you have a great idea. I also would like to see all posts that have used bid-bots to be flagged as such. I think it would help the platform tremendously.
With that said, I can tell you that some of the most respected names use the bots vigorously and we both know that is true. I plan to continue to print the bid-bot report each week to identify the largest users and the payouts received. At this point, my bid-bot usage pales in comparison.
02/06/18 12:28 AM devfund upme $77.52 $1,731.22 https://steemit.com/steem/@fredrikaa/steempress-now-available-in-the-wordpress-org-plugin-store-introducing-v1-0
I think we all agree that steempress is a very useful entity. So is this advertisement? Last month, many thousands of SBD went to the bots from many respected entities.
The solution is to either get rid of them or to know how to use them properly.
I vote to get rid of them, but until then I will continue to promote what I think are quality articles that educate.
Here is an article I wrote recently that I did not promote aggressively. I believe it is highly informative and very useful to the community. If I had promoted it more, than more people would have this info.
I very much appreciate your feedback on this and I actually believe we agree more than you think.
Let's work together to find a real solution!
Indeed it is an advertisement.
Steempress could be useful to thousands of people, that's true. There's nothing wrong with promoting it. That's how this business works.
Those thousands of people should be encouraged and eager to vote, for free. Meanwhile, those thousands of people can then use steempress and have a fair shake at true trending status because the ads were placed in the correct location and labelled as such.
Nobody loses money if things are put where they belong. We don't see ads in the trending section of Facebook, or anywhere else, for a reason. They're always kept separate, even on television. The ads still get hits.
Everyone stands a chance to earn more if it's done properly. Advertisers or someone who needs to promote something can buy STEEM. Place ads on blogs. Pay blogs ad revenue with STEEM for those hits. Then, even those who aren't fortunate enough to be able to generate ad revenue still benefit if they're holding STEEM.
Do it right, everyone wins. Investors, witnesses, developers, bloggers, advertisers. All of them.