Hi, @briancourteau.
I have used up-voting bots in the past and have had no problems with the one's you have mentioned in your post.
there is a few things I do know from reading about bots and if it helps I will share this with you.
Most bots (not all) are bid to vote bots, this means that when you pop your sbd on to a post you want up-voting and other people have done the same it takes the % of the vote down.
so if i send 1.00 sbd and you only do 0.250 then I would get 75% of the up-vote to my post. the bots have only so much power so when too many people use the bots it depleats the amount been paid out. so if there is only $20 to share between 10 people this would be done also on a % so some might only get cents back.
the best thing to do is check with steem bot tracker as it tells you all you need to know about every bot.
People who have been black listed from bots, I have read that they have tried to either up-vote posts that are spam or copywrite, this I believe is to keep the rewards from going to people who have not made the posts them selves.
I also have read that bots run on servers, I know the people who run them have got access to see whats been asked to be up-voted on, but if they are getting loads of people using the service this would take a lot of reading.
some bots keep the sbd that are been used to up-vote spam posts as a donation, This might not seem fair, but this is so that said person can not use the sbd to up vote using a different bot.
at the moment my steem power is with @brandonfrye he has done videos explaining how his bot works and I have given him 450 steem.
I feel like he is doing his bit for steemit as some of the rewards go to helping new steemians.
I am sorry for the essay and I hope this helps you understand a little better.
Use steembottracker.com and use your sbd on bots that have the best pay out % wise and you should make some sbd and steem on your posts.
All the best @artonmysleeve
I understand about the power of votes but bot paying at all or refunding or returning messages is not cool to me. I will watch a video thank you from your friend. I suffer from cancer and honestly in thre future may need this SBD to help. I am terminal and my wife @lynncoyle1 and I love Steemit. Love the friends we have made. The bots just yesterday really upset me. I try to get some extra so I can grow my account. I am not here to make alot more to keep me occupied. So honestke I liked your essay LOL.
Sorry to hear about your illness, this sucks on so many levels and i have lost family and friends to it, and its about time cancer came to an end. if they can put a man on the moon nearly 50 years ago they must know now how to stop/treat cancer to help the people of the world. (but I also think the government/medical get a lot of money for people having it)
I am a big lover of steemit too, I am on here more than I was on any other social media site.
I have found that using bots I loose money really by up-voting my posts and made more from powering up my steem using sbd's. then when I up-vote my own work this then increases the value of my account.
I watched the video that I suggested in my last comment and it changed my mind about using bots, it made me think that if I invested in them instead of using them i would make more money, at the moment I am making more from the bot paying me than I am for my posts them selves.
I have a good following and I get some cool up-votes from dolphins and whales sometimes but I have a steady income from the bot.
I'm getting aprox 0.200 sbd and 0.050 steem a day from the bot using my power. this is about 35%apr paid back to me. and when my accounts even more powerful I will be increasing the power to them some more as I can see better things coming my way from using them.
addressing the bot situation, I think that may be a program fault then, I have been reading that it depends on what they are set to. maybe if you pop into steemit chat and talk to the mods in there they could help you.
thanks my friend. I just saw what you sent me. I am so grateful. You are good man and hopefully we can connect more. thank you so very much
your welcome. :)