We Already Have A Viable Marketing/Ads Platform
It recently came to my attention that some are using bidbots again and of course some are upset about it.
My position on the bidbots was always if they were well run and set some standards they would be a benefit to the community and also create buy pressure and support the economy.
When people spend money on a bot that money is spent in the community more than once. Person A earns the token, uses them to send to person 2 for a vote and that owner likely pays a dev... and the Steem stays in the system longer. Rewards are paid partly powered up so it is a win.
The problem with the last attempt at bidbots is the owners refuesed to set any standards and they refused to hear the community feedback about how they were allocating too much of the reward pool to posts that didn't add any value.
But imagine others coming here to promote exciting things that are happening in crypto, launching projects, etc. They have to buy Steem and when they get rewards they get paid back.
After the EIP went through the bidbots were smashed entirely and did very little to up their game and get with the times, so the businesses were smashed, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea.
Here was my view of how they could have worked. It's not all about the content it is also about creating a sustainable business environment where people can earn grow and build.
We Already Have A Viable Marketing/Ads Platform
A few savvy people understood a long time ago we already have the ability to buy and sell ads on Steem.
Some haven't recognized it.
Some dislike it, because it leaves out the Content Creators who do not have the ability to see the business value behind it.
Those who quit looking at Trending missed that it has become a place to advertise a New Project, Excellent Articles and even make announcements for up and coming blockchain projects.
It is functional and working. Each day on Trending we see people pitching an idea, announcing a project or attempting to gain visibility for up and coming events.
The community even has the ability, if not the desire, to curate which ads we want to see via our voting power and up and down votes. It is a beautiful thing.
Each and every day people are creating ads, making accounts and buying Steem to market their work to a "warm audience".
It is a great deal for those who have figured it out because if one buys a Google Ad on twitter to pitch a project it is a "cold market" meaning there is little control who sees it.
On Steem, Projects and Devs can rightfully assume that the audience is people who have at least some interest and involvement in crypto.
The person who markets their product here also receives a certain amount of their investment back if the community loves what they are pitching and upvotes it. If the community dislikes it enough they can lose their investment.
I recently heard someone who is presenting themselves as a business leader say that he thought Bidbots were adding sell pressure. I spit my coffee.
The balance we need to achieve is for there to be enough demand for this coveted space that there rarely is an ROI on the post without community support and we need to community to use their stake to remove value from the posts that are clogging up space and do not hold value.
It is up to us.
Also, a fair point that many make is it diverts a lot of the reward pool, and this is true, but it also is one of the few operational, real market values of Steem. With an honest supply and demand
The balance has to be carefully maintained, if we can not retain enough users to have eyes on the site, there will be no reason to purchase Steem to present projects to our users.
Adding users is also the key for keeping the price of bidbots high with low ROI so it truly works as a functional economy for Ads and Marketing.
Summary:
Bidbots are a valuable means of marketing to a crypto community.
They add buy pressure for Steem
The ROI is in the hands of the community
To be more valuable we also to retain users
It is a unique and amazing advertisement opportunity
In that the community can decide what types of Marketing we see value in and use our stake to curate it.
I'm open to using a BOT, other than a thieving 'Bid-Bot' that 'stole' money from low bidders...by keeping their funds instead of returning it.
I'd use a bot, to boost rewards on posts within my FreeSpeech Community periodically to users/members that is beyond my ability to do so 'singularly' because of limited SP and 'no' or only 'tiny' delegated funds.
I'd do that in a heartbeat, if it brought a smile to a deserving authors face; completely without care of what 'anyone' thought about it...especially those that are always bitching and moaning about 'something' to un-brighten our day :>)
I love that view....
I think bidbots undermine the "value proposition" of the blockchain. When people get frustrated that they aren't getting the rewards they hope for with their posts and they see that people who are paying for attention are getting rewards then they get the impression that the whole system is rigged and they lose interest in participating. These bidbot "businesses" have a negative externality, like pollution in the physical world.
