RE: Detailed Opinion on Appropriate Use of Upvote Bots, Bot Abuse, and Quality Content!
What an indepth post you have here...it's funny how something can start as a response, in your case, to @inquiringtimes, and turns out to be a lengthy, detailed blog of your own. Not a waste though, my friend, because you not only managed to convey a great deal of information, but you've given me and hopefully many others, food for thought.
When I began on steemit just 2 months ago, I 'dabbled' in upvoting bots to try and figure them out. If I had a post that I deemed 'good quality', but because of my 'newness' hadn't received much from it, I tried to use the bots to basically "pay myself for a job well done". Other times, I tried them on some photos or posts that didn't take a lot of work, and felt like I had given myself a birthday present when it wasn't my birthday...not very deserving and I must admit, I didn't feel right about it. Or I had a post that was dedicated to my friend who was dying of cancer and all proceeds were going to her foundation....a very good reason to use a bot I think. I have since quit using them altogether now, so really, I'm agreeing with everything you are saying :)
When you say :
"I would like to request people to discuss the effects of bid bots on reputation score system and its repercussions on Steem blockchain. Reputation is only reversible through flags and simple banning won't undo the abuse that happened on an account through bid bots.",
are you suggesting flagging users for voting bot abuse, but in such a way as to lower their reputation level? I'd love to comment more on that, but truthfully, I didn't fully understand your intention.
Finally, thank you for linking @inquiringtimes survey here too. I may end up using much of my same reply there as here, but I think it's certainly a conversation worth having in as many places as possible. On that note, I am a member of @newbieresteemday, an initiative that helps 'newbies'. It started as resteeming but has become so much more of a mentoring and educational initiative; a place to offer support to new folks and not-so-new folks too. So, I'm coming back with that 'hat' on to resteem this to the @newbieresteemday feed in the hopes to educate more folks!
Again thank you so much for this! Cheers:) (Apparently my response could have been turned into a post as well haha)
Thank you for such a wonderful reply. I loved how you told us about your experience with bots.
It's an invitation to openly discuss what to do with the abuse happening related to reputation score. The reason is that it is not talked about enough or given due importance in my opinion.
Simply banning absusive people from using bots may prevent future abuse but there are two more things which can be done.
Flag unpaid posts enough to stop the rewards going to abusers.
Flag regular abusers enough to nullify the effects of bot votes on their reputation score. Most abusers don't deserve to be above 30 rep and still you can see them well over 50.
I am inviting the community to discuss this part openly and decide to do something about it. I hope you get it now.
I see what you're saying here @ilyastarar, and truthfully, I'm not sure what the answer is; what I can do to contribute is make my own post, as per your suggestion on @inquiringtimes survey post to keep the conversation going. Perhaps the more people who are aware of the abuse, the more chance of something being done.
This is a little off topic, but on the same page as 'abuse of the system'...check out @fulltimegeek's post here: https://steemit.com/mmorpg/@fulltimegeek/steem-quest-1-or-slay-the-cave-troll because I think it will be something worth following. Thank you again for all you do and thank you for your kind response!
it is good to see a number of posts sprouting up in response to this one. Mostly I hoped to encourage community discourse, and help to spread awareness of community values to new users. :) I'm grateful that this is being accomplished.
And that's what it's all about, isn't it?! I am a part of @newbieresteemday, which started out as a resteem initiative, but has turned into an educational, supportive and mentoring program for new and not so new folks here. Hopefully a lot will see my post and redirect to yours and @
@ilyastarar's as well..."spreading awareness of community values to new users" :)
I personally invited a lot of people to add their opinion. Some commented and some made posts. I saw Mark's post as well. It is such a great thing to see the discussion catching on. You have a lot of reading to do I guess.