Thanks for making a great point.
There are both negative and positives for vote buying. If you are a relative newbie and produce fantastic content, why shouldn’t you be able to vote buy to boost your post? I agree that this can then be abused by ‘shit-posts’ that reach trending and take money from the reward pool, but there are a few accounts that ‘shit-post’ and receive big rewards without vote buying. That is a different topic though.
Now I see some big accounts have decided to downvote posts that vote buy? Is this equitable and fair that the direction of Steemit is controlled by a few?
I like the conversation and debate that this topic is creating though.
It has generated a good amount of talking which is great!
On the part you mention that why shouldn't a great poster pay to boost their post. I think the opposite. Why not work to build an audience and let the rewards come naturally. If they genuinely are a writer of good content them the chances are high that this will happen. Shortcuts don't always have to be taken.
Personally I have nothing against the original idea of booster services. Then it all started (imo) to get a bit wild with the amounts going up and up and now I just see people paying vast amounts to get up there in trending.
What does that really mean though, do their posts really deserve such a payout? Was/is the quality so good that it would have gotten there if it hadn't been for the author being new? Will they find that now they have had a couple of big hitters that they can do without the booster services? With the posts I have seen I doubt it.
I suspect that to maintain the big payouts they will have to be in thrall to vote buying in perpetuity.
However, just to contradict myself I don't feel that people shouldn't be allowed to do it, this is steemit after all and we are all free. Relatively
I don't think it is fair that the direction of steemit is controlled by a few (if it is) but then it falls under the same argument for why shouldn't people be allowed to buy votes. Why shouldn't people with a big stake use it as they see fit?
Cor blimey, could go on for ages! Thank you for your comment, I really appreciated it