I certainly respect everyone's opinion on this, but personally (and it looks like I'm not alone in this), I don't consider it spam at all, and I think @transparencybot is providing a service. I would like to know if a post has been boosted, and if so, by how much. I am much more concerned about the spam that hits our front pages because of the wrong people boosting their stuff, and what impression that gives to high quality writers who may want to join us. If the bot owners are proud of what they do and the people who boost them don't see anything wrong with doing so, then I don't see what's wrong with their work being out there in the open for everyone to see. Maybe a good compromise would be for @transparencybot to offer users the ability to opt out, the same way @qurator allows users to opt out of comments notifying members of what tier they are? That way, if people feel that their blogs are being spammed, they have the option to have their preferences respected.
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