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RE: Daily Discussion No. 5: Addressing the Paid Upvote Bot Controversy - Calling a Spade a Spade
I like this idea. A lot. I think content needs to stand on its own merits, not how big a pocket its author has.
The only loophole would be someone using one of their socks to do the paid upvoting.
Honestly, as this debate about bots goes on, I'm getting closer and closer to adopting a position that we should ban all non-human actors from the blockchain. Sure, we'll lose some good services, but it might just be worth it to rid the system of the scourge of using bots to scam the rewards pool.
There's no perfect solution, but I think the idea merits exploration.
We're all about "freedom" and "no censorship." Fine. So let people do as they want with their paid upvotes. But if you DO pay to upvote your content... that ADVERTISING. That's increasing your visibility... entirely your right! But now your content just became reclassified as "Promoted Content" and will go into the feed accordingly. Just like it would if you paid for visibility on Google, Facebook, twitter or anywhere else.
"But people won't look at my post if it's promoted!"
Well, tough titties. The create some content that will stand on its own merit, OR be socially interactive enough that people visit your content.
I guess I am just anti- gimmicks and manipulation... and since one of the primary "selling points" of the entire blockchain industry is "transparency" I'll be damned if I'm going to support systems based on deception, exploitation and manipulation.
agreed, totally. (is that, technically, a reality, though?- (I'm no techy)
The only way would be to implement a random 'captcha' image test, I guess.
i had this chat with someone - forgive me if i get this tottaly wrong - but - the blockchain - not steemit - cannot differentiate - and the bots do not need to use steemit (or something lol)
hope that makes some kind of sense..
Yeah a captcha would have to be built into the blockchain somehow. I'm not sure how possible that would be, given the blockchain, which is transparent, would have to store the correct answer to the captcha. Unless it utilises a third party.
Yup! @revo is right here in his appreciation @lucylin.
Actually, I've already commented long and hard about this same issue on other post out there from @blocktrades where I explained a few things a bit. }:)
On @blocktrades recent post, a veritable storm of ferment and comment arose. @leotrap asked @timcliff if a post couldn't contain an 'authenticator'.
Basically, enabling public key encryption between the post and blockchain, in which the key was only accessible on the post, provided in a way bots could not access but people could, will end bots ability to vote.
@timcliff said that @netuoso claimed captchas won't work, and sux0rz.
I paraphrase. The conversation can be found here.
Ending bots is a financial threat to every substantial stakeholder's profits on Steemit. I do not expect them to agree to do it. @ned publicly endorsed @blocktrades proposal, which would make votebots vastly more profitable.
I sorta feel like I am watching a friend die slowly...
How so?
In as simple terms a possible! lol
(sorry, I really am a techy dunce - I put my hat on everyday, with a big 'D' on it, as I sit down to my computer..)
Rather than seeing it as friend die slowly, maybe see it as a withering plant, with the shoots of something bigger and better coming along...
(that's my best optimistic speech I can muster, without several coffees..)
All delegations, all votebots, all paid votes, etc., come from those stakes. All profits go to their wallets.
Without bots, there aren't many ways to profit from SP, yet. I believe that's because the ease with which bots enabled profit has precluded alternatives from being explored and developed.
Since no other profitable enterprises have been explored, stopping bots is a threat to profitable enterprise, and all those enterprises are staked by the largest stakeholders.