Steemit bots are a serious problem that threatens our community

There's no denying that bots are a powerful resource that enables a lot of Steemit users to improve exposure and earn more rewards for their content. But, are bots good for the Steemit platform and the overall community? I don't think so.

I haven't been using Steemit for long and to be frank, it was a bit of a learning curve to begin with and I consider myself to be computer literate. Well, above average.

I felt excited when I first discovered Steemit and I checked my email every day while waiting for my account to be approved. I recognised the potential of Steemit straight away and felt this is exactly what I've been waiting for for a long time.

Then I noticed that bots were being used and I confess, my heart sank a little. I was already aware of the learning curve to get to grips with the Steemit platform and to get my head around the confusing blockchain/crypto technology involved. Now I had bots to contend with that looked even more confusing.

I started to doubt myself and considered giving up but thankfully I persevered and put bots to the back of my mind.

Over time I got to understand how these bots work and what they do. I soon realised how many bots there actually were and how many people were using and abusing them.

I really do see the advantages of using bots but I can't get over my initial reaction to seeing them being used on Steemit for the first time when my heart sank. I stuck around but I'm sure many others wouldn't.

THE MASS MARKET APPEAL OF STEEMIT

If there is one thing I know about customer acquisition, especially online, it's that people are easily scared off because most customers start from a 'doubt' mindset. It's a combination of clever persuasion marketing and an easy seamless user experience that alleviates these doubts.

Unfortunately, most people are already confused and intimidated by blockchain technology so platforms such as Steemit are starting out from a point of a disadvantage when it comes to mass market appeal.

It's never been easy to explain complex systems to a large audience. The likes of Facebook and other social media giants have had to drip feed their users with new features over a long period of time.

It's up to the developers and designers at Steemit to make the platform as easy to use as possible and so far, I think you guys have done a fantastic job. However, I believe the use of bots will work against you. Maybe they already are.

I imagine many people getting scared off when they see these bots being used by the community. Especially with them being so widespread across the site. Not to mention the spammy techniques being used to promote these bots but that's another conversation.

For this particular issue regarding the use of bots, I think there could be a solution. (Maybe) We could stop bots from being so predominant in the feeds. Maybe create some new rules around bot promotion or even hide all conversation about bots with an opt-in or opt-out feature built into the site.

However, this doesn't solve my biggest problem with bots and possibly the most important issue.

VOTING MANIPULATION

Using bots to boost the votes on your content or to delegate your voting power has obvious advantages for the people who use them. These advantages are mostly financial.

But using these bots has already done irreversible damage to the voting system on Steemit.

The voting system on Steemit no longer has the social proof reputation it once had when all votes were cast organically by humans. Before bots, I imagine you could find valuable content that had naturally earned their votes.

Now that bots are manipulating the votes for financial reward, it means the voting system has lost its natural credibility and a high number of votes no longer indicates high-quality content.

I think this is such a shame because as a community of content providers, we have lost the benefit of long-term social proof in exchange for the short-term financial gain of a few.

I believe the long-term benefit of an organic voting system for content providers and the community as a whole, far outweighs any short-term gains made from bots. It's the community that suffers the most because bots have distorted our ability to trust the votes.

Another serious problem for this community of content providers and content consumers is the people who are only here to use bots for financial reward. Bots encourage this behaviour to game the system which I think is worrying.

Maybe, I've got it all wrong and this is all by design.

STEEMIT'S VISION AND MISSION

Through our vision of empowering entrepreneurs to tokenize the internet, our primary roles in the Steem ecosystem are providing the community with software enhancements to the Steem blockchain, modular framework applications made up of components that can be leveraged by application developers and inspiration through these platforms to entrepreneurial end-users. We believe we must build in ways that create as many opportunities — and catalyze as many amazing Steem-based entrepreneurs and communities — as possible.

With more than a dozen self-sustaining user-oriented applications (such as Busy.org, D.Tube and Uptopian.io) already integrated, Steem has more widely used applications than any other blockchain. There are more tools coming to spur adoption of Steem much faster, such as Steem’s Smart Media Tokens and Steemit’s Communities. Because of these developments, as well as the active Witnesses, community-oriented developers, and the platform’s track record - we believe there will be more than 100,000 entrepreneurs of meaningful standing building businesses on Steem within five years. Our goal is to deliver the tools and interest that crystallizes this future — one rich with opportunity for people to build their business on Steem.

Taken from @steemitblog
Link: Steemit Winter Update: 2017 reflection, our Vision Statement and Mission, and a look forward

So with that in mind, bots do seem to fit into this idea. However, by allowing bot's does this catalyze as many amazing Steem-based entrepreneurs and communities — as possible or does it hinder them? It's a dilemma that's for sure.

From what I'm seeing, the opinions on bots seem to be very divided. What's your opinion on bots?

I've been meaning to write this for a couple of weeks but I was inspired to write this post today by @chronocrypto because of this blog post: STEEMIT Witnesses we have a problem