Will Hiveminds (Communities) Kill Paid Bots????

The other day we received an update about the Hivemind (aka communities) feature that is going to be added to the STEEM blockchain. This is a long anticipated update requiring a Hard Fork. Without getting into too many details, one of the main attributes, from a user perspective, is that it will allow for "communities" along the lines of subreddits.

One of the biggest challenges to the STEEM blockchain right now is that it is really a vast stream of information. Articles are posted and basically that is it. They are like pieces of driftwood on a river. Each article is submitted at the top of the river where most of the people are located. This helps since most of the people standing on shore are located here. However, since all articles start here, it is hard to garner the attention of the crowd.

What makes this more challenging is that not all the people are scanning the entire river. Instead, some people are only focused upon a portion of the river that feeds the driftwood into their view. If one is lucky enough to be diverted to this place, being seen is a lot easier. Those who miss out on that are relegated to competing with all the other pieces of driftwood.

Since most of the people are located at the top of the river, we see very few further down. There might be the occasional fisherman who looks up to see you a couple days later, yet that is rare. Overall, it is the initial burst that gets one's article seen. After that, it is basically floating away unnoticed until it reaches the end of the journey 7 days later.

Enter bid bots.

This puts the driftwood on steroids. Even though it is still in the mess at the top of the river, it pumps each piece of wood up, tripling its size. This makes it stand out more in comparison to others. While there is a chance many do not see it since they are only looking at a single area, anyone scanning the entire river will notice the steroid laced piece of wood.

That is basically how STEEM works right now. Articles that are bid up using bots are inflated in size and reach on the trending page. This makes them stand out more than all other articles on here. Since STEEM is just a continuous flow of articles, if one does not make this list, that article floats by and is basically dead after a couple hours.

This caused a great deal of controversy, from what I can gather, since the start of STEEM. Some look at bots as providing a terrific service while others feel that it is just a way for the developers of the bot to get an incredible ROI. Either way, since this is a blockchain, people have the right to engage in them.

At the same time, people also have the right to try and counter this system. @heimindanger put together an article with a program meant to offset some of these votes. His view is that articles that have extensive bid bit upvotes should be downvoted.

https://busy.org/@heimindanger/operation-clean-trending

Since discussing the merits of bid bots, or lack thereof, is not the intent of this article, I will leave it for others to decide. However, what I did get thinking about is the fact that the Hivemind could make this all a moot point.

The entire premise of bid bots is to get exposure. Since we are involved in a huge stream of articles, this is a way for people to stand out. Without attention, one's article is doomed to float away without much in the way of compensation. Of course, one needs to work at interacting with others to gain a following. This will help to give on more exposure.

That said, I believe the community feature will alter this a great deal. Instead of people seeing articles based upon their interaction with others, communities will enable focus to become more topic based. We are going to see groupings established which rests upon area of interest.

For example, a community that deals with ancient Aztec literature is going to attract people interested in that. While that might not be a large group, it would be a dedicated one. Therefore, all who are involved in it will get to know each other quickly.

The situation is a bit different in some of the larger groups. If there is a community for photography, people will have to work harder to stand out. The one advantage is those who produce quality content consistently will stand out in this community. It might be bigger than ancient Aztec literature, yet is much smaller than the continuous feed on Steemit that exists today.

Another nice aspect of this is that Whales, Orcas, Dolphins, Minnows, and Red Fish are all going to be mixed in together. A newer person who joins a group and start to interact, posting quality comments and articles, will catch the attention of the community. If it is a topic that a Whale or Orca is interested in, the chances of getting a large upvote are increased significantly.

In my mind, all this will make the trending page, if it even exists, much less appealing. People are going to be focusing their attention in different communities. Hence, the goal is to become a bigger fish in a smaller pond. In fact, since we all have many areas of interest, we are going to be operating in a few different ponds.

The question is how will those communities embrace those who use bots to increase their position? Some communities might reject someone who takes that approach. While the vote might be there from the bot, the other members could choose to ignore it.

Also, is there even a need to spend the money on the bots? It is highly possible that one can get the attention of the community without resorting to using this service. Instead of one big river, STEEM will become a multitude of smaller streams. A few quality posts with some expertise could well propel a newer person to the front of the line as a knowledgeable poster.

What are your thoughts on this? Will the Communities feature hurt the business of bid bots?

If you found this article informative, please give it an upvote and resteem.

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