@crypto-econom1st That's an interesting question. Let me ask you one, how many "whales" have voted on your posts so far? Have you ever earned more then $2 on one of your posts without promoting it? It's quite a complex situation here on Steem. Some people that got in very early amassed a huge amount of steem power and they do seem to be hoarding it. For bloggers who are starting out, bots are totally necessary in order to gain visibility and followers. One person shared that he's posted 2 thousand posts in the last year and has barely made any money - and only has about 300 followers. If he would have used some bots to help promote, he could have 10 - 100x the results from his hard work.. I understand your point and have some concerns about the future of Steem but I believe in evolution, we have a lot of smart people here and a great community, things are going to improve.
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Hey there, I am just reading through the comments. I like your reply....
Let's hope things will improve! I like your last sentence 😀
No whale ever upvoted me. I guess that's because some whales ask money to get their upvote. Other whales upvote their old boys network. And even if they upvote other posts, mines usually lack quality.
You're right it's a complex situation. But if we continue to get more and more upvote bots, Steemit turns into some kind of game. And I think the SP owners usually earn more then the vote buyers. Correct me if I'm wrong?
If I'm correct then the whales only get richer and richer. So that's why I like your last sentence so much. I'm happy to see the improvements 😀😁
I'd like to see some figures on exactly how many views bloggers get from using bots.
hey @samueldouglas , its really going to depend. The idea is that you want to utilize bots so that your post reaches the Trending page for your Category (tag). Then people who are browsing that category will see your post. Some categories require more $ then others to hit the trending page and also will get more views..
Do you ever look at the hot and trending posts?
Yes, sometimes they are trash and sometimes valuable info. I'm also an aspiring music producer so I don't spend too much time per day browsing when I can be working on music. However, I spend about an hour a day with Steemit and latest crypto videos..
Did I receive the upvotes from you?
Dolphinately
I guess those upvotes are from one of your other accounts?
It looks like a nice gesture. But in terms of financial value I think it's worthless. Since those upvote won't give any pay out.
I like the idea, but you need to put some SP in those kind bots that upvote our comments 😀
Yes, coming soon...
They init for da $$$
No love in a vote when you got customers to think of. lol
I know, not such a good thing for Steemit 😥
I totally see your point @dolphinbot but I think it's a bad idea to focus on short-term gain at the cost of the community. If everyone focused on the long-term benefits and built a solid reputation and a large number of followers, they would eventually start to hit the trending page organically. Achieving this would give you huge profits that far outweigh 25% a year. All income would profit with zero expense.
If the community did this, not only would the whole steemit platform benefit, we would also have 100% faith and trust in the quality of content with high votes.
I honestly believe bots will kill Steemit so a few can receive short-term gains at the expense of everyone elses long-term potential.
I'm in the process of breaking this topic down in a new post that I will publish within a day or two but here is my last post on the subject that points out other reasons why I worry about bots.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@richreeve/steemit-bots-are-a-serious-problem-that-threatens-our-community
hey @richreeve , I understand your concerns. As I mentioned to another member, things are always evolving. One thing is you've labelled all bots into one category. There are many types of bots. You may find this article inspiring https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@yabapmatt/community-bot-a-voting-bot-for-steem-communities We feel like there is room for paid upvote bots in this space and if there are more "community type bots" it will be very helpful. This is assuming that the managers of the community bots choose 'members with quality content" but this can also be judgement. Some people love heavy metal music for example while others think its trash. Its complicated. Also, its not fair to the people working hard creating posts that the most they ever earn is 10 cents because all the "whales" are part of a special boys club that don't share with anyone else. If authors aren't making any income from their posts, then Steemit will not survive because everyone will leave or a new type of Steemit will come and everyone will go there. Voting bots like us give content creators the power to earn some ROI on their posts and get visibility.
I'm a big believer in the power of reputation building and organic earnings as a result. While you are right, some whales dont spread their love enough for the benefit of the whole community, this will change over time as more people grow and more people join but this will take time.
Unfortunatly, most of the amazing potential opportunities I see from this community will emerge in the future because these things take time. Patience will reward incredible longevity. However, some of these possibilities are in contention with bots that provide an opportunity for people today. Will this current opportunity with bots provide the same longevity? Who knows!
I can honestly see both sides of the argument.
My biggest issues with bots is they enable people with any reputation and any quality of content to populate the high valued trending feeds. If that wasn't bad enough for the community, this opportunity provided by bots is only available to the people who can afford to throw 200 SBD at every post they publish. This creates an unbalanced level of opportunity for Steemit users as most people can't afford that kind of money.
Rather than being an equal and fair level playing field for everyone no matter where you live in the world. The opportunity provided by bots turns Steemit into another voice for the privilaged and wealthy. Don't we already have enough of these on the internet?
The thing that I was most excited about when I first discovered Steemit was the potential to distribute wealth and create jobs in third-world, povety stricken counties. While this is still possible, bots are harming this incredible opportunity in various ways.
I know bot owners want this community to improve and grow just as much as anyone else but I don't think you guys see the bigger picture of what could be possible in the future. Or, maybe, I am missing a bot owners bigger picture of their vison for the future. Maybe. However, I have tried to consider both futures but I keep finding more problems that bots cause us in the long-term.
@richreeve , thanks for your post. Something big that you might me missing is the fact that upvote bots allow anybody to make some ROI on their posts. It's quite possible to consistently make 15% or more gains using upvote bots. So even if someone is from a "poor country", they can gain a little bit of profit by using vote bots correctly (which might take some time to figure out). It takes 7 days for the post payouts and then they can reinvest for their next content. This is a great long term strategy to build up Steem Power and wealth on Steem. I see a future where Steem is worth $100+ so this is a great opportunity for all people.
Another point is that if we only have the elite Rich and everybody else is Poor on the platform, things are very out of balance. Having a "middle class" can be of a benefit. 200 SBD to promote a post, hit the trending page and get your money back in a week isn't that out of reach for a large number of users . I think there is a greater likelihood that this emerging "middle-class" would be supportive of people in poorer countries. I haven't seen many posts about philanthropical whales here on Steemit (yet)..