Is there any point in checking the Trending page? Any whatsoever?
Nearly all of the posts in Trending and Hot have been paid for. Even whales can’t compete with an army of bidbots anymore.
If the whole page is filled with posts who merely paid to get there, it means that there is absolutely NO correlation between quality and payout. There are posts with $200 payouts where $196 is from paid bidbots. The high payout merely gives the illusion of quality.
The crazy amount of money being given to bidbots every day is also creating ultra whales whose sole purpose on the platform is to make money with this model of pay-to-play. We don’t know how these ultra whales will act in the future but given their behavior right now, we have no reason to trust that they won’t use this power to silence critics and maintain control over the entire steemit ecosystem.
We don’t like our bought politicians so why should we support those who buy their rep and payout on steemit?
I am not demonizing or blaming the users of such bidbots, they are merely looking for a way to make it on steemit, we all know it’s hard. But this is not the way, it hurts the community in more ways than we can see right now and make sure it even harder for users to succeed without reliance on such a crutch.
I propose we make use of a tag (#nobidbot) for users who are not using any bidbots and encourage whales and dolphins to get onboard and support us. If we can get some good curation on the #nobidbot tag we can also encourage many of the users of those bidbots to stop and join our cause as they discover there are more ways to succeed without these kind of schemes.
Also, please check out @transparencybot, which comments on all posts who use bidbots sharing exactly how much their post has been boosted by bidbots. I just delegated 100 sp and how to donate more in the future, I encourage those of you with substantial SP to do the same.
The more I thought about this concept, the more I realized how I needed to incorporate this into @transparencybot.
As of today, @transparencybot will begin upvoting random posts that use the #nobidbot tag and have not used bidbots on the post.
The number of posts it does a day depends on its remaining voting power.
Latter on a filter to find only author reputations of perhaps 60 (or 50) and below may be used, but for now it is wide open.
Thanks again for this.
Blessings
Honestly I am loving seeing the discussion here about this very issue.
Seeing people creating solutions is going to be a beautiful thing, and getting people together will be great.
Testing out some ideas from other social platforms like giveaways and seeing how they do.
So far kind of weak, maybe need to up the Steem amount on the next one, and try it out and see if it is any better.
I am also testing bots(I'll admit it) to chart and see which has worse returns.
Since I never really used my account for ages, it may as well be a noob account, and over the course of the month see which does better, and what I could have done differently etc...
Look forward to seeing how this progresses.
And I used the tag on a Non - bot post. For the giveaway which was the first step in testing out organic means of attracting new followers and engagement.
I empathize with people who want to use these services to get their material seen, I just don’t like the idea of a platform where we all have to pay to compete and submit to the power of bidbot owners if we want to gain any notice. More people using bidbots means it’s harder for everyone who doesn’t to get seen. Communities will certainly make things better, or at least I hope they do.
Thank you for the support and great idea!
Love the @nobidbot. I will do some thinking on this and see what can be done programmatically to help this tage.
FUR'd
Thanks! I’ve merged the discord chats for a few different projects with the hopes of organizing like minded people in one place to pool resources and ideas and solve problems. The current chats include the #nobidbot tag, the Deadpost Initiative which is a contest that rewards undervalued dead posts and #steemitzombies which encourages the curation of reposted original material which is not being spammy.
Would you like to collaborate and add a chat for transparencybot so we can help raise awareness for each other’s projects?
Sounds like great initiatives. Love the Deadpost concept, there are a lot of worthy folks with no views and gaming the system is not what they are comfortable with. I can see myself directly supporting such projects in the future.
I would love to join in on the chat, but I simply have no time left at this juncture.
Thanks again for keeping this front and center with a long term approach.
Blessings!
Not a bad idea. You're the only one there right now. https://steemit.com/trending/nobidbot
Check it again :-)
I do appreciate the upvote although it might not quite be enough to not get zeroed out and my upvote on your post should become worthless unless you upvote it to boost it to 2 cents even or more. FYI
I keep saying it, but I actually find the trending page refreshing right now compared to how it has been in the past.
There have always been around 10-20 users who have delegation or whale support who have dominated the Trending Page. Other users had no chance to get there.
Although I don't think it is working perfectly, I do think it is a good thing that serious users can pay to have their work on trending and get visibility.
There are pros and cons to everything, and I am enjoying the trending page more right now than I ever have.
Don't confuse the Loud for the Majority. :)
I do understand the Trending page had its problems before, for sure! But I can’t say I am enjoying it much more even if there is a variety, it’s essentially the same as the “new” page except it’s funneling a lot of money into a few accounts that will only get more and more powerful...
