What is a bot

I see a lot of remarks here (and on other posts) about good bot/bad bot, how to stop them and having a different way of dealing with people or bots.

This points to a basic lack of knowledge about bots and the way the steem blockchain works.

A quick introduction

The steem blockchain (not Steemit) is a decentralized database, owned by noone. After the blockchain came Steemit Inc. They maintain the blockchain, make changes if appropriate or necessary, and are basically the "Guardians of Steem".
Now, having said that, this does not mean they control Steem, nor do they want to. Changes are discussed within the community, with the witnesses having a big input in this process.
What you're most likely are looking at now (steemit.com) is only one of the frontends to the blockchain, but you could also use chainbb or busy.org.

If you look at steemtools.com you'll find a whole range of programs/software to read/write the steem blockchain.

This is because the blockchain itself is open. Accessing the blockchain requires an interface, but you could write this yourself as well.

So as far as steem is concerned, a user or a bot are the same. It cannot distinguish between a person or an automated process.

So, unless we want to completely change steem and steemit, and make this a completely closed system (Hello Facebook), we just have to live with it and come up with pragmatic solutions to tackle the issues.