I accept your apology.
I apologize for any negativity I sent in your direction.
Conflict resolution at its finest.
I think I see clearer now the gap between myself and yourself.
If I may be so bold as to say, you are seeing things as they are, and, I am seeing things as they could/should be.
This forum, imho, is for humans to interact with other humans.
Currently, I see bots, as they currently operate, as a hinderance to this.
Lemme try to explain, but first let me thank you for using analogy, truly the wisest form of communication.
Let's extract ourselves from the steem platform a little bit. In our real life(not online) we have wants and desires, and, to achieve those wants and desires often times it takes money. We collect this money in small pools so we can dip in whenever we want or need.
For purchases that are beyond our pools means we can go to a bank and ask for a loan. Let's say the bank provides the funds and the desire/want is experienced. After the experience comes time to pay the loan back WITH interest(usury). We spend more money keeping banks in business than we receive in experience/desires/wants.
This is how the world works currently. Why?
Because we gave our right to print our own currency to a private banking cartel. We have lost our ability to set ourselves free, to create prosperity, signed away by only a few senators on December 23, 1913(Federal Reserve Act). Since then the interest rates have only increased while the value of our money has decreased, by nearly 96%.
I see a new future coming into focus now. Where banks are no longer allowed to make money off lending people their own money. In biblical times this common practice today was called usury. We are not that far away from realizing we, as a collective, have been lied to, stolen from, and literally imprisoned in an open air facility we call home(financial prisoners).
Now what the crap does this have to do with my post?
Banks, through their own shaded and unworthy practices, have cornered the market on currency creation and distribution. Placing themselves between We The People and accessing true Freedom.
I see upvote bots as this same entity. Bots who have used whatever means to garner more power in the steem platform, then sell that power back to real humans, but at a price(usury).
I am seeing a Steemit platform where bots are still allowed to function more or less as they are currently but with reduced capacity to influence the steem market(curation trail) for their benefit. I see bots as ATMs and not CO-Habitants in the Steemiverse.
I see bots who sell upvotes then spam the authors content with advertisement as mis-using this potentially great platform. The entire idea of curation is so that humans will interact with other humans, but, for the right price, one can purchase success and influence on the steem platform.
I'm an idealist. I see what is and what could be and comment on the vacuum that separates. Currently what is separating Steem from far and wide adoption is, imho, the unregulated upvote Bot market. We as a collective need to reel their collective power in, or, as I see it, steem will crack and crumble because no real content is being curated, just those with the money to make it happen. I am one of these people currently, because that's just how things are.
Like I said previously, I don't spend my time flagging accounts. If you look through my posts I have used bots on almost all of them with no flags.
The reason I flagged those on this post is to prove a point that UpVote Bots are NOT curating the posts they upvote, the antithesis to curation, totally undermining the worth in Steem. They are not curating the site, they are accumulating its value and selling it back to the real authors.
I have a tendency to be very verbose. I'm hungry... Hope you brought a snack.
I agree with you - on everything. But I believe there's a reason almost everyone ends up using bots: lack of options.
There is no "groups" function on steemit or any other means to reach out to good authors and commenters to say "hey, my content is good too, can you guys look at it"?
No, we're forced to spend money on bot votes and resteems to get visibility. We really don't have any other option at the moment.
I do have an idea: have some people act as groups, where there are "chat" posts. The post content itself could be nothing but i.e. "Friends of Joys Daily Chat', where everyone comments to talk about something.
The bad in this is the chat posts gets really messy. But we could create a new account specifically for a group chat, no regular posts.
The challenge of this idea is having to explain to people the comments in this group-chat-posts are meant to be used for small talk and get them to try it.
Still, I believe this would be better than off-site chats because a lot of people don't want to use a program or app they're not comfortable with, so it would unite everyone.
This is the best I've got to address this issue. Let me know what you think about it, please!
I have had similar ideas, only recently. I was once apart of a chat room who's moderator would reward people for meaningfully participating in the chat with free dogecoin. The chat room was small only about 10 participants on average. But, if I may marry that experience I had with your idea, then, I think it has some legs.
The steemit chat room would have to be moderated and those who participate meaningfully would have to find worth in participating. A reward system of SBD/Steem distribution would be very attractive. Especially to new and lower ranking steemers.
As I experienced in the dogecoin chat, those who had long winded responses were often ignored(that was me at first). After I refined my style, I started receiving regular rewards for participating in the chat.
If there were a way to reward chatters with SBD or Steem or UpVotes or Curation in real time, this is where the idea would have appeal.
I just saw in my head movies, the chat could be an extrapolation of a common post, only in real time. The moderator could post a topic and perhaps a couple paragraph contextual basis. Then, those who can participate in the chat will gain access by upvoting the post(at 100%), then all replies will be logged as comments on the post/chat. The moderator(s) would give up votes to comments that make sense, and could reward individuals with SBD/Steem for elevating the discussion.
I have a little bit of coding experience no where near enough to construct what I see in my head.