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Bots already reap the pool, if they were guaranteed payouts there would be no end of them.

Ah, ok. Why not just kill all the automatic newb delegations from @steem?

If new accounts started with ZERO steem-power, wouldn't that solve the problem?

Steemit could be "invite only", like fa.cebuk (and a few others) when it first started (you'd need a sponsor).

Why not just kill all the automatic newb delegations from @steem?

No rc's, no posts.
They have to have some delegation to even vote.
We have invites now, nobody is getting viral signups.

Honestly, we have plowed most of this ground in the first year.

No rc's, no posts.

Maybe if the newb delegation expired after 30 days that would cut down on the exploit?

What would help is the community making a welcome wagon to vet accounts.
It takes vigilance because behaviors change without notice.
Steemcleaners and SFR have stepped up into that role.

Right now it is hard on the newbs because of the tax on low sp votes.
I haven't gotten good answers to my questions about that, and it leads me to be suspicious.

When i got here, newbs did not matter in the math until much higher sp amounts.
It is better now, afaik.

Stinc does keep an eye on accounts and lowers the delegation as sp grows.
'Soon' there might be a fork to make rc pools which will let the newbs comment, but their votes will be even dustier.

What would help is the community making a welcome wagon to vet accounts.

That's why I was thinking "invite only".

If I invite (or adopt) a newb, I want to make sure they're actually posting stuff and are willing to engage in some level of conversation and not just upvoting or just downvoting all the time.

If an existing user has to delegate to the newbs (no automatic delegation) then they're more likely to cancel the delegation if that newb doesn't act like a person.

Also, if you want sock-puppets, then you have to fund them yourself, which sort of defeats the purpose...

Right, we can do that now, but most of us don't.

Most of us are misfits that don't have like minded friends.

Explaining steem to folks requires they want to learn, and those are few and far between, atp.
Fedbook is much easier and has all their friends already signed in.

The best we can do is steem on, that even looks likely to end in ashes at this point.