RE: Boosters -- Why They Are Bad For Steem and Steemit
I think the very concept is problematic and it's not so easy to mitigate negative effects.
I'm not an expert on what exactly has to be done to prevent abuse and negative overall outcome of these voting bots (in some cases something has been tried like blacklists, voting only on posts and not on comments, ...), that's the responsibility of the bot operators, and I'm not sure if it's possible at all.
I appreciate that you are open and interested how to improve your voting bot @reggaemuffin. If I see some specific abuse of your minnowbooster I'll let you know, so far I didn't notice your bot being used in an abusive way. (My critique is mostly general, not directed at any specific voting bot operator. And recently I saw you active in helping the community in different ways, like promoting important science posts and helping with security issues.)
But sometimes it's annoying if I have to use my time for reporting abuse of voting bots, and even more if I have to use my own voting power to cancel out problematic upvotes, while others profit from them.
In general I think the bot operators should be proactive in fighting abuse and in making sure their bots are beneficial, not only reacting when problems arise and can no longer be hidden. Maybe a regular abuse report: what is already done for abuse prevention, listing recent cases of abuse and what has been done to help in these cases (like retracting upvotes or using the bot operators own voting power to cancel out problematic upvotes, in particular in cases of borderline abuse where steemcleaners downvotes would be problematic), and what has been done to prevent and detect such abuse in the future.
So concerning the witness votes I hesitate to vote for voting bot operators and prefer to spend some time observing activity of the bot before. In the pay-for-vote cases the bot operator is already profiting from running the bot, so there should be good reasons why he should in addition profit from running a witness node, apart from some evidence that the bot is not harmful. In those cases where it is used to promote witness applications, as it is the case for some vote-for-free bots like MSP, I'd like to see some evidence that the bot is actually beneficial (which I haven't seen yet).
Thank you for your opinion :)
I made minnowbooster to give the botting world a good example of a bot. And that includes proactively mitigating abuse of it.
In the end botting is not preventable, so instead I am trying to establish a well-meaning bot. should steem change in a way that makes voting bots stop working then I will be glad. Until then I hope minnowbooster is the better alternative.
To respond to your witness comment, I would never advertise my witness in a minnowbooster comment, that feels weird. I am funding the originalworks bot with more than I get from running a witness, so the author decided to put a mention of my name there. I also use a big chunk of my profits from minnowbooster to support community projects and contests all over the blockchain. I think this month alone I spend well over 2000 STEEM on that (I get probably 100 STEEM from my witness each month and that covers roughly the server costs).
So I hope you evaluate my witness work separate from my minnowbooster work. And should you decide against voting for me because of minnowbooster that is something I have to live with :) Should you ever be in need of support or if you have any questions about how steem works in detail, I am available in my duty as a witness to assist you :)
Thanks for your answer @reggaemuffin. You seem to be someone who takes these issues concerning abuse seriously.
And I agree: if voting bots are here to stay, then better a voting bot whose owner is serious about fighting abuse than a voting bot whose operator doesn't care. If you really manage to built a good example of a voting bot which solves some of the issues, it can positively influence the other voting bot operators.
Also you mentioned another important point: transparency on how the income from the voting bots is used. If voting bots are here to stay and it is not clear to what extent they are harmful, then transparency would give some incentive that at least their proceeds are used in a beneficial way.
Definitely. Transparency is a huge goal at Minnowbooster and their parent @buildteam and we are always looking for feedback on how to improve that.
Since minnowbooster is crowdfunded, most of it's earnings are actually going to all the users who invest in us and how much they earn is all visible on the blockchain in daily payment transfers with detailed memos. We plan to develop graphs that show earnings and daily payout in a parsable format (json) and in a human readable format (plots and tables) so you can see everything without having to query the blockchain. But that process is still undergoing.
We show all upvotes the bot did on our website: https://www.minnowbooster.net/upvotes and offer other features there that should improve transparency. Obviously the blockchain is the tamperproof way of verifying what our website displays.
Buildteam is doing a monthly bidding process for the BUILDTEAM token that allows everyone to invest in the team and get a share of their earnings. We use this token to pay all our team members, who work hard to provide all the services we provide. More infos on this here: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@buildteam/buildteam-bidding-announce-4000-steem-up-for-grabs-in-october
This allows us to fund other development on the blockchain that is not that profitable. For example @mentionator with an accompanying safe browser addon for mentions and resteems. Storing gigabytes of mentions so users can go back in time to view them is costing us a lot and we are paying it gladly.
I am always on the lookout for other projects that need funds. Here is a list of projects where I have offered my support with a donation and the possibility for a salary in BUILDTEAM tokens:
https://steemit.com/steemdev/@armandocat/steemit-more-info-1-2-chrome-extension-firefox-extension#@reggaemuffin/re-armandocat-steemit-more-info-1-2-chrome-extension-firefox-extension-20170929t121405680z
https://steemit.com/deutsch/@quincho/steemworld-challenge-deutsche-version#@reggaemuffin/re-steemchiller-re-quincho-steemworld-challenge-deutsche-version-20170928t125550788z
https://steemit.com/deutsch/@leroy.linientreu/neues-sensationelles-steem-tool-steemworld#@reggaemuffin/re-steemchiller-re-leroylinientreu-re-leroylinientreu-neues-sensationelles-steem-tool-steemworld-20170927t102122524z
https://steemit.com/steem/@jedigeiss/steemworld-is-here-impressive-new-tool-all-informations-at-one-glance-check-it-out#@reggaemuffin/re-jedigeiss-steemworld-is-here-impressive-new-tool-all-informations-at-one-glance-check-it-out-20170927t101054266z
https://steemit.com/steem/@dehenne/lets-turn-steemit-into-a-mmorpg#@reggaemuffin/re-dehenne-lets-turn-steemit-into-a-mmorpg-20170927t103527347z
And there are way too many challenges to count that I am supporting. Also multiple community projects like @stach or https://steemit.com/nigeria/@steem-lagos/steem-lagos-workshop-1-0-taking-steemit-into-the-city#@reggaemuffin/re-steem-lagos-steem-lagos-workshop-1-0-taking-steemit-into-the-city-20171002t082010394z
I am sorry that this became such a linkdrop but just scrolling through my comments and resteems (or transfers in that regard) should show how much I am trying to support other projects with my profit.
Should you have any questions, please ask. And if you have suggestions for other projects I can support, please tell me. I still have 100 SBD I want to pump into 20 minnowbooster upgoats for worthy posts. Suggestions are welcome and I'll offer a finders fee in BUILDTEAM tokens :)