Hey @steevc! @intspekt pointed me to this post as we were talking about stuff like this. I think voting bots are kind of ridiculous, but how else can we gain exposure on hot and trending lists?
I don't like spending SBD on voting bots, but on a quality post I want people to see I like to spend 5-10 SBD to see if new people like my content. Otherwise it's just washed away mby thousands of posts in the New tab.
I'd much rather be powering up. The only other way to get exposure is networking via comments and discord, and you have to rely on comments generating enough interest or your post catching someones eye on discord programs like OCD, etc.
Are you against voting bots entirely or just when people spam them like above? My favorite is smartsteem.com because of the whitelisting feature where you can sell your votes to quality content creators, but how can we do away with voting bots otherwise? And how can people not using them beat out people who do? Quality content isn't enough with the way steemit is set up
Great point of discussion
We had the promoted tab that allowed us to burn sbd for exposure, but buying votes is more profitable now. I'm not against prime getting exposure, but some are doing it purely for profit and spending serious amounts. I think that harms steemit. We can reach choose how to act, but our actions may be judged
Ahh thanks for the reply, I read through a few other comments as well.
Right now the promoted tab is worthless pretty much. Voting bots are giving better returns. Actually, using voting bots usually pays back more than you send, which must be why people abuse them like above..... Maybe this will be resolved when SBD is worth 1USD.
I think the promotion tab needs to be revamped or incentivized if it is ever going to compete. Burning SBD at this point seems like a bad idea, wouldn't that make them worth more?
I wrote about the promoted tab recently. It's pretty much useless. People are making serious money by buying votes. I choose not to. The trending/hot/promoted tabs are some of the ways posts can be presented. I'd like better ways to find what interests me.
Have you checked out appbase?
I haven't had a chance yet, but looks like some customization is inbound
Not yet, but I'll try to find time