[Attention] : Going against the current with BuddyUP?
Exposure
I've been considering a few things today after reading multiple articles about vote buying. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the vote bots and how people are using them for horrendous content and being paid ridiculous amounts for it. I think that's wrong, but I don't necessarily have any plans to do anything about it. I don't have a voice in this.
Instead, I'm going to start using vote bots for BuddyUP. I am going to plan to have a post every week that follows these guidelines and its main purpose is to:
1. Bring more users to the community who will benefit from the BuddyUP system.
2. Spread our name around so more people know what we are about.
3. Add all the additional earnings from the vote buying to our SP so we can reward our members further.
Are we going to have a problem?
Is this totally against your morals? Do you believe that we are going in the wrong direction with this? Let me know below. I'll take on board all feedback and I'll discuss this with you all in the BuddyUP server; as well as on Friday when we have our introductory show for Drop in the Ocean.
I believe that vote buying is an important tool, for those of us who need to use it for our communities to help their growth. I'm not prepared to let BuddyUP get thrown under the bus if we don't find another way to get our name out there. We have come too far to be drowned out by bad quality content and people who aren't here for the support and growth of all of us here on the platform.
I'll be making all the votes from my account and I'll hopefully start this in the next week or so. Am I worried about flags? Not at all, I'm doing this for the BuddyUP community. My reputation is with you guys, not those on the outside looking who think that they have a right to flag us for trying to help other members of the platform out.
As I said before, leave your feedback below and we can have a discussion about this. It's important that we do and I'm open to all criticisms, good and bad.
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It's not wrong if you are voting on good content, but like you say, poor content gets rewarded heavily and it's not fair for those out there genuinely trying to make good content and having it overlooked and lost in the depths very quickly. I will speak to you more on discord about this, I have no issue personally and believe that I create good content, sometimes feel a little hard done on the post earnings, but then again I am still relatively new to the scene and can't expect to run before i can walk...
I'll be the first to admit that I have used bots for my project accounts as well, but it does conflict with my stance on bots.
Voting bots (since they are going to exist anyway because enough people won't band together against them) are best used to reward other people's content beyond what one can do with their own upvote.
It still violates the intended spirit of this platform to give yourself rewards, for any reason. Getting a project or blog up and running is difficult, but that doesn't mean we should find shortcuts to make it easier, throwing our morals to the side.
Integrity is standing your ground when things get tough, and everyone else seems to be getting ahead by taking the easy route. It would say a lot about BuddyUP to use bots only to reward, and let the growth come from that generosity.
I totally see where you are coming from and I have debated how it will stand against our morals.
I have only used smartsteem in very small amounts (0.25 SBD a post), on some content. My reason for choosing to make a post every week fr BuddyUP that will act as a marketing post on a certain day is stated above. It's not to receive rewards, it's advertising.
Voting bots are a tool for advertising and that's the only aim for them. A weekly post with a substantial upvote on it to keep it in the eyelines of others is what I would like to do. It's by no means for rewards, the money used on the upvote will will reused everyweek for the post, and each week it will be original in some way.
I am against bots as much as I am in favour of them. I have used them and will continue to use them. Yes, they are used badly and unfortunately, a lot of bad content gets voted up high. As a curator, it's also difficult because with a good payout, I would expect a post to be at least decent, and then find out the opposite.
At the same time, most of my poetry doesn't do well unless I use a bot. It sucks. It's not bad poetry, I know that. Yet, it doesn't make sense that I must use a bot to get it noticed. I have won contests with poetry that was around $0.20 upvotes, and it beat poems which had around $10. It mostly sucks because the bots aren't always giving you a profit. They are being paid, and not giving you much in return, at times. So, feel free to use them - you cannot feel bad for using them when everyone else does.
I've used them on my own content and always stuck to 0.25SBD like I stated. I don't care much for the money but I know that if I stick to that amount and I always use smartsteem, I won't lose myself when the price rises. When it rises... it'll be a nice amount that I can manage.
Now.. the reason why I'm asking is because it's on a community account. It's our community and I don't want to do something that could ultimately cause upset or be detrimental to us in the long run. I'm not in this for the short term gains, I'm here for the marathon. I just want to make sure I get a variety of perspectives.
Yeah, I understand. For me, it's not a problem. It's actually a smart way to help the community get noticed, but I understand some people might be against it.
I'll try and get it organised for next week and then we will be ready to get these posts out there :D
I use vote bots, it's a nice way to temporally invest your sbd to increase your SP, there are some bots that protect their votes against bad content and actively hunt and remove the rewards from plagiarist.
Yeah, I get that. I use it myself as I stated using smartsteem.
The reason I'm asking is that it's a community account and there is a psychological game linked to everything you do. I am right with how I use BOT's and I'm certain I won't lose my way if the price ever increase because I've made decisions. It's a different story when it''s for the community, I need to make sure it doesn't have any bad associations and what not.
There are tons of communities out there using vote bots for visibility and if the post is well made, i don't see any issues with using vote bots. A day in the hot/trending page will bring a lot of attention to the community!
I think its a good idea to dedicate the proceeds of botting to the higher good of BuddyUP. Blessings. Hope it works well.
We're working out how to keep it rolling over at the minute. I want to keep putting it back into the ost so we can keep climbing up trending and getting into the eyesight of others.
It seems that bot voting is just a way of life here.
I too use Smartsteem to upvote my posts - I usually wait 48 hours and promote it during that time and then if it hasn't gotten the exposure I would like I throw a little SBD at it to see if I can help it get more views.
I think the important thing is to not upvote the post too late in its lifecycle which raises the ire of the bot voting police.
I'm in support of you using bots for BuddyUp - responsibly and with integrity. Which I know you will. Behind you 100%.
Thanks for the support @tamala!
I think it all comes down to what you're voting on and when. I have no problem voting on my content to try and get it into the view of people who need it most. It's bad times when it's used on memes etc. We will hopefully get this post up onto trending and up there for people who need BuddyUP most :)
As I always say - the bots are not the problem. The abuse of bots is the problem. As our "leader" (and yes you are - hhahahaa even though you hate that word) we are trusting you to do what's best with the platform, for our channel, for our community, for us as individuals, and for yourself as well! That's a tall order!!! But we think you're doing a pretty great job so far - and think that you will continue!
Make us proud @calumam :) If we have lessons to learn along the way - then we'll do that as a group!
"we all grow together" ;)