I'm not even a week into my challenge of not using voting bots for a month and I'm already seeing the mistake I've made by using them in the first place. Over the past couple of weeks, I've read a lot of posts defending the use of voting bots and I agreed with most of them. Now my opinion has completely changed. Why? I'll explain that below!
False Sense of Accomplishment
In the beginning, I thought that the only way to grow on Steemit, was by using voting bots to artificially bump up my posts. I saw plenty of other people doing it and started using them, after convincing myself that I was just doing it to increase my post's visibility.
Now that I've stopped using them for about a week, I'm starting to realize what kind of damage I've done. I'm not talking about damage I've done to my Steemit account by the way. No, I mean that I've given myself a false sense of accomplishment when I didn't deserve it. I've played a trick on the reward center in my brain, that's one way of describing it.
At the end of the day, it's easy to think you're being successful on Steemit, just because you see these nice, big numbers under your post. At least for me, I felt that those numbers were an accurate representation of the value of my posts, even though these numbers were largely artificial.
My 'AHA!' Moment
Today I've had my 'AHA!' moment, or more accurately, my 'DAMN!' moment. I've realized that I've been doing myself a great disservice by using these voting bots. I've tried to skip a necessary part of the path to Steemit success, by taking the easy road. I should have gone through the grind of writing articles and earning small successes along the way. Instead I opted for the get-rich-quick scheme, by just buying my way into Steemit success.
Seeing how much my posts made without making use of any voting bots, made me realize that I had been duping myself into believing I was more successful than I actually was. I'm sure that I even lost some respect from part of the Steemit community.
Not any more, I'm certain that I will not use them again in the future. I'd rather take the hard road from now on, by growing on the basis of merit, instead of just buying my success. Even if it means that it will go 100 times as slow as before.
Change
I'll focus more on participating more actively in the various communities that exist on Steemit. I've already made some friends here, so it's not that this would be too difficult to expand on. For now, I really just want to get rid of that yucky feeling that I've gotten when I realized what kind of mistake I've made.
Note: I'm not against other people making use of voting bots, this post is only meant to somewhat clear my own conscience.
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I can relate to both ways.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was where you are now.
But now I’m struggling...
You see, experiments have shown that the fastest way to grow your account is by using the bots wisely. I’m not talking about throwing hundreds at a crappy post. My content is not of that good quality that I believe it’s worth getting it to trending.
Since I started here on SteemIt, I have been all about helping others to climb the ladder. But my account is only small; the help I can give them is almost neglectable.
Earlier this week I read some posts and had some conversations that made me think: growing my account as fast as possible will allow me to help more people in a better way.
You’ve got to stay true to yourself and shouldn’t exploit the system, but I trust myself enough to not do that. I will never use the bidbots if I don’t think my article is good enough (still talking about throwing just a little SBD to them, not hundreds)
This place needs a middle class, urgently. There are a couple of exceptions, but for now it’s small minnows helping plankton and the other way around. We need more bigger accounts that are willing to support the little guys if we want SteemIt to survive.
I’m not saying I’ve made up my mind yet about which direction to go from here, but the facts are that organic growth takes time... too much time.
I considered self-voting and bidbot use as things you shouldn’t do.
But if those things give me the opportunity to grow my account faster, so I can make a bigger difference in more people’s SteemIt experience... are they the wrong way to go??
Like I said, I’m still struggling with all this. It’s a fine line between using available resources to do the good thing and abuse.
You might be interested in one of the related posts and comments on it that made me think about all this.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@beeyou/what-is-the-path-to-success-on-steemit-perspective-of-a-redfish
(You’ll find some results of the experiments there that will show you how organic growth is the slower way)
Good for u bro.. i am actually doing the opposite right now and trying bots (fir the first time) as an experiment, i definitely get that false sense of accomplishment you talk about, it is addictive but then i wonder if i truly made any money at all?? Or if i lost out on a bigger vote because people already think Ive made enough.. so many questions to be answered.. i still dont care for them tho..
You can calculate exactly how much you've made, but be sure to also include the curation rewards in your calculations. On the other hand, it's impossible to know what you've missed out on, in terms of upvotes. You can forget a Curie upvote if you use bots (in most cases, not all).
It's for yourself to decide how you want to proceed, just don't fall into the trap of lying to yourself. I did that and it happens quicker than you think ;)
Well done for continuing your stance! I'm just the same as you, a reformed Steemian, no bots.. never again!
