RE: Can curation be automated and is it good for Steem? The @curx Curation Bot Experiment
I’m going to present the other side of the coin for you.
Personally, i think it’s extremely bad. Bots and automation absolutely kill the spirit of a social community supporting quality creators and content. I see more and more people - and bots - here strictly to game and generate maximum returns.
This is supposed to be more than cryptocurrency staking; it’s supposed to be a place where we connect, support, network, and grow as creators.
I’ve been lucky enough to be supported by some of the bigger curators. But it’s a double-edged sword. It’s false in many ways. Because too many of the votes I’m getting are bots and hustlers who aren’t actually reading my content or supporting my hard work. I’m not gaining a following or an audience...even though it appears so on the surface. I’m simply being swarmed be “curators”, most of whom couldn’t care less about what they are casting their votes for.
I discovered you and this post because you upvoted a friend’s comment on one of my posts. (Not my post, mind you.) So I decided to check out your blog and possibly connect. Imagine my surprise upon learning that it was likely an automated vote based on whatever bot you’re running. I have to tell you that from my perspective, it’s pretty insulting. It’s like those people who set up 18 bot accounts that do nothing but comment and upvote each other’s comments.
This just makes me incredibly sad.
Hi @outrayjust,
thank you for your honest opinion, this is highly appreciated! I understand your frustration and I think I and probably a lot of other users are actually in a similar situation as you. There are a couple of bots and a few "real" people with an auto-vote list. The fraction of voters that actually read and interact is probably small.
I think the main problem is that this is not enforced in the current implementation. Steem has way more aspects and I'm pretty sure this was intended by the creators. Some aspects clearly go against the principles you listed above and make this a stake-weighted place with closed communities and strong financial interests. But not all are "bad" IMO. I wouldn't be where I am today without utopian, rewarding "work" much stronger than the social aspects you mentioned. Still I think it's a great application for Steem. I don't see Steem without bots or automation to happen in the near future, no matter what I do.
For curx, you've probably read my motivation for doing it above. I have limited time to spend on Steem. I could leave my VP idle and let the few big players earn even more. I could set up an auto-voter and vote for the same 10 accounts in my "inner circle". I chose to at least spread some of the votes with curx. There are some returns, and it's more than my main account makes with curation, but it doesn't make me rich. I don't take money for votes and the votes aren't worth very much. I still like the fact that I reach way more authors than with my manual votes. I can say that I at least briefly read most of the articles curx votes on, some of them I read carefully and I definitely found authors with it that I wouldn't have discovered without. Still, I read them only after the vote.
The comment voting is a new thing since a couple of days and highly experimental. I'm not sure if this works out and if I'll stick with it. Things are a bit more complicated there and you might guess that the vote was not because the comment picked up a great aspect of the main contribution. On the other hand it probably didn't add much payout value to the comment.
I'm very sorry that you feel insulted by this automated vote.
@crokkon, I appreciate your response.
I’m a professional writer and artist. And as I’m sure you know, these talents and skills are less and less coveted and rewarded in the modern world. So this little experiment is extremely exciting for me. It’s dripping with potential.
I just don’t want to see it become a generic, automated shadow of what could be; the Fiverr of the crypto-world. But often that’s how it feels.
I’d like to see it flourish as a true community of creatives. Or maybe one needs to be built and monitored as such. And while I’m not a technophobe in any way, this is one place I’d like to see real people doing real work. And it’d be amazing if quality actually was the measure of merit.
What can I say...I’m a hopeless dreamer.