Introduction
Bots are a vital part of Steemit.com ecosystem, and they are not going away, but, can or should i use one?
What is a Bot?
A bot Is a machine, that follows certain instructions to perform a task in a determinate amount of time; in this case for Steemit.com, at up-voting bot is a software that votes for you a determinate amount of times to determinate authors or rules, and if we look very closely to the basics concepts that a bot follows, we can say we humans are bots themselves.
You don't believe me? Go to paid ads sites to see humans bots working. I had being there, and it is not pretty.
A bot can do what we humans can not, they can be active all day long, up-voting at least one article of the authors we like and by doing so saving us time that we humans have little of, while guaranteeing a safety income for the authors that put content we found useful or to our interests.
What is difference between us and bots
I know what you are thinking, we have a brain right? Wrong! bots also has a brain of their own, and that electronic brain can jugged articles very easily and tirelessly, maybe even better than we humans, nevertheless, being able to feel tired, make us different from bots, maybe irreconcilable different, but thanks to how the system in Steemit.com works, a tireless bot can't get much advantage of this, but, they are still very powerful voters, and yet, that's not the problem with up-voting bots.
Humans can accept bots that can do a good job in their tasks, because they are doing something useful, and they are good at it, the better they are, the more benefits we get at the end as content creators and curators.
I think the biggest argument against bots for Steemit.com, is against "mindless" dumb bots, that only know how to vote, without holding any regard for the content, quality or the sources of an article, they vote goes to the higher bidder.
With smart bots, we can put our trust in the author, and this is not a bad thing, we still need to support good authors, but it can be damaging to the new starting people like myself (shamelessly self-promotion, wink wink hint hint), that need to fight a ocean of up-voting bots first to thrived in Steemit, or to use a bot ourselves that will make us loose face in the quality of our content and we will be frown upon. Smart bots can help a lot more to this site to making it more reachable for everyone, not just me or you.
The second argument against up-voting bots would be that Steemit.com is a site for humans not for bots, we only need human as curators
I am new to Steemit.com/@m3mt (only a few days now), but since day one, bots have being present in the site, doing all kind of tasks we don't even know, so, yeah we need bots because, bots already are a part of Steemit.com community
Can i use a voting Bots, in Steemit.com?
Now, we can go to the real question of this post, Can i use a bots in Steem? Is there no risk of having my account closed because I was catch using up-voting bots? Can I use a bots and get away with it? Is there any penalty of using bots for up-voting or just pure unfiltered reward? (I need to remind you, that nothing comes without a cost attached).
Where are the morals of using bots ? In a previous post, I had already talk about morals in Steemit, but lets over again.
Steemians want to do a something they like and be rewarded by reaching their set of goals. A lot of people have different reasons for being in Steemit, I am here because I like to write and i need the money, but the many reason there could be, all of those can be resume in Steemians want to live a long successful life. If we use dumb bots too loosely we all going to loose at the end, and yet we can't not use them as of yet.
Now that we put that of out the way, lets go to see what the rules of Steemit.com have to said about using bots.
But before we answer that, we need to answer another question, having a bot most of the time means, having another account, luckily, we have the answer to that question thanks to the FAQ.
Taken from FAQ Am I allowed to create more than one account?
Am I allowed to create more than one account?
Each user is allowed only one paid-for account created via Steemit.com, however users are allowed to create multiple accounts on the blockchain. Creating additional accounts on the blockchain requires users to pay their own account creation fee for any additional accounts.
Now that we know we can have multiple accounts, then let's see what Steemit.com TOS had to said about bots. Taken from Steemit Terms of Service
17 User Conduct
17.1 When accessing or using the Services, you agree that you will not commit any unlawful act, and that you are solely responsible for your conduct while using our Services. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you agree that you will not:
17.1.3 Use any robot, spider, crawler, scraper or other automated means or interface not provided by us to access our Services or to extract data;
So, under TOS 17.1.3 I can use robots only provided by Steemit.com to accesses the Services or extract data.
Does that means that using up-voting bots not provided by Steemit is going against the TOS ? and such actions are penalized and your account can be terminated?
26 Termination
Steemit reserves the right, without notice and in our sole discretion, to terminate your license to access and use Steemit and to block or prevent your future access to, and use of, Steemit.
Well it seems i can't up-voting bots, because the use of unofficial up-voting bots is not allowed
Conclusion
I am do not want to do the job a bot can do for me, so I am in favor of using bots for Steemit.com, nevertheless, i am in favor of bots that could make Steemit.com a better place for us humans to enjoy, but for now, the TOS said we can't use them unless they are an official bot. (Btw a list of official supported bots should be out there too, i invite anyone to posted it in the comments).
Giving a bot a mind capable of doing much more than just voting because they were told to is a must, and allowing the users to judge the bot's performance can make the life of us Steemians a lot better.