Yeah, I felt I needed to make this post, just because I was going through some sort of 'bot withdrawal' :P
Started to see that it's all fake and disguises the real value of your blog.
Edit: grammar
Tell you the truth, I've been struggling with this go or no go for bot thing every time I see others are getting ridiculous money on each post, the temptation is there, but not that strong for me to go for it.
Thank you for sharing this, at least I know I am not alone in this journey.
Yeah it's very tempting to do so and you might convince yourself that it's not that bad. I still think you would be doing yourself a disservice. Thanks for the nice comment, glad I could share my views on this :)
Thank you too! It's good to read others are having the same struggles, but no judgment on others as well.
@daan when I did sign up to steemit I swore never to use bots. Just like you wrote they do give a false feeling of appreciation. I decided to take the engagement and interacion road. Because you need to try everything once, I did play with the bots and did see the financial value of some!
I do still use a particular bot once or twice a week but only for 0.5 SBD.
The combination of genuine content creation and bot usage could be a real gold mine but my wallet does not allow this tactic.
I do have lots of steembasicincome shares, which are a big part of my income! Combined with the upvotes of the busy bots (free of charge).
When I did start had a streak of 15 unpaid posts and my income did come from commenting.
Now my posts have a value of around $1. Not much but genuine!
I do have friends who use bots a lot with a lot I do mean for $400 to $500. It is their choice but they won’t loose my respect!
As long as the quality is fine, I don’t mind!
Cheers,
Peter
Yeah I had been going back and forth a bit on the issue, but I do think that engagement and interaction is the right way forward (at least for me). I don't mind not earning more than a couple of dollars on every post for now :)
You are right! It feels better to know that every dollar earned is earned without having to pay for it. Imagine a point where you earn the same as you did with bots, without using any bots... Hopefully it all works out for those of us who aren't botting.
Good for you, I have never paid for a vote bot service and I never will, it just never made sense to me, and it wasn't like I came here to make money either. I don't even up vote my own posts, in 9 months I've done two by accident.
I did join the @theschoolofminnows and it does utilize votes I have setting around when I am not on here and upvotes other school members, and then when I post something it comes by and upvotes some of my stuff. That is as close to a voting bot as I have come and I did it more to help others more than myself, it is kind of a waste just to let voting power sit idle when people could use your vote.
Better late than never in finding this out, right?
I have used the bidbots a couple of times and I was not always so happy with the results especially with the steem price fluctuating a lot. Sometimes you would see you expensive vote fade overnight and that just sucks.
But the thing is...you write quality articles, so I guess you should be fine in the end, and I am somewhere glad you stopped using them. Good going!
I avoided using the bots pretty much for about 10 Months, and just recently have been using them a little, but I really felt kind of bad using them, and have just about decided to not use them anymore, and am weaning myself off them, I do not have a problem with others using them, but I think it is just not for me
Congratulation on seeing the light and errors of your ways. Welcome to the #nobitbots club ;) I've written about the greater fulfillment from a sense of accomplishment by earning your way ;) To work for what we get and derive greater meaning and value.
I think many of us have been through the phase os using vote bots. Like you I also loved seeing higher amounts on my posts till I learnt more so have not used them for quite a while already. You are so right @daan, it does give one a false sense of achievement, and to me it's like cheating the system!
I am with you. It was nice to see those bigger numbers under your post and now it is kind of a downer to go back to the small payouts. I don't regret it though. My wife is probably going to make fun of me because I put so much work into something that only makes $1. It is still more organic though and I doubt the ROI on the votes I was buying was really that big.
Let's hope we'll grow together then ;-) I'd bet it won't stay 1 dollar for long, especially because I'm planning to get a really big delegation soon. Check my savings, all of that will go into purchasing a bigger delegation on Minnowbooster. I've added you to my auto vote list, can't believe I forgot that.
Thanks so much. I look forward to growing with you. You have a lot of great initiatives you are working on and I always enjoy reading your posts! Plus beer! :)
Hallelujah! I love this. I've started using bots on a small scale earlier this year. I stopped mainly because of the false sense of success. I even wonder if it is a vote loser sometimes. Now I've stopped and I've noticed that I'm getting more consistent genuine votes. Slow but steady. Therefore, I won't be using bots again.
I wonder what your thoughts are on resteem services.