The whole thing does nothing to discourage bad behavior, it simply levels the playing field, but only for those who pay...
I do appreciate an upvote despite not agreeing with the crux of this post.
I believe there is a much better way than bidbots, whose negative effects we have only seen the tip of the iceberg with.
Of course, you will get an upvote even if I disagree, because it is the people discussing the issue that are trying to fix it. We share a concern for the site and our investment, other users.
We disagree on one element of one piece of the whole thing. I know you care about the site and are looking to make it better.
Cheers. I will not be protesting the trending page, I will be upvoting the content I like, ignoring most of it and flagging those things I think do not belong there.
Have a good day, keep working on making the platform better
:-) if Only more people “argued” like us!
Indeed ;)
Money. Most people don't understand and just want to make money, and some don't care because they just want to make money ;)
I know there are a lot of people like that but I see a lot of them who kind of have this inkling that it’s not right but somehow think that “that’s just how it is”. If they could believe for a moment that we could just be good and decent and still make money that I think half of them would stop, and he funny thing is the only reason we can’t is that so many believe it’s not possible and feed the vicious cycle.
Awww, well only bidbots show us some love in Steemit sometimes but I hear ya.
Maybe I will use the tag next time.
Why not have ned ban bidbots altogether? Bidbots came about because it makes people feel better for their "invisible" posts. If it's such an issue having to use it then ask the creators of Steemit to ban bidbots and maybe it will be gone soon.
There are two reasons things like this don’t get banned. The first is that steemits largest users tend to believe in a “free market” with no regulation so religiously that they’re willing to let it tear itself apart. The second is that it’s actually quite hard to regulate one thing without regulating a whole bunch of things and creating a lot more rules. I’ve proposed the idea for caps on voting power and caps on payout but the problem with that is people will just open multiple accounts. You could make the verification system extremely strict but that would force us all to share much more information with steemit which I’m not really in favor of. I think the best solution is always creating a healthier culture where we can come together to solve these kind solutions of problems. Check out @transparencybot, for an example of what I mean cool stuff!
I have made it to trending in certain tags without bid bots so it is possible in theory but it was more a matter of catching the right person's eye at the right time, I think.
I do like this idea though but I still do have to rely on resteem services. Despite having a healthy number of followers, I make very little if I can't get my content in a few thousand feeds. I do hope to be able to phase them out as my account grows, though.
At any rate I stand behind you on this. Are there any rules for using the tag besides not using bid bots?
I haven’t thought of any rules really. Not shitty content?
I think it’s helpful to spend your first few months on steemit engaging in others posts and posting less yourself. I tried to take an interest in OCD curators who I thought were doing a great job and their work and was rewarded handsomely for it.
I agree with that. Commenting and talking with others was pretty helpful. Sadly, I didn't realize than until I had been writing failed posts for about a month. I originally came here expecting my terrible shit posts to get hundreds of upvotes like they do in YouTube comments sections. I was actually pleased to see that my real content was more desirable than some mildly pithy garbage I forced out like a malnourished turd lol. I can't really fault those who want to jump right in though. I couldn't if I wanted to because I am still new here but engaging with others definitely yields the highest quality of followers and helps to build a network which pays off in the long run in my experience.
Nice one, I guess we/ I need more than 5 tags soon: steemitzombies deepshit nobidbot ... only two left to add my own flavor to it ;>)
You don’t have to use them all every time,but you can if you want!
Nope, there isn't any point.^^
It's like getting off of facebook addiction and feeling how good it actually was to stop going there all the time.
"We don’t like our bought politicians so why should we support those who buy their rep and payout on steemit?"
EXACTLY.
Some people’s logic just baffles me. I mean I get it, I just don’t get how they not see all the holes in it. At least I’m over my trying to change everyone phase!
Amen. I feel grateful daily for my times of overly "converting" other people to my views. It caused so much pain and frustration on both sides that I needed to stop. And when I did I found people who naturally saw it similarly.
Like letting go on a tough state of mind and discovering the thing I was holding onto did not exist to begin with.
Exactly! You find what you are looking for when you stop looking so hard for it. So much in life is like taking a shit, you just gotta relax.
@whatamidoing You have received a random upvote from @transparencybot for not using bidbots on this post and using the #nobidbot tag!
@paradigmprospect You have received a random upvote from @transparencybot for not using bidbots on this post and using the #nobidbot tag!
awesome way of looking at things ;)