I used to use a bot thinking it would help get eyeballs on my posts and help get the message out, but a while ago I read one of your posts on the bid bot issue and then did some digging on my own into the larger dialogue and realized it just doesn't make sense to use bots if you want the platform to survive and thrive for normal people.

The next thing that helped me change my mind was learning a bit about how the reward pool works, which I did by stumbling across the raging debate between a crypto chart expert and a one-time democratic candidate. Before that I wasn't clear on the reward pool (the exact details are still a bit beyond me) and didn't realize the better somebody else is doing compared to you determines how the reward pool is divvied up. That made it very clear using bots actually hurts other people trying to compete in the free market of ideas. Not good.

And for good measure, there's a guy name yallipapi or something like that, who is actually a very entertaining writer, but he explained exactly how he manipulates the system by dropping $150 on bid bots to get big payouts, and makes it very clear anyone can do the same thing with zero-effort posts.

I just thought wtf, I put hours into stuff trying to get an important message out there, or to write some really nice thoughtful fiction and people can use bots to pump 20 second posts? That's not fair to me or anyone else actually investing time and trying to make a difference, so if I continued doing that, having understood that, I wouldn't be any better. So I stopped. The bidbots must die, the only way to do that is to starve them apparently.