I've never really used resteem services, but I just don't think they're worth it. I mean some of them have only existed for a couple of months and have 10 000 followers already... Something ain't right with that.
Plus they consistently spam people with their messages.
I did the one where you changed https:// to re. That was free, but it doesn't work anymore. So, I'm leaving that also. I'm not going to use services I have to pay for.
It is also good to remember why I liked using Steemit in the first place.
I'm on the fence about using bots. I've played around just to test how to use them for a few posts but I haven't been lately. I also feel using them all the time will lull me into a false feeling of success on Steemit. Glad I'm not the only one with these thoughts. Thanks for sharing!
True. If one decided to take the shortcut by just using the bots, you may eventually loose sight of the need to creative quality content and add value by means of your writeups. Bots may be profitable to some, but having used it sometimes, I loose much than i gain. Maybe i do not know much. So am taking my time to learn about the true nature of bots and how profitabl- if at all- they are.
I'd advise against using them, especially when you're still new on Steemit. You can still decide later on whether you want to use them or not. I'm personally even contemplating on not self-voting my posts, since it's almost the same.
Exactly. 2 friends i introduced to steemit lost dearly. They invested so much on buying votes. At the end of the day, the struggled to even recover their capital; even adding the SP. They are discouraged now. I keep encouraging to continue naking quality posts while we study how the seemingly successful people who buy votes do it. Seriously, we lost money by buying votes. Maybe it has a formula, i dont know.
I tried using bidbots in an experimental way for a while, and I thought I was doing well and making a bit of profit on them. But when I actually totalled up the amount I'd spent on them vs the amount my posts earned, I found that I'd made an overall loss! It was quite a surprise - and during that time I had published a couple of unbotted posts. One of those posts had attracted a Curie vote - so the earnings on my unbotted posts for that period were significantly higher than on the bidbotted ones!
I published this post on it about a month ago.
I found it quite exciting using the bots, but I don't think I'll use them again. I think some people use them repeatedly to build up their Steem Power, but I personally think there are more interesting and creative ways to do that.
But how do you build up your Steem Power by using bots? You could just use that money to directly buy SP, no?
Also, you're just much more likely to get a Curie upvote when you don't use bots. I've heard that they don't tend to upvote posts that have more than $5.00 in rewards.
EXACTLY! That's what I figured when I was using the bots and losing. My SP was growing - but I realised that it would be easier just to buy SP directly. But some people prefer to do it the bidbot way - and why not, I suppose, if it works for them :)
I've been preaching against the so-called 'bots', but I have the advantage of having built my account before they came along. It was a long slog, but I feel it worked out well as I've made lots of good friends along the way. I hope it works out for you too
It's not easy for newbies to resist the 'calling' of the bots, they're just about everywhere. The front page alone features quite a few posts that are explicitly advocating their use. No wonder people get confused by all of this.
I'm sure I'll be fine, I've reached a position where I at least get $1.00 per post. I'll let that grow organically, it's more fun that way.
It's tempting to go for the 'quick and dirty' solution, but it depends how desperate you are for the money. Maybe when we get Steemit communities it will be easier to get noticed amongst those who share your interests. I've always recommended building your feed with stuff you actually like so it's interesting to come to Steemit. That's what people do on other services that don't even pay them. Make it fun
Oh yeah, that's what I've been trying to do. It's also worth looking into participating in some challenges (for me), the other day I've made my first post on #metalweekend and it was a really fun experience.
Also, I just don't think it looks too good when new people join and the first thing they're confronted with, are all the artificially upvoted posts.
Contests and challenges are a great way to get involved. I think there's something out there for everyone.
Wow!!! I was thinking you will say that you stopped using bid bots because it was not profitable. 😎
Oh no, I've made some profit with them. That certainly wasn't the reason why I've stopped using them ;)
The thing about bid bots is that some people use them because people have delegated to bidding bots, so they are not getting any votes on the post naturally again. So they have to buy the votes to get the votes that they are not getting naturally again because the people that voted their post have delegated to bidding bots.
I did a bit bot experiment a few weels back where i spent a week without bots and then a weel using bots. I made more profit without the bots! And i felt alot better about my posts to - i can understand the false sense of accomplishment.
When i stopped using bots i have gotten more notice from manual curators - had a couple of @curie upvotes - it seems they hunt for 'undervalued' content and if you have paid for a vote then its not undervalued anymore....
