If we're right, and pay-per-vote is harmful to the platform, then those bots are on a self-destruct course.
Well, I'm not sure if a bot is able to kill itself :-) It's on us to eleminate what we don't want to have on this platform and push the whole network into the direction where we want to see it.
Someone will take care of it doesn't really work in a decentralized system. We're all in charge :-)
That's why I wrote this article and that's why I'm happy to read soooo many reactions here!
There's a place for persuasion, and it's certainly good to exchange ideas about these topics, but in the end the marketplace either works or it doesn't. I'm a big believer in spontaneous order and emergent behavior, which by its very nature can't be planned or directed. If Steem's incentives only work when people behave in the way that we think they should, then Steem has deeper problems than pay-per-vote.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should just shut up and mind our own business. While I believe that market incentives will eventually sort this out, I also don't really want to ride Steem down to $.07 again while that happens, so I do recognize the need for persuasive posts like this, as well as other emergent phenomena that might arise and act to protect our account values.
All I'm saying is that I don't think that dedicating steem power to pay-per-vote bots is a long term winning strategy for SP holders, and eventually market punishment will constrain the behavior.