I am all three. I think all of us who stick with steemit become all three after a time, even if it is only time one has contributed. I have contributed time and money. I personally do not use bid bots. I tried twice and lost money both times, even when one bid bot guaranteed I wouldn't.
That said ... steemit is much more democratic about feed space than any other major social media platform I am aware of. I choose my personal feed and I see everyone who posts in my feed ... if this is not true than please enlighten me. With other social media platforms, you have to pay to even get in a significant portion of your followers feeds. I have almost three thousand followers on my FB like page and not even hundred people see a post and more often a lot less than that. Even with bid bots dominating the trending page, we can still get seen a lot easier on steemit than any other platform and we get paid for providing content, even if it is nominally. Steemit is by yards a better functioning social media platform for the everyday user than any I have come across. All those other platforms are certainly pay for play, full of trolls, and a fake followers. At least on steemit, things are a great deal more transparent, or becoming so.
I would like to see more transparency where bots are concerned and I would like it to be possible to make the trending page without paying for it or bot voting yourself. But I agree banning bid bots would not be a wise economical choice. I think the bots need regulating though and done by a watchdog with some teeth. Like with a publicly traded corporation, there needs to be someone watching out for the smaller investors. It is all about balance.
By the by ... I'd give you my witness vote:):):)
This is true. Even if you're unable to invest with money, can can invest with your time and energy. Or you can invest with everything you've got! :) That's a great point.
And you're right; I've also got a FB business page and in order for any of my following to see my posts I need to promote (pay for) that post in order for it to gain any traction. I find that to be soo backwards. And with Steemit you can build your following and know that they'll see you're post (as long as they log in from time to time). Luckily, our algorithm doesn't censor our content in that way. And.. luckily the platform was built to reward users instead of the creators.
And as far as upvote bots go, I use them pretty regularly, but not for profit. If I get a profit then that's great. But my ultimate goal with using bots is to gain recognition (or viewership) and possibly gain a few followers. It's worked very well for me. But there are people who try to use them just for instant profit motives. To each their own I suppose.
And thank you!! If I do decide to setup a witness server I'll definitely let everybody know. It's not completely off the table.. but I'm just not sure yet. :)