I use the odd bot here and there mainly for competitions i run just to get a bit more visibility.
Keep up the good work
The only reason why I'd want to use bots is for my Pixabay Curation series, because I donate the earnings to Pixabay artists. Would be nice if those posts got a bit more visibility as well, but it's just not worth it. Not going to abandon my morals just for that.
Fair enough - there are a few 'community bot' and bots that arent just out for profit around.
Congratulations are in order! That realization is far-reaching, indeed; there's so much here...
I've come to realize that all evil is deception - the forgery of truth. I'm not trying to evoke images of fire and brimstone here; I'm citing "evil" as "wrong" (i.e. incorrect), and therefore creating less desirable outcomes, as any denial of truth does. Voting bots are a lie; a manipulation of the system, rather than a use of it.
And then we have the matter of monetary gain. The big carrot dangling at the end of nearly every stick. They say life is a journey, not a destination. The joy is in the doing, and the reward is just a cherry on top. Using Steemit to make money is not the same thing as using Steemit and making money. The goals are vastly different.
Enjoying the platform, seeking to uplift and be uplifted, participating in (and contributing to) the community... these are the things that will yield the most satisfaction. We achieve personal growth in our attempt to create quality content for its own sake, rather than by trying to generate a payout.
We begin to scour our experiences for insights that we can share. This encourages us to adopt the perspective of seeking personal value, which can have a profound effect on every area of our lives. We're challenged to evaluate our ideas with more clarity when we're sharing them with others; and our writing skills improve as we try to share those ideas in an understandable way.
You've made these realizations, and it's a real turning point. It's to your credit that you are honest enough to acknowledge and embrace truth when it makes its appearance - it's the single most important quality in changing the world for the better. Way t' be!
Happy to read this a post like that. People are starting to change their mind about bidbots I think.
I also stopped to use Dtube because of the " False Sense of Accomplishment " (huge votes but 50% goes to curator / past 25% to Dtube).
So... As you are going to focus on Communities, if you find the Belgian one, please tell :) And see you next time IRL for a Brussels's Meetup :)
@roxane Hah, I think we're all bunched up together with the alldutch community, do join our Discord channel it's very active actually. I would really like to see more Belgians on there.
Didn't know that about Dtube, I was planning on releasing a few videos on there, but might just have to opt for Youtube instead.
I will be lost in the dutch channel 😆 😂😂😂 😅😅 😅 @daan
For Dtube, make your own choice. But read the conditions first ;-)
Good for you daan. I was surprised to find them when I joined a couple of months ago. I won't and have never used them and done OK. If the content is good I know people are out there doing good work in finding and rewarding it. They're just not required :)
This is really true. I think they can give you a false sense of accomplishment and I'm noticing my attachment to them. It's time to start a new! :) Thanks for inspiring me ...
Congratulation! By the way I love your steem engine.
It's not mine, just a promotional banner ;-)
After getting no or hardly any upvotes on most of my first good quality posts for months with over a 1000 words each I've decided to do smaller posts and to use bots
No judgment here, I know it's tough to write long posts and not see any rewards. Are you part of any groups on Discord? That might help a bit.
Check out @qurator and @thesteemengine if you haven't already
Yes I'm on a few discord groups and do post there sometimes but don't see any action. It's all a bit new and I'm trying but it's not easy.
There is no substitute for hard work and persistence.
Great post i never used bots and i admit i not agree with them. It's better grow here with our own skills in my opinion.
Daan, your posts are always worthy to stand on their own with or without bots. I’m glad you did this experiment with bots as it helps others, like myself, who are still struggling to gain more voting power, etc., to see bots may not be the answer.
This is a great initiative you have! By showing the plankton that you can take it slow and still succeed it'll raise morale around here
In de categorie beter laat dan nooit of spuit elf heeft modder, en reactie van mijn kant.
Nu de bid bots minder gebruikt worden kan je er financieel winst op maken. Tot wel 60% of zelfs 80%. Zou je nu niet opnieuw overwegen om ze te gebruiken?
Mag ik uit nieuwsgierigheid vragen of je wel eens fiat geld hebt geïnvesteerd of laten uitbetalen?
Je bent een gebruiker van het eerste uur. En ik vind je zeer interessant om te volgen. Obv mijn persoonlijke voorkeur zou ik verwachten dat je account populairder zou zijn.