RE: An idea for a bot to help combat the comment spam
This is a lot like @smackdown.kitty, a bot I am creating with some others in the newly formed Steem Cooperative ( #steem-coop ) to flag self voted comments. This is the first post on it, and here's the latest.
We have decided to go for full flags on the top 4 paid self vote comments because of limited SP. But the idea would be to never flag to a value effect greater than their self vote. Actually this is starting today, the first flag is coming in a little while.
We're also going to publish stats on it to give people (and us) and idea of what the scale is, though we know already it's going on a lot.
You have a tidy sum of SP, we'd love it if you would delegate some to the @smackdown.kitty account 😊
Also I'm not going to respond directly to what I think about it, I've overdosed on discussion about it over the last few days, you can see my comments all over the place on it 😅 We're also talking about hard fork idea, etc., and you can find it on my posts and comments.
Great to see others thinking about it! Following you to see what you come up with, but if you want to join us I'm sure we could work together.
We are allowed to upvoye our own comments if we so wish, as you are allowed to flag those if you wish (or your bot wishes), you should be aware that flagging only encourages a retaliatory reaction as can be seen in recently on steemit.
There are those who dislike the idea of self upvotes because it limits the number available to be given to others comments and posts, this is fair.
The other side of self voting is that if a post is created or comment made then a self vote ensures at least something at reward time for you effort, so that too is also fair especially those who don't have a loyal following yet.
Will your bot respond to the vote buying also using the many self upvote buying bots? Do they also qualify to be flagged... your bot may be asking for more trouble than it expects.
We're well aware it is a divisive issue, and even though it is a legitimate action, flagging is still something that people feel they should not use, and can get upset when others flag them. This we know.
If the flagging incurs retaliatory action then so be it. But it would be worse to sit by I think, we are prepared to explain our position to others as well as act, and promote the debate, hopefully changes some people's minds and create a better Steemit in the process.
I know it's tempting to see the self rewarding as something we are entitled to but on a system wide level we cannot seriously condone this. The idea is that if people like your comment they will up vote it. It's a vicious cycle: if some people mainly up vote their own comments, those potential upvotes are not going to other comments, which effectively promotes self voting. We are trying to counter this culture.
The best way to engage with others is to follow then, comment meaningfully on their content if you have something to say, and upvote others!
Unfortunately I think all the bots for buying self votes may have something very different to say about self voting.
Many (all?) of those bots that they pay to upvote their own post can also be directed to upvote other posts/comments too, ones that are not by the ones paying, but that doesn't happen much as there is a rapidly growing impatience to be a bigger fish (dolphin, or whale) the bots mostly upvote the post/comment creator that pays.
This is not good for Steemit as it could be rewarding content that really isn't worth the rewards it is receiving as could be evidenced by a lack of non bot votes on those comments/posts.
It seems the way Steemit is heading is to be a community where more than 25% will be bots deigned to encourage automatic (content not even read or understood) upvoting for member of certain groups or 'support groups' at the expense of the other community members not in the 'support group' but still maybe creating content that deserves to be be seen and upvoted.
Why do these bots target the redfish and minnows...maybe because many are too impatient to wait their turn, so they want to self vote to glory, unfortunately the upvote bots are encouraging this more and more at the expense of the rest of the Steemit community.
In time maybe non users of upvote bots will also unite and just not upvote/follow/ users of the bots, there are only so many upvotes a bot can make, and take from the reward pool each reward period.
I like the idea of NOT voting for anyone who BUYS a vote. Buying votes just goes against everything Steemit is supposed to striving for. I would be totally happy if bots were outlawed.
I seriously doubt that bots being outlawed will happen, there are too many dolphins and whales running them....and guess who still has most control over steemit.
Not only that, but how can the system distinguish between a live person and a bot? After all, it is all just electronic signals.
You actually have a great point here, thanks for taking the time to write it.
I didn't actually realize but my project with @treeplanter would exactly allow for self votes, as it's kind of like @randowhale
Thanks to your insight here (and not thanks to my own blindness!) I discussed it with the person in charge of it and we decided to add a note to the automatic comment to encourage people not to use it to self vote themselves. In time we might disallow it entirely but for the moment we will allow users to decide, as it is in steemit now, and see what happens.
You can read the statement here.
Will read through the posts tomorrow, there definitely needs to be discuss in this area. But before reading your arguments my opinion is people should be allowed to upvote their own comments as much as they like