They call them "promotion bots". They say it's advertising. Because of that terminology, the moment one of those bots is used, the post becomes a form of advertising. A promotion. Paid programming. You can call it whatever you want. The slot was purchased. The post isn't here because it was receiving high ratings and high ratings are what gives content trending status. The people here were duped into viewing an advertisement.
This post is an unmarked advertisement. You can pick apart little pieces of what I said and twist things and do whatever you want. I won't be changing my mind.
According to your logic, any content in a paid slot is advertisement, but your problem is that you only consider paid, what is transparently bought. How do you think that the trending page got to be filled with shit in the first place before vote bots?????
Think hard....
Because not all vote services are transparent, there are shadow vote markets in steemit, and you know it. What you are defending are those shadow vote markets and the circlejerk, you are defending the status-quo while pretending to defend virtue.
I find that contemptible.
This is not an unmarked advertisement, its a post with bought votes, and its clearly marked as such, it is the other posts on trending that are unmarked promoted posts with shady crony vote markets.
I am not defending that. As a matter of fact I didn't bring that up, you did.
What I'm talking about, is what I said. Sure, I have views on other things as well, but you don't know what those are, because I'm not talking about other things right now.
You can keep trying to pick out little pieces here and there with the hopes of discrediting everything I said, but that won't change anything.
I still believe what I believe and I think you're just going to have to deal with that.
I do believe there are solutions as well.
Labeling promotions as promotions would be a step in the right direction. Even I would feel comfortable writing up a genuine promotion, spending money, and promoting some of my previous work and future intentions if the approach wasn't misleading new members into thinking my work is where it is because it's popular. Popular posts belong on the trending page. Promotions belong on the promoted page. There's nothing stopping a blogger here from promoting their work and linking that promotion inside their blog with a banner placed within their regularly scheduled material. They could still get views on their promotions if they knew what they were doing.
Right now, people are using promotion bots, placing X amount of rewards beside their posts, and blending in with the rest of the post that have X amount of rewards beside them. That might as well be zero because that's how much it's helping people. I can look at a post with $50, 8 votes, 4 views and know exactly why nobody is looking. If I was to purchase votes to boost my posts, do you really think all of these people who haven't voted for my work over the past year and a half would suddenly have a change of heart?
Honestly though, saying something like, "I don't support THIS so that MUST mean I support THAT," is so damn ridiculous that I can't even figure out why I'm speaking to you right now.
What is your next move? More spin? I came here to say what I said, not argue with people about nonsense.