Hey @aksounder! Yeah Luke was one of the first witnesses I followed. He's a fellow middle Tennessean, so I commented on his posts and talked about the eclipse we both experienced. I knew he had a high reputation, but I didn't really get the whole witness thing for awhile. If I can tell you a secret, I still don't really get ALL of it. haha
The upvoting bots are a mixed bag. I have utilized them, and may continue to do so. The way I look at it is I am taking my liquid SBD and investing it in having a higher upvote on my post, which hopefully means more eyes. In that sense, I am investing in myself in an attempt to gain visibility. At the end of the day, I'd rather have eyes on my content than the value of the upvote.
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the reward system. I probably wouldn't be here without the promise of rewards, but good content and eyes on that content will lead to rewards. I've stopped using most of the voting services unless I have something that is a couple of days old that I really feel is undervalued. But at this point, I want people to find my content on their own and appreciate it for its own sake, not because other people have voted on it. Shrug
If you are interested in the voting bots and how they work I have seen several articles people have done comparing the different services. None of them really delve into the legitimacy of the service, it's just kind of accepted at this point. But you can at least learn more about them and pick your poison with more knowledge. haha
Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out our article!
I'll have to look up an article like that; it would help to know a little more about the different options out there. That's a good way of putting it too: not for the upvote, more for the exposure. And if I choose not to use them because my thoughts on the steemit platform, it doesn't mean I look down on someone who does. I know we want all the help we can get to grow influence here, I just don't know enough about these bots yet to conclude using them won't contribute to the abuse of our system.