I've opted out because I honestly don't believe in them as a matter of principle. Something greasy about my having money to employ vote buying to put my post above someone else who may not when it's not strictly about quality.
It's not just greasy. It's GRE-HE-HE-HEASY!
But I can hear what you're saying about letting the shameless walk away with all of it themselves. It's rather tempting but I cannot go against my own conscience on the matter.
I started a program to hopefully curb the overvalued post issue through incentivized flags but it's still in the process of getting hammered out. Personally, there's enough reason to go after bid botted blockchain diarrhea more than anything else. I dream of a whale setting up an anti-bid bot. I absolutely hate what bid bots have done to this platform.
I respect that a lot. There's too few people of principle, but really THAT is what should actually matter!
Anyways, I have made my peace with buying votes (though, yes, it does still feel a bit filthy) as it is part of the current economy. And really, if "the shameless" are left to it by themselves, they'll be the ones gaining influence and power to shape this community... and THAT is the real danger here.
I believe there is an ethical way of trading votes, if it is done transparently, without skewing the organic discovery too much and with reasonable caps and quality standards. I hope some bot-operators will see this eventually, they are the ones who can and must use their power responsibly.
We can't really blame minnows trying to make a buck and get seen. But bot operators tolerating hundred dollar upvotes on shitty reposted memes and stolen facebook pictures, that's what needs to stop!
If you're investing in promotion of your product (your content), it's not some sort of sin. It's not objectively good or bad. I would assume that most people who spend money to promote low-quality products will eventually get weeded out.
Exactly!
People act like it some sort of sin to PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCT! That's what steemit is! It's you, promoting yourself (the product) with the idea of gaining some $$ for your time.
I hope the people complaining about this NEVER watch TV, as it's full of companies PAYING for ADVERTISING! They are filling a service that you pay for already with spam! But hey, have to watch my shows, and stuff...
It's no different than paid votes on steemit.
I couldn't stand paid adverts on TV, so I canceled it, and got netflix. If you don't like someone posting spam, USE THE HIDE BUTTON FOLKS! and let them waste their money.
I sure hope so, too... but it wouldn't hurt if voting bot operators tried to have some sort of guidelines and abuse prevention