The bidbot dilemma
I'm Paul Adams, selfie from minutes ago. This is my first post as @yawnguy2. My “serious” Steemit account is @yawnguy. I will be using this account for blog posts of poetry, geopolitical commentary, whatever doesn't belong on the other one.
I consider I'm on a mission. This requires lots of people to read – and use -- “my stuff”. For the sake of this post, it doesn't really matter what it is or even how valid it is. Having devoted thousands of hours and decades to it obviously I think it's worthwhile. I give away my web-based services free of charge. I don't have a family or expensive life-style to support. I'm 68, not interested in personal fame, not interested in Steemit as an income source.
I've been on Steemit for 58 days now, made 24 high-quality posts (I think), and 142 mostly-thoughtful comments. Within 24 hours of starting, I had 125 followers somehow, many with single-digit reps. I bought 1000+ SP, intending to increase my visibility, but to no avail. 12 days ago my rep was 35, and next to no-one seemed to read my posts. All the upvotes seemed to come from bots or my five openly-sockpuppet accounts: @sockpuppy, @culturesock, @sockstar, @electricsock, and @laughingsock.
It seemed that the average Steemian, posting untrashily but nothing to write home about, had a rep of 60 or more.
Then I discovered bidbots. As I write this my @yawnguy rep is 63.0 (displays as 62). For each of the past 12 posts I have spent mostly 60 SBD on a bidbot. I haven't done a careful analysis, but it seems that all the money pretty much gets returned in SBD and recoverable SP if one doesn't mind waiting 13 weeks.
On average, these posts have garnered 75-100 upvotes and zero legitimate (other than bots and sometimes “cool post bro!”) comments. There is one proper comment earlier today, from someone [I'll edit the post and name him with his permission] who seems to have actually read and digested an entire post on my own blog, in a decent response to a comment I had just made on his blog. This is the first known time I am aware of that someone read a whole blog post of mine, despite over a thousand upvotes. I have had several decent conversations with people who were clearly reading what I wrote, but on their own blogs.
My pay-60SBD-for-play posts have each been trending in their categories. Do they deserve to in their own right? They are not trending because of community interaction and support. Each of these posts generates a few new followers, but I don't know if this is because they've been blown away by the awesome content or because they think they might make a few more pennies in mindlessly upvoting them. Am I denying space in these not-that-popular categories to people with legitimate followings?
I'll probably pay-for-play this post too, partly as an experiment to see what happens, and partly, well, because
I'm on a mission.
Heh.
EDIT: 40 Steem payment: Rep 25 --> 49
EDIT 2: 40 Steem payment: Rep 49 --> 52 (post #2)
EDIT 3: 120 Steem payment: Rep 52.9 --> 55.9 (post #3)
EDIT 4: 120 Steem payment: Rep 55.9 --> 57.8 (post #4)
EDIT 5: 120 Steem payment: Rep 57.8 --> 59.2 (post #5)
EDIT 6: 120 Steem payment: Rep 59.2 --> 60.2 (post #6)
EDIT 7: 120 Steem payment: Rep 60.2 --> 60.9 (post #7)
EDIT 8: 120 Steem payment: Rep 60.9 --> 61.6 (post #8)
EDIT 9: 120 Steem payment: Rep 61.6 --> 62.2 (post #10)
EDIT 10: 120 Steem payment: Rep 62.2 --> 62.6 (post #9)
EDIT 11: 120 Steem payment: Rep 62.6 --> 63.0 (post #11)
EDIT 12: 120 Steem payment: Rep 63.0 --> 63.4 (post #12)
EDIT 13: 120 Steem payment: Rep 63.4 --> 63.8 (post #13)
EDIT 14: 120 Steem payment: Rep 63.8 --> 64.1 (post #14)
EDIT 15: 120 Steem payment: Rep 64.1 --> 64.5 (post #15)
EDIT 16: 120 Steem payment: Rep 64.5 --> 64.8 (post #16)
EDIT 17: 120 Steem payment: Rep 64.8 --> 65.0 (post #17)
EDIT 18: 120 Steem payment: Rep 65.0 --> 65.224 (post #18)
EDIT 19: 120 Steem payment: Rep 65.224 --> 65.455 (post #19)
EDIT 20: 120 Steem payment: Rep 65.455 --> 65.690 (post #20)
EDIT 21: 120 Steem payment: Rep 65.690 --> 65.895 (post #21)
EDIT 22: 120 Steem payment: Rep 65.895 --> 66.076 (post #22)
EDIT 23: 120 Steem payment: Rep 66.076 --> 66.250 (post #22)
Also see yawnguy2/the-bidbot-dilemma-part-2
Well, very interesting mission. I'd like to see what you find in the end.
Thanks for the comment. I'm not searching for anything personally, more a sort of quest for world domination (not literally, but more that sort of thing than searching for some Holy Grail). You can see what I've discovered right now in my @yawnguy blog posts and linked websites; what you discover in your own mind is up to you to find. Have fun. 😊
P.S. I spent a couple of weeks in Turkey in 1970 while at university. Took a week off while our van was being repaired in Instanbul; took the bus down to Antalya etc; visited Erzurum when back on the road on our way to Teheran. Interesting country.
Its very nice that you look for a commenter's posts before replying. Because of that, I am following you from now on 😊
Oh! Thank you very much. To be honest I posted the first paragaph, then an hour later thought to look at your posts. I hope you will still stay, though.
Hahaha sure !
To be honest I thought you were one of those guys in here for the sake of the bidbots. You show up (again now) as one of the top self bidders as can be seen on steembottracker (hit: front run the bots) ; many small fish do check that column and then vote on you or chbartist for instance for curation without reading the post itself yet alone comment. I also use bidbots a lot on a smaller scale but have a favorite tag as well while talking to the same people via discord every now and then. Greetings from Holland. I will now read some of your posts!
Ah, that's interesting, goldrooster from Holland. Thank you. I didn't know about the front-run-the-bots link -- it explains all the upvotes before the bot fires.
on steembotracker this morning looked like it was down to a dozen bots,,, looks like a lot packed up shop
I tend to use just one now. The first time I used a couple that posted replies detailing my bids -- I won't say I was mortified but I prefer the slightly more discreet ones!
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