What I don't get is how they can do that a few times per day, everyday, for weeks, not get anywhere, never once think their approach isn't working, blame the platform for being broken, blame the voters for not voting, accuse everyone else of doing something wrong, then quit after spending all that time.

I've seen that happen far too many times. You're right though. Like I said in another comment here, why not just go to the casino and talk to the slot machine.

If they would just look at the system they'd see how they've already purchased many of the large votes, so those people can't come and vote again; look at the culture, as you said, many with a vote ignore bid bot posts; even those simply chasing curation ignore it if the bots have already voted because there aren't any curation rewards left.

Placing a sign outside your shop that says '$50' doesn't help sales. $50, for what? If you have someone out on the street swinging a sign around and saying something, then yeah, people are going to notice. I guess around here they call that 'networking'. They created this culture though where some think helping each other build up their accounts is evil, so they don't want to talk to people and make friends; they just want strangers to come out of nowhere and drop miracles on them. I can't vote for people I don't know exist. If I could, I would but that's impossible. Damn, I'm rambling. Stayed up all night drinking coffee. Sorry about that.