great conversation to have and it will be interesting to come back in a hour and see what people have to say.
I dont use bot, but I never say never. Coming from a social media background the do add an element of 'social proof' by increasing the payout....although this type of social proof is found upon on other platforms. it could be compared to buying reviews on a product you sell on amazon.
However where there is demand there will be supply and the bot owners are fulfilling a need. One must remember, the bot owner is here in a 'business capacity' . They want to make money. Will someone favor a bidbot that is 'socially ethical'? Do you make sure you clothes were not made in a sweat shop before you bought them?
Inappropriate use - sometimes it seems to me that anything that make your post a high earner will be deemed as some as inappropriate. what gets to me most is the double standards. Ifs its okay for the big fish, then it should be okay for the smaller fish right?
Quality Content - this really depends. I have my tastes as does each of us. I think the use of apps will help with this a little such as zappl for tweet like content and steepshot for photos. I think with utopian, post made here do not make it to trending or hot on steemit.com - if everyone would post via the right app for their content type and leave steemit.com for bloggers and authors, content would be found a lot easier. Obviously spam and copied content is not quality