Are you selling your idle vote power through a service? If so, you should periodically review what you're voting on. Do your part.
Hello, Steem world.
As we focus on other things in life, we have idle vote power here on the Steem platform. Idle vote power is just that, idle; potential influence that isn't influencing anything. To me, that's wasteful and isn't helping our little machine here tick. We come up against issues such as abuse and people trying to "milk the system," which sucks! I think that we can all agree on that.
So what do we have now, in this day and age of Steem? Services that allow your influence (vote power) to be purchased and aimed at whatever someone wants to target. Services that do not require delegation to another entity but allows you to sell your vote (which grants you the ability to retract that vote if you want to). You still get to have that element of control.
If your stake is used to vote/influence something that you personally do not want to support for any reason, you can retract that vote (unvote), and I think that you should! But of course, use discretion when doing so, someone just paid for that vote.
What I'm getting at is the trending page is pretty garbage at the moment and we need to do something about it, we need to be proactive. We have a lot of people half-assing posts and paying themselves fat, which affects the trending page in a bad way, let alone the rewards pool that attracts us all here.
If you're selling your votes, you should go and see what your stake is voting on. If it votes for what you perceive as garbage, UNVOTE IT.
Sure, this may raise the moral dilemma of "well, they paid for it so you shouldn't unvote it." Well, yeah, they paid for it, but we also have the ability to think something sucks and isn't worth $500. Un-voting overpaid garbage content helps balance the reward pool and at the same time, helps reality check people. Being greedy is bad! Think about how your actions on the platform ultimately affect everyone else in the grand scheme of things.
I personally have always kept my stake in motion, trying to make sure it never hits 100% vote power so that this system works. For the past ~2 years, I've given my votes away constantly, trying to give people a piece of the pie. Recently, I plugged into Smart Steem in order to give myself a bit of a break and still keep my stake in motion while getting a little monetary kickback.
My current setup on Smart Steem is this:
This means that if my vote power hits 99%, my vote is up for sale. But any time that my vote power is below 99%, I am voting manually and giving my vote away, as you all should be doing as well (in my opinion).
TL;DR: Bots are COOL, but only as cool as people employ them to be. If you're selling your vote on a vote selling platform, check on what you're voting on and if it sucks, unvote it! Don't get greedy, vote on good content, network with people, make connections, make this work!
If you're interested in doing what I'm doing, follow the little banner below. The Smart Steem platform gives you control over many important facets and if you put the features to use, it reduces the amount and impact of vote-selling abuse:
I just wanted to rant a little bit :). Hi! Been a while.
I always run out of voting power!
It would be nice if you could indicates tags when selling your vote or a minimal character length of the post. I know that these 2 funtions will not eliminate the risk that your vote will be sold to shitty posts!
Good ideas. Maybe make a post about that and tag some bot owners?
Mmh, when not written correctly they could wipe out my complete rep! Also not sure how I should address it!
This is totally possible, and may help reduce the crap content receiving votes a little.
It's going to require some work from the bot owners though. They will need to create a profile space for each seller, where they can choose the minimum char length, tags to avoid etc.
Good thinking!
Also the trending and hot pages could be altered, by adding the number of comments to the algortihm!
I don’t know if the bots owners have to be involved in this! It would be great if they do but it is not required. It is just the algorithm which have to be adjusted. Most of us know the important bots!
What also would be nice is that post can climb the rankings based on the interaction. Post authors would be forces to interact on the comments! Without this they never would have a chance!
I’m full of good ideas 😂
your post very helpful for us
I recently undelegated the SP that I had given to a couple bot-services. I did not want to be liable for promoting any posts that do not fit my ideologies. At first I thought it would be great to make some dividends, but then I realized the vote is more than just a way to make money, it also voices support which can be risky business if you're not doing due diligence to see what you're supporting.
This is exactly why I choose to not delegate and opt to simply sell -my- vote. Delegating pays you more than vote selling does, but it removes your control. If my account votes on something that's plagiarized, is just plain stupid or whatever, I don't want that "something," to get rewarded.
Honestly, I came to find you to do exactly what you discuss here.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@alishannoor/need-suggestion-to-make-steemit-alive-for-long-term
Just terrible, from the title to the bottom.
Your choice of course, thanks!
Related, and not a call for a vote: https://steemit.com/steemit/@abh12345/what-would-steemit-look-like-if-everyone-chose-to-delegate-their-stake-to-a-bid-bot
We need the bigger players like you voting for solid content, thanks for your time.
I unvoted that post. I've been unvoting a lot of what I perceive as abuse of the system.
If it's plagiarism or something negative/detrimental to progress, I'll go as far as to flag it.
At the same time, if I see something good that someone has posted that I think is representative of hard work/doing cool shit that they've paid to have my stake vote on, I'll drop by in the comments and give them additional large upvote on one of their comments and let them know/leave a comment myself.
I like the system I've got going on. I hope other people follow suit.
That’s a great thing to do! But I don’t think lots of people would do this.
Most of them are just selling their votes to increase their steem power!
You're right about that, but if you can lead by example, sometimes people will adopt what you're doing. That's what I'm hoping for anyways. If we don't proactively care for the platform, it'll surely die.
Completely true. I am trying my best to show the way and you are too. Also it looks like things will be moving pretty fast. More and more posts about the bid bots!
Nice one.
I like the proactive approach you have, it shows care for the community/rewards pool.
It'd be nice if more people would do this who are selling their votes. The amount of literal trash I've seen making far more than actual decent quality content on here makes me a sad panda. I think doing it your way is far smarter than just delegating your voting power to a service.
