No armor needed

I'm not exactly sure how that happened. I asked for civil discussion last week about voting bots, and every single person that commented on my post (and I believe it's a new record for longest string of comments on my posts) was kind, insightful, open to discussion and respectful.

I thought for sure that there would be that one person..... but, there wasn't. So thank you! I think THAT was exactly what I needed in order to have the confidence to further discuss that topic openly.

Here is what I confirmed after talking to many people in the comment section.

Voting bots are neutral, but the person who uses them determines whether they're used for abuse or for use. (I did know this before, but it was good to see so many people agreeing that "bots" aren't bad. Abuse of bots is bad.)

There are people with large accounts that are not using their daily votes (for a number of reasons). Bots help to keep the steem flowing and being exchanged and distributed. This is a good thing - that we can encourage people with large votes to actually USE their votes! We WANT this. We NEED this. Who wants a $30 (or more) vote to go unused every 2 hours? This is good for EVERYONE. It's a win/win/win/win. The only time that it's bad is when.....

People abuse this by writing nonsensical posts and then buying a vote on their post. THIS is another reason why people with HIGH QUALITY content SHOULD be using voting services. Why? Because it helps to NEGATE the abuse. The more people that use these services (like @smartsteem, @sneaky-ninja, @booster ...) to promote high quality content - the more all the rewards get dispersed across the board. When there are more high quality posts getting the same recognition as the junk - who would you vote for? The junk? or the cream? Exactly.

Bots aren't ideal. Ok. Maybe not. But they are here to stay for a while. All the more reason to use them properly while the bad content is abusing them (see previous point)

"Buying a vote feels weird." Does it feel weird because you're afraid of what people might say or because you think it's wrong? When I wrote my first book, I didn't hire a marketing company because I wanted to do it all by myself. I found out the hard way that a marketing team is the way to get your voice heard among the crowd. Steemit is no different. There is nothing wrong in promoting your hard work to increase visibility. That's exactly what we're talking about - buying promotion.

The cost of purchasing that promotion is usually the same amount of profit that you receive, however the benefit is that you're possibly gaining new followers with that attention, and you're increasing your SP, and your reputation as well. These are all valuable things to Steemians who want what's BEST for Steemit in the long run. By having people who are willing to promote their good content, this strengthens the platform. It's very discouraging to see the crap posts getting high rewards. Good posts can be getting the same thing, let's just stop bashing bid bots unfairly - and recognize that we can negate the abuse by promoting the proper use.

Final point - have you ever been the recipient of a large vote? You know that when a Curie comes - the 300 votes that follow are automatic, right? I absolutely LOVED getting my Curie. It was like winning a jackpot! My GINA went nuts with ding! ding! ding! But those were automatic votes, from people following a trail. Why is it that people have no problem accepting a Curie - but then frown upon other automatic votes? I'm sure you worked just as hard for the Curie as you did with other posts (if you're concerned about content). What about if someone purchased a vote on your behalf? Did you accept that? So, I say to you - if you're ok with one, you should be ok with the other. If you would prefer not to buy a vote for yourself, then I have another suggestion for you. Why not purchase a vote on someone else's behalf? Spread the love throughout your community, support high quality content, strengthen the platform and make a stronger Steemit that showcases people who deserve to have those votes.

In conclusion, I've seen a lot of people say they took a week to experiment, and found it to be what finally convinced them to do it on a continual basis. I'm taking the plunge! I've registered with @smartsteem, and I've started the process to be whitelisted. If you're interested in knowing more about how they work - check out this post by @therealwolf. You can either buy a vote straight out - or you can choose to bid (with some risk). See what works for you! I will also be promoting the posts for our new @welcomewagon initiative, so that our account will grow stronger, get our message out to more people, and our votes will be worth more to our recruits. I'm excited to be able to do that for our community, for our newbies, and for a stronger Steemit.

If anyone else wants to try, I'd love to keep in touch with you and see how your experiment turned out as well!

Thank you again - to all the people who contributed in kindness and respect! @bengy, @iamthegray, @thehive, @robertandrew, @creatr, @c0ff33a, @lost-ninja, @penderis, @zen-art, @nikolina, @ydraz, @anjkara, @youngboss, @giddyupngo, @ancapbarbie, @enginewitty, @malloryblythe

Image source: Armor

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