What specifically do you see as the value proposition of the chain?
The "proof of brain" concept is one way of looking at it. Being able to be rewarded for engagement with your content / reward content you engage with is another. Either way, an automated bot that directs rewards based on the author paying rather than audience engaging with content runs counter to it.
I think bidbots are shit. They destroy the user experience as they go against the idea that you earn crypto by honest blogging work. Why work if you can cheat. The system loses its credibility in the eyes of most people and a currency that has no trust is bound to be obsolete.
There is no question some content creators found the bots to be demotivating, but I am not convinced it was "most" nor do I buy into "cheating". I think that point of view came from a narrow segment of those who view the rewards pool as only a means for rewarding content.
I view it as an inflation pool to be allocated by stakeholders to that which they find brings value to the chan.
I don't say it lightly though, your point is valid. It would need to be handled better in order to be more attractive instead of less attractive to both content creators and holders.
Thank you for making the point.
It is just a faucet, and one of the most clever ones at that. I agree.
But when I say cheating I still think that is the best word to describe the sentiments that the bots left a large portion (and a very important portion) of the user in. When you set up rules in a game or you sell a product you have to stick to your concept.
It's a bit like gerrymandering in the US. It is legal, but it is also against the spirit of democracy. Seen from the view of a person who think everything is about optimising personal and clique power it doesn't really matter if you live in a dictatorship or a democracy, it just change the preconditions. But some people actually care about what sort of society they live in and such people will see things from a very different angle and take offence. These people are not a insignificant minority.
I don't really care about Steem or Hive value any more. I lost faith in crypto not least thanks to the way investors have treated content creators and artists here on Steemit. Bitcoins might take over the role of gold, but it all depends on how it will be treated in the legal systems in the different countries. I am using Hive (probably not Steemit when I have finished powering down) as any other decentralised network and I do the same things here as I do in value free networks like Diaspora and Mastodon. People from this place supported my comic Kickstarter with fiat and that is the only thing that works really.
Sadly.
I'm sorry to hear you have lost your faith, I'm pretty discouraged as well.
Not an uncommon phenomenon when a dream meets reality. We are both still here, and it is still an interesting experiment. The fork-split is a development that might be of help to new projects in the future.
Solid read. Resteemed and upvoted.
Thanks
Dear @whatsup
I just bumped into your publication. Interesting read.
Obviously this sucks. Bidbots allows nothing but 'milking' steem. Could you perhaps list which bidbots are still functioning? I wonder if STINC will do anything about those accounts or will they allow them to grow big and strong again.
I'm not sure if we all can do anything to stop bidbots. I'm afraid, that we may need little bit of centralized power to get involved. Free downvotes are not good solution. Not permanent. Plus flaggers will finally get "bored and tired". Abusers won't.
That's obviously just my own little opinion, which may become very unpopular in this "decentralized world" :))
ps.
Consider joining our discord (project.hope): https://discord.gg/uWMJTaW and posting within PH community in the future. Your content would fit our interests perfectly.
Upvote on the way :) Catch! :)
Yours,Piotr
Hi Piotr. I don't know which ones are working "over the table". I mean how are we going to complain about the bidbots when we have haejin and the Hive witnesses milking? For me it isn't that close to the biggest problem we have.
This post has been rewarded by the Steem Community Curation Project. #communitycuration06
ps.
You seem to be posting mostly on Steem blockchain.
Consider joining Project.hope community. They like to share publications related to technology, blockchain, AI and economy, marketing etc.
Link: https://steemit.com/trending/hive-175254
Thank you!
With an honest supply and demand
...definitively impossible without property rights.
(Don't hate the messenger...)
The reward is a 'commons'( a failed model except forif you're in a village and 5 participants in a closed system).
Steem/hive is neither a closed system, nor 5 participants.
I makes no difference how much lipstick you use, it's still a pig.
Principles always have to come first, mademoiselle
yeah, that's a rough one