RE: ANNOUNCE: - STEEMBOTS.COM Your Source For Everything Bot Related! - NOW HIRING
Fascinating conversation, thanks for the post and peoples replies.
A platform like this would be an excellent way to develop bots but it could be an issue if that's not your thing, and it's probably not most peoples thing. I personally wouldn't like to see the platform crowded with bots. The argument is that it is already crowded with bot. Where there seems to be some difference in opinion is the response to this situation. Do we accept it and start building our own bots and develop a code of conduct, or do with resist it and seek to eliminate bot as best we can using something akin to antivirus software.
I think this idea of having bots up vote is more problematic. Some people will know more about bots and be more willing to use them. These people will benefit. This compels other to do the same even if they don't want to. I don't want my success on this platform to be dependant on needing to utilised bots in a clever way.
And a related point is that one of the major strengths of steemit is that it harnesses the subjective views of the users. If we have bots getting involved does it not distort this process?
With respect to bot inclusions, my preference is always that we need to opt-in rather than opt-out. As such I like the code of conduct idea such that by opting in you are allowing the bots who conform to the code of conduct to engage with you.
These are my thoughts at the moment but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. I like the idea of learning more about bots so will check out your steembots when I get time.
Thank you for that. It was eloquently put.
With respect to the code of conduct again I'm going to restate that this is a semantic thing.
Obeying leash codes is complying with the code of conduct, but you can't expect that bot owners are going to know you don't want their bot in there any more than you could expect them to know you don't want them in there.
If you don't have a way of signaling "hey i only want people". Then the bot doesn't have the information to make said decision anymore than a person would.
Furthermore, we may be mixing the idea of bots up by lumping every bot into the same category.
If a whale can sell his single upvote worth $200, or a bot owner can sell 2000 minnow upvotes for $200 the incentive is there for the bot builder to build 2000 minnow upvoting bots. Because that's an easy way to make some cash.
What I'm saying is get rid of the damned upvoting and one liner and meme posting bots, and instead point them towards more useful tasks.
What cheetah does is an excellent example of something that 2000 minnow bots could do 2000 times faster. But you don't want 2000 minnows all flagging the same post.
So you divide and conquer the workload. First bot to find plagiarism wins the right to post and is entitled to any upvote love from the community. You'd never even know a bot was doing it. The activity would look exactly like a concerned member, because it would be a concerned member who turned their computing power over to the purpose of cleaning this place up.
See what I'm saying? Your idea of a bot is this 10 lines of python code that exists for a single purpose. I'm saying let's put the same PEOPLE interested in these activities to work doing something more fun and productive. And believe me there are a lot of fun and productive tasks that could be done here. A lot of problems that could be solved, but a limited view of AI isn't helping people to expand their horizons.
If you want a bot to stay out of your posts, at least the bot registry gives you a way to contact the owner and let them know. Otherwise what you end up with is the situation we have now where no one knows who owns what bots and who to call on when their bot goes berzerk.