Also, get on Steemit more, mannn. Feels like it has been a century since you've posted, lol.
Yeah, it's gross but it's up to us to make this work! Trying to do my part and be impartial haha. It's hard, but doable.
I'm always on here! Just in a more behind the scenes kinda way.
For sure, man. Appreciate you doing your part and actually being mindful of the content you upvote.
Well, invite me to a party on ps4 or join one of mine sometime so we can chat. Just been a minute since I've talked to your crackerjack ass.
Thanks!
And yeah for sure! I would right now, but @cybercodetwins is playing Ratchet & Clank right now haha.
Ah, it's fine. I'm playing Fortnite with my buddy and yelling about dumb shit on here. Probably better you don't join us right now, lol.
Hey! What we talk about is not dumb shit. It is valuable information and keeps my head clear and me staying positive with the platform. You are like my late night therapist as I thought I was yours.
I happened to be one of your "buyers", even getting an extra vote from you - Thanks a lot!
Kudos for checking everything you vote on! Setting up vote-selling, not caring at all and letting it run for month without a look could be seen as profitable side business as well - with basically no effort. Still you care a lot!
I haven't sold my vote before, so I can't speak from experience, but what's the bot owners position to unvoting "payed" votes? Are there "TOS" when giving your posting permission to them and are you "allowed" to do that? I could imagine they don't like it very much, because the complaints will end at their desk?
I suspect this falls on the Bot owners TOS? @smartsteem @therealwolf - what is the policy here with regards to removing votes issued via smartsteem/smartmarket, like @matt-a is doing here?
Again, i would love to hear from some bot owners here. @yabapmatt?
That's fine by me, abuse the bot systems :-D
Would allow to double sell your vote.
The losers here are the bidder and the seller via curation rewards - the seller also doesn't get a return of Voting power to 're-sell'.
Bot owner still keeps their SBDs.
What I mean is that the seller could sell the vote again, maybe somewhere else. Curation reward once, selling the vote twice gaining profit from two sells. Does that make sense?
The VP is gone, from that perspective it doesn't make a difference if you sell it twice for the same or for different posts. After unvoting you aren't eligible for curation rewards anymore, no matter what you do/vote afterwards. So selling twice is definitely a loss.
Oh, I was under the assumption that you regain VP when unvoting and thought you could reuse it on the same or another post. If that's incorrect it doesn't make sense indeed.
It doesn't allow you to "double sell your vote." Your vote power remains diminished and you forfeit your right to the curation reward. By unvoting, I simply sacrifice that vote power and curation reward. When you unvote, that potential reward is returned to the rewards pool for more appropriate distribution in the entire reward pool's 24 hour period.
This is why I just choose to manually vote. I don’t have to worry about it being used and abused by someone else trying get on trending with somethings they flat out just stole or frankly had zero effort into creating it.
It would be great if more people at least check in on time to time to see if they are auto voting in some manner such as this or other ways that the Steemit they want to shape is what is being reward.
Far too many seem to be focused on short term profits and who ever can pay them the most. Which sadly leads us to trending page issue. People are getting what they wanted just not in a way they wanted it. Hard to shape steemit if you let others decide who gets your stake in it.
Great post, I couldn't agree more. The trending page is looking kind of sad these days.
I don't sell my power for that very reason! :)
Thanks for the share.
This was no rant man! You made some sense here. It is a pity how some wolfs keep upvoting trash while the main guys that spend days creating quality contents go home with struggling 2sbd. Let me run before they notice my presense, Lol.
It takes time and effort to get noticed! I see the bot system as a good way to get noticed. If someone buys a vote from me and I like their content when I'm reviewing what my stake has been used for, I'll go give them additional upvotes to encourage behavior that makes this system flourish. At the same time, I unvote garbage/abuse and sometimes flag it. Nothing speaks louder than messing with someone's "money."
@matt-a, This is very interesting, I see a lot of content that should be appreciated in steemit, original, and very informative but not appreciated steemit, but vice versa. this makes steemian beginners back in steemit, I can only read and give curation to the good post in my opinion. the rest of you who can help them ..lol
Well said, just an unvote is responsible enough. Flagging trash is a whole other issue but a simple unvote is a GREAT step that should be used more.
I'm no stranger to doling out flags haha. I think that they're a necessary feature, and I use them to send messages.
I agree, I just wish more users with sizeable flags felt the need to protect those who cannot do it with 1 Mega Vest worth of an account. The retaliation flags are what keep most people from flagging, I think.
There are just so many ways to game the system it will take change after change to fix things.
Flag and explain why you're doing it! Gotta have a voice or you'll get steemrolled.
I have no idea why there isn't a 0% option for a flag, so you can give one without affecting people's money. That is where the payback flags come from, people concerned about their money.
You can accomplish a "0% flag," by leaving a comment. A front end tweak could also achieve this easily.
Perhaps this is a feature that should be added considering the size of some accounts (and when price increases again).
It is something little that hurts no one and acts more like a "dislike"
Maybe it wouldn't offend so many people if they saw people disliked their post in place of seeing it and losing money too.
This is true, a 0% flag would act more like a private comment. Someone else might not have the same issue you do until they read the public comment. People seem to follow the herd more than think for themselves.
Hey @matt-a
I am pretty outspoken against bidbot abuse but, I do think there is some middle ground and it is good to see that actual users of them are now making more of an effort to limit the damage. The incentive to be passive is there but, a healthy community requires action. Thanks mate.
My pleasure! I want this platform to work. If we don't take proactive measures, we're shooting ourselves in the foot.
Well, it is much like the wild west here except no one has handled the gun of self-governance before.