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After browsing around this "minnowbooster," and putting it to use, I find myself to be of two minds.
In principle, I look at it as being a bit deceptive. I mean, the votes should come from the quality of the content, right? So this is contaminating that ideal.
But then again, what does a street musician do before he starts playing? He throws a few coins in his guitar case so passersby will think someone has already considered him worth paying. If he doesn't, people will just pass on by.
So from that perspective, I guess it's sort of a means of advertising, and Lord knows I'll be sprinkling a little of this into every post I make from now on.
I guess the line between "throwing some change in your guitar case" and "a circle-jerk for whales to upvote each other" is basically a question of how much do you use it. Maybe some mechanism could be put in place to not necessarily prohibit these kinds of services but limit their use.

You are exactly right. You have to be OK with each tool and decided if it is right for you.

I do feel it is advertisement. As a CEO of two businesses, we spend an absurd amount of money on advertisement. Advertisement is only effective long term if you have a quality product to go along with it.

Do you have a quality product? -- Then advertise it.

As far as who is doing it.

https://steemit.com/steemit/@bycoleman/bid-bot-activity-report-02-12-18-for-previous-7-days-who-s-paying-the-most-to-promote-their-articles

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