Sort of happy to see this post @aggroed, so thanks.
I do agree with the sentiment "what if using a bidbot wasn't stigmatized?" I think that might go some way towards addressing people's concerns.
The other thing that comes to mind is that this is (or is TRYING to be) a "social" site. Which suggests interaction, connecting with other people's content. Which leads me to... people might be less anti-bidbot if more people used them to reward others, rather than just "take for themselves." The whole idea of "social" suggests (at least to me) that something is about *community," but currently bidbots are only used in a "it's all for ME" context. What if people were more encouraged to use bidbots as a tool to reward OTHERS who create excellent content, not just themselves?
It could even be taken further... I don't know if this could be coded into the way the bots work... to where if someone sends a bot 1 SBD for their OWN benefit the upvote is worth "X" amount, but if they send it to benefit someone else, the vote is worth "2X." And yes, people "could just create multiple accounts," but it still might make a dent.
I guess my point is that excess use of bidbots seems to de-emphasize content and makes everyone just worry about ROI.
that's harder since i'll just send money to an alt and use that to upvote me. There are work arounds to that.