If you want my two cents as a content creator about this platform, I won't hold back.
All bid bots must disappear completely from this platform. Full stop.
When I first got here, it was obvious that the trending feed was manipulated with poor effect. One sentence posts with a gif of a dancing turd earning $300... Come on!
These guys have over 30% of the steem rewards pool locked up in a never ending cycle of self upvote rings with various other bot accounts, anyone can see it in a week. Then they leave. Understandable when the content creator spends hours on their next piece for it to consequently get 5 cents tops!
I think HF20 was pretty damning for new accounts (which is complex enough to get your head around but then people can't post comments after their RC has run out).
I also believe HF21 is going to see another exit of what content creators were left after HF20 with potential author rewards dropping by up to 42%.
Just hard fork the bid bots out and then that trending feed would be filled with varied content that would excite the outside world but it's just the same steem related boring stuff that no one understands if you aren't a developer! SMTs... Who cares? Where's the travel posts, music posts, fictional writers, latest current affairs news and reviews, funny original videos... Nowhere to be seen.
That's why people don't stay.
Thanks for the tag in a comment thread with @raj808 and I appreciate the support as well.
Why do I stay? Because I want to develop my blogging, writing and video skills in the communities I'm in here. The reason I joined in the first place to earn something from writing and music and learn a few new tricks. And it's something I do on the side of my job (or when I had one before travelling) so it's not my sole income, which I'm not planning on taking out for a while either.
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Thanks for joining the discussion. In theory HF21 should make bots less attractive as you will get less of the rewards from their vote, whilst they would make even more. From what I have seen buying votes for 'promotion' does not generally work unless you get on the first page of trending. I see posts with $50 in paid votes, but no real comments. The author may only make $2 from that, but the bot wins from selling the vote and curation.
I will get behind projects that support real content. My @tenkminnows account is part of that and you should get more votes via it now. I want creative people to stick around, but I have limited power to help. I don't care that much how I make for myself as I've done okay so far.
I hope that theory comes true then. I have to admit, I don't know how the process of bid bots work, just see the effect of them from the trending page and comments thread. Like you said, there aren't really any comments or interaction on those trending posts. I get more engagement on some of mine so I guess it depends on what's important to those that use them.
Thanks for putting me on the 10k minnows support. I'm personally trying to be smarter with the steem I get from post payouts. I've been using steembasicincome but slowing down on that so I start to see some of the return I put in. Otherwise, when hf21 hits, I'll be trying to grow by even more curation.
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I don't disagree with any of what you're saying here Nik.
The only thing is that I don't think it's possible to HF bidbots out of steem unless you get rid of delegation outright. That's my understanding of it anyway. As a dolphin who just wants to create content on here, and reward good content I enjoy I'd be fine to see delegation go. But I don't think most people would tbh. But I do agree with this statement 100%
I think the only way it will happen though is to make them less profitable to delegate to than legitimate projects or curation guilds.
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Then let's hope the changes in HF 21 can deter people from using them.
If they can't go then I'd like to see them change their tack and work with manual curation initiatives to make the best use of the sheer voting power those bid bot accounts have and support content chosen by manual curation folks. Can you imagine the difference that would make. Curation rewards alone with 50/50 coming in would be staggering and it would benefit everyone.
The trending feed would look good with real world content and it would be varied.
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The Palnet trending page is a little better as it is not controlled by bots.
I'll definitely be using palnet a lot more. I am mainly on the go via Partiko on steem which uses the steemit trending page I believe. Ib have faith that it will get better though. At least things are being tried out 🙂
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Delegation is a powerful tool on Steem and too valuable to give up. I delegate to lots of people, but not to the big bots. 50/50 author/curation rewards should make buying votes less attractive. Some bots do have some ethics and operate blacklists for abusers, but there are enough who do not and cause problems. It will be interesting to see if they survive HF21. I am sure they will try to find other ways to make money.