This is a hotly debated subject which many feel very passionate about, and for good reason.
I have both studied and partaken of bot voting out of interest and curiosity, and I will say from the outset that it's not for me, but that doesn't mean necessarily that I disapprove.
First of all, nobody is really making pots of money from voting bots - that of course isn't to say that a lot of money isn't going through bots, because it is, but for those of you who object to bots from a 'creative' point of view, I fully understand, as I too spend time and care creating blogs and see votes and cash return as validation and reward for my effort. I think presently, those who object to bots do so on this basis, or at least this is the reasoning. I have also read many who suggest it is detrimental to the steemit platform both creatively and financially.
Steemit is a peculiar platform, it is neither wordpress, facebook or a mining/trading platform - steemit is peculiar to steemit, I feel that for those who want to create, like myself, then the reward is the feedback and the comments, and yes of course any financial rewards that come my way, but really the comments and community are my priority and the reason I log on to Steemit. It is easy to mistake financial reward for impact or presence, or endorsement. I would ask you to consider, what validates your work better - one vote worth 5 SBD, or 50 votes from your followers worth 0.5 SBD.
For the creative bloggers, I see no problem as they will get their validation, they will develop followers and ranking and will do well, for those who want to support those creative bloggers, then there is nothing that stops you doing that, and voting bots in no way prevent that from developing, and so please do support those members.
For those who want to invest in steemit and see it as a cash platform, I think that's fine also - people buy steem for just this reason and add value to the platform. People who are otherwise inactive for whatever reason may also delegate to bots which also adds value to the platform.
Those who choose to play the self vote/bot game, I feel are welcome to take their chances, we may hold up examples of accounts trending due to self voting, but its a gamble. I witnessed one account put three separate 20SBD votes on three separate bots, all of which went negative before closing, the bidder lost more than 40 SBD in one hit, but of course we don't highlight these instances, but they occur all day long - as many are 'winning' as are 'losing' by self voting via bots.
The only way to ensure making any profit from bots, is to be logged in, present at your keyboard and study and vote carefully over a long time to minimise losses and maximise profits - in other words you would have to slip into the super user category, which inevitably adds value to the steemit platform.
In conclusion, I think we need to consider only what is good and bad for the platforms survival and function, after all if the platform does not survive, then everyone loses, and for this reason, I see no room for any sort of functionality policing or functionality politics on steemit. As I said earlier, steemit is not facebook or twitter or whatever, it is steemit, which is primarily a crypto currency run block chain platform, and is not positioning itself for advertising. Block chain technology is only validated by its functionality or extended functionality.
To police the functionality of a crypto platform, providing the code falls within the law, is to undermine one of the principles of crypto currency uptake.
And so, I feel people need to be careful what they wish for. Is damage really being done to anything more than the ego by voting bots, or is the platform itself being damaged by this functionality. If it's the latter, then I would suggest presenting a sound statistical case for this, which includes new user and user retention stats regarding this functionality. I would suggest that this would not be possible at this early stage, so once again, I would not be so quick to limit functionality until we have such an understanding. We seem to be prematurely limiting an aspect of steemits functionality with no sound reasoning. Steemit has barely learnt to walk, lets not be so eager to chain its progress.
I have seen a few blogs now threatening to flag the accounts of voting bots and their users, I think this is unfair and discriminatory, unless those doing so have sound reason based on blog content to do so. Steemit also provides paid for self promotion tools, should they also be banned, after all there really is little difference from a contractual point of view. And then where might we go, ban perhaps steemits affiliation with DTube because someone disagrees with someones video content or politics or what have you.
I managed to make the trending list once many months ago, without the help of voting bots, and I was very pleased with myself for having done so. My work was validated, and my post was legitimately rewarded with votes comments and a financial reward from users that appreciated my blog. If there are those that want to do so with self voting, then I feel they should be free to do so, I'm sure they won't feel the same sort of satisfaction, but it troubles me not one bit, as long as they are being satisfied in some way, then this adds value to the platform, and unless someone has a sound platform based reason to suggest otherwise, I don't see how anyone else should be concerned either.
Envy is reason for nothing.
I endorse and support freedom of functionality on steemit.
Really interesting and thought provoking @shelbi. I have/had not given too much real thought to the voting bots. Like you, I have used them - not often - to get some traction. With some success, but not huge because I was nervous. However, since joining a couple of discord servers, particularly #steemit bloggers, I get much more engagement. I may still use a bot if I have a post that I think might have broader interest than just my little community and its ripple effect.
@fionasfavourites
Ty @fionasfavourites - Yes I had mixed feelings, but on reflection, I see no harm. I know people have strong feelings about this functionality, I just feel its a shame that people feel the need to be so disrespectful to those who enjoy or make use of this functionality. Each to their own I suppose :)
I completely agree with you. It's unfortunate that people cannot agree to differ and have the "it's my way or the highway" attitude.
:)