Any current bot is far from perfect, but I high hopes for the future.
Do you think bots should not be used at all? Or do you think there is space for bots in Steemit.com? Are afraid of giving them to much more power?
Bots are a great tool for Steemit.com, automation of the world is unavoidable, it can't be stopped, because, it is the future after all, good luck stopping the future, they tried before and failed, nevertheless, we need do it with great care, and we need to learn how to use bot the correct way fast, because, if we are not ready for it, we will be Steemrolled.
Thank you for reading so far, if you are a up-voting bot, please give it a up-vote so I can take a rest.
Very nice article!!! Now, the question of the million dollars, does any have the list of official bots? lol
Following you now @n3mt give a like and comment ;)
PD: My username is @m3mt not @n3mt ahaha xD
I am glad that you like it, I put a lot of effort while writing, as for list of bots I didn't find any, but i think it is only restrictive when using Steemit site and nothing else, as Steemit works over the blockchain there is no problem using bots in that regard.
I wrote this article a month ago and since then I had learned a lot about Steemit in a way making this article help me a lot. I think you should start searching a guide how Steem works, what voting power is, what Steem power (SP) is and Steem dollars are (SBD), there are a lot of guides you would read when you are just starting, the FAQ in right at the top of the list, it will help you grow your blog, Cheers!
Thanks for such a caring response @m3mt, I have been reading a lot about steemit, and understand the huge amount of possible ways to earn money over the blockchain, using bots, if you remember a guide that have been usefull to you, I would be very pleased to read it, if you want to share. Thanks to people like you, other people is making a living. Thank you!!! :D
There are a lot of ways of doing that, investment in the community it is an option, but if you don't have any money to invest, then your next choice is good post and mindful comments.
Follow the people you find helpful, interesting, or put out good content, and try to put comments that increase the value of the post, nevertheless, not everything is peach perfect here, as there is a lot of debate in what makes good post/comment, and everyone has their own point of view of the value of a post anyway.
In my personal opinion learn, copy and then innovate, the three aspects of the humans lives in any field.
very valuable help, thank you so much!
lol sorry!!!
This is a very important topic. I admit I need to read the Steemit ToS more closely.
My question is are they applicable to accessing the Steemit.com front end or the Steem block chain in general. I would imagine the former due to the decentralized nature of the block chain rending enforcement difficult. There are a myriad of programmatic means to access the block chain outside of Steemit.com and think there is a world of usefulness these means provide.
But, of course, with any thing that could be used for good, there are often bad actors that can try and use it for more nefarious uses such as scams and spam. I think there are certainly issues. Maybe it is just that we need to get better at policing our own or perhaps we need something more. Nevertheless, it is a great topic of discussion.
As far as i can understand, the ToS talk about accounts of Steemit and the access Steemit website, of course, they can't ban you from buying steem from bittrex, the question is, can you up-vote post using other websites? Can other people make a clone of Steemit use it? If not, how are so many bots if the ToS don't allow non-official bots then?
Yes. Remember, STEEM is a block chain that exists independent of the Steemit.com front-end. There are other front ends that provide functionality with the block chain for instance steemthat.com, busy.org, dmania, dtube (for videos) and many more. Steemit.com may have been the first and the official front end but it is no longer the only one which in my opinion is a great thing.
Competition is a good thing and also good from a steem high availability perspective. Prime example, there had been a massive DDoS attack that was launched against Steemit.com earlier this year that lasted for maybe a week. Services were intermittent at best during this time unless of course you were using an alternative front end.
For me, the main alternative I have really used is the esteem mobile app. But as for bots, there are many l and I mean many user created bots. It only takes a bit of JavaScript or Python to get one created. I haven't really heard of any crackdowning if this.
I see, I had seen the post of beni the other day and in the comments there where a lot of complains about bots, but if there is not a central location, there can't be a crack down on bots unless everyone agrees to it. Btw where I can get the mobile app? I am using the web from my phone after all.
I believe it is available on the Google play store for Android. Not sure if there is an Apple version.
The topic is interesting, the bots are good or bad? Can they be used or not? It is confusing especially when a bot is the one that welcomes you, of authentic material, of prizes, hello follow me, and all of you they vote for you post, I think that the bots are really necessary in the world we live, and as you say good luck stopping the future XD.
I know right, i even thought bots were "ok" ground, but after reading the TOS i was not that sure anymore, that's why i made the topic.
Thanks, resteemed. But, how do i know if I'm dealing with a bot or if it is a steemit bot?
I actually don't know the official bot list for steemit right now, in the FAQ there are mentions of upvoting bots and so on.
thanks, will look it up. btw, the faq link you posted gives 'page doesn't exist'
Oh. i will fix that right away