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RE: Steem Experience Hangout: Let's Talk about Paid Voting Bots...

in #dsound6 years ago

Sorry, to disagree, but it isn't advertising. Because 1. It's not labeled as advertising, which is a legal requirement, in most cases, for advertisement, so it gains more legitimacy. 2. It's not just causing issues with the trending tab, it's undermining the entire proof of brain concept. Is this the will of the community issuing these rewards? 3. The bots themselves are earning profit from the reward pool in something similar to laundering money. They don't face any real opposition or the possibility of downvotes, they collect before the post goes up. Sure, we can penalize their users, if we could all agree, but the whales already have their profits. As to you "taking back" the page by pooling money, how does that work? You're just increasing the gap between those who are low on the pole and those at the top.

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That's it isn't it - people talk about how much of the reward pool is allocated by bots, but really, the bots are allocating it to themselves and the accounts who have delegated to them. So there's a sense where the proof of brain concept is undermined twice.

You are right, unless a bot account posts anything, you can't downvote it. And even if they did post, and you did downvote them, this wouldn't directly alter the profit they are making from selling their votes. It might reduce demand for their services though, as a lower reputation bot can't improve the reputation of accounts that buy votes from it. Who would take that sort of action though? The potential of a retaliatory 100% downvote from some of these bots would be enough to make many people think twice before flagging them.

YASS! Someone bring this man a prize. You sir understand it completely. It's like money laundering. And the poor bastard who bought the votes, feels okay with his pittance of profit, because he thinks slowly he's gaining ground, which would have been true,if the whales played by the rules and earned by the proof of brain mining procedure, because, unless they invested more, they'd be limited in their income. So, when "someone" complains about "someone" making top profits off of ten posts per day, while his bot is earning that much every hour and a half, it's all smoke and mirrors, my friend!

FYI, someone started an account that left a messages on posts indicating how much had been spent buying upvotes for them - its been heavily downvoted by a few bots, and at least one bot-owner. Yes, it was super-spammy, but I don't see anyone else flagging them. The worst thing? I don't dare name names - even posting this here is taking a risk.

A little scary that the checks and balances aren't present here. Reminds me of Police retaliation from reporting their misconduct. Seems like the basis of this platform isn't being supported as the bots are potentially more powerful than the community.

Because it's a pyramid that feeds steemit Inc.
Why would they add checks and balances...
Derail the money train... are you crazy?

Promise I'm not crazy. ;) Maybe I'm missing something here but it doesn't feel ethical.

Nah you're not crazy. You're good to be so aware of the reality around you.
It's not to say that this is hopeless though. On the contrary. It needs more genuine players like yourself that DO bring real hope for those in the depths that seek to look up to individuals who are here for the right reasons.

Are you serious ?? Just because it's not labeled as such it means that it's not ?? So if i were to label a curtain as a lightbulb for example, would it mean from now on that it is a lightbulb just because i labeled it to be that way? And labelling isn't a thing, of consens, it's 2 or 3 people agreeing for a name and the herd has to follow. And since when what is legal is actually a proof of a thing being good or legitimate about it's properties and results? Alcohool is legal, it doesn't mean it's the right way to be; especially when so many drink and drive (that to name the most common negative things of this being legal); also many herbs are labelled illegal when their healing properties are absolute proven to be good. Cannabis for example; just because it's illegal (in many countries now as it started to legalise here & there) doesn't mean it's bad for you.

What i'm trying to say is that advertisement is bad. You only advertise something when it's not that great and you want to acquire audience to sell it and make a profit. If the product would be that good, it wouldn't require advertising at all. Let's take Tesla for example. I have used bots personally quite a few times and then i felt dirty of myself, kinda bad about me and about my post. Is like after masturbating, you have that mmbleah feeling and you go wash yourself. Make good content and let that grow, otherwise is just money laundering and other pittyful actions and behaviours one undertakes. That's why societies (all of them) are so degraded in the present day; because of people with that type of comfortable thinking, that is okay to be a bit outside the ethics cause it's a good way of living more comfortable. Haish..

No, you're missing the point entirely. Advertising is something that can be bought or sold. The person selling it owns whatever promotional vehicle they rent to the buyer, such as a billboard. Advertising is not bad, it's a service, but when things are advertised, you know it's an ad. For instance, an ad showing you that canned goods are on special at the grocery store. You would buy them anyway, but knowing where to get them cheaply will help you decide. But this method would be like a celebrity that has pull in a restaurant taking your money to get you a table,then rather than pay the waiter himself to get you that table, he goes into the restaurant and takes a little from everyone else, keeps your money and gives the money from the others to you (reward pool share drops for everyone as other rewards rise)