This post is not intended to be a step-by-step tutorial on using bots, far from it!

Its purpose is to inform, raise awareness and explain why a reflection is needed.

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Hello dear Steemians,

I decided a while ago to do a post about bots.

I needed to understand more precisely how they work, the ins and outs, and I also wondered (I know, I'm curious 😃) why they aroused so much controversy, even hatred, and why theyi were such a "delicate" subject?

I will list all the bots I found during my pilgrimages on Steemit which lasted a few weeks (non-exhaustive list).
I will specify for each of you a certain number of elements, and if you feel like it, you may go further.

Bid-Based Voting Bots

These bots operate on a "bid"system.

Users send a certain number of SBD or STEEM, depending on the bot, and when the bot reaches 100% of its Voting Power, it distributes one upvote at 100% that it shares between each Steemians who has made an offer, pro rata to the amount of money involved (don't worry if you are a little lost, it's normal).

This offer period (round) generally lasts two hours and forty minutes which corresponds, on average, to the time it takes for the Voting Power (I will use the abbreviation VP for the rest of the post) to regenerate after an upvote.

I wanted to clarify this because when I looked at the use of some people, I wondered if they understood the principle or if they believed they were on EBAY, where the biggest bid wins everything!

But since sometimes images are clearer, I have prepared a small diagram of what should happen in the best case:


And yes, I did say in the best of case, because in the worst case, that's what it is:


or:


So then, the Steemian who sent the five dollars, is it no longer on EBAY that he believes himself, but on another planet?
In the beginning my first impression was,

but he doesn't understand anything about running Steemit and to do that is not possible. What does he expect?
Pay a five SBD bot when it has only one 100% upvote of $1.86...

But it was later that I finally think I understood... but for the moment, I'm not telling you any more. 😉

I will give you the basics of how they work, not all the "keys" to use them.
It is voluntary and if after reading my post, your heart still tells you so, you are free to go and get the information you need.

I will tell you all the parameters to take into account so as not to use bots too badly.
Because in many cases, in fact, this may be the case, because of some people's intentional or unintentional wrongdoing...? 😉

There will never be any question of profitability because I find this term completely inappropriate in bot upvote.
It’s by insisting too much on this concept of profitability, that this "initiative" of a bot which is surely full of good intentions at the origin, can very quickly become unhealthy.

In short, it all comes down to one shot at poker because even using the excellent tool provided by @yabapmatt, you are not immune to a big bid coming in behind and making sure that you will receive an upvote well below the amount you sent.

Let's go for the bots!

The description of each one includes the minimum amount to send in order to be able to participate, the amount of the vote when the bot is at 100%, and finally the little extras (or less) that I find useful to underline.

Paid Upvote Bots

The principle is easier and is not impacted by the luck factor. You have to send a few cents to some SBD, and depending on the percentage of their VP you get an upvote of a certain percentage.

The most important parameter to take into account is their VP, because below a certain threshold, it will make you "lose money."

A small example in two cases:

Let's go for the bots!

@minnowbooster
Minimum paiement 0.01
100% upvote value 43.70
This is, I think, known by many of us by its images that do not go unnoticed!
In my opinion, its policy is to limit abuses, if only by applying a daily and weekly limit.

You don't need to "become a goat" by sending it an amount that is constantly returned to you:

because with this website, you know in real time how much you are allowed to send.

@randowhale
As far as I know, this is the first bot to have taken office on Steemit.
Pay attention to the % of VP! From what I have seen, below 75%, you recover less than your shipment in most cases.
This bot sleeps until its VP regenerates.
To be informed, there is the extension since it sleeps a lot! It's pretty convenient.
EDIT: When I reread my article, while going to take a look at all the bots, I found this post which indicates that @randowhale has stopped its "activity," at least for the moment.
I tried, in vain, to find out more. Maybe it’s a sign before the runner that something's coming up?!?

@treeplanter
Send min. 0.001 and max. 0.25. The maximum exists then! I'm just wondering why, in order to avoid all abuses,"why don't all bots apply it?!?”
100% upvote value 1.23
My darling, I really love it and for several reasons.
From the start, the tone is set on the blog's presentation page:

Plant trees and give upvotes to others!

So it's impossible to use this bot for yourself, it's magical. This allows two beautiful actions: supporting a Steemian on which we have flashed by rewarding his work and participating in the safeguarding of the planet through this initiative:

I'll share your gifts. 50% of them go directly to Cameroon to finance our conservation program to save the Abongphen Highland forest....

For more information, I urge you to visit the website.

@qurator
You must be a member of @qurator to use it. Here is its post about the conditions of use.
This makes it possible to upvote only Steemians that offer correct content.
The registration fee is 2 SBD and must be sent to @qustodian.

@spinbot
It offers truly innovative operation. You will find its presentation in this introductory post.

For more information, I invite you to consult the @kingscrown post.
You can also access the website here.

@drotto
Of what I could read on the banner of his blog (there is no post):
Send min. 0.001
100% upvote value 0.66
A shipment of 0.001 gives the right, more or less, to an upvote at 1% or 0.01. It is @inertia who created it and provides its code for the bot on Github.
It is this code that makes @booster, @discordia, @minnowhelper, @lovejuice bots work.
On this subject, @msg768 has developed a tool with a calculator and a stopwatch that indicates the rounds. This interface only works with bots using DrOtto code. For more information, I let you read this post.

@minnowsupport
The wonderful one! Which no longer needs to be introduced.
For those who don't know, I invite you to take a look at the @sasha.shade post. which will allow you to understand everything and know the procedure for registering.
So, don't hesitate any more

Conclusion

This is the moment I feared most in the writing of my post. 😊
I was not convinced of the use of bots before writing my article, but I confess that I didn't know enough and that I let myself be guided by the advice of other Steemians.
It is precisely for this reason that I felt the need to better understand, and to help you understand better.
During the writing of my post, I tried to use bots as much as possible, to test, judge, evaluate (to the extent that I thought was reasonable!), and I keep a bitter taste.

I would like to mention just two "positive" points:
👉 It’s a good way to reward others when our upvote value is ridiculously low.
If you don't have a lot of SBD/STEEM but you are registered on minnowsupport, think about it!
It was @jamisa who rewarded me like that for the first time.

Instead of using @minnowsupport for herself (I remind you that we can request it twice in twenty-four hours), she used it for me.
👉 We gain visibility, we can't deny it.
I am convinced that most of us are more than happy to enter a post that has already been a little upvoted, right?
The impact seems to me much more important than, for example, the use of the promotion.

And unfortunately, but I repeat,"this is just my opinion," there are many more negative points:
The valorization of mediocre content, plagiarism without distinction, the abuse of some people who, after posting, and without even allowing time for their posts to be noticed, systematically unleash the various possible and imaginable bots, the abuse of others who "artificially" raise their posts to several hundred euros, and their comments often without interest which obtain more than most of my posts....

I would still have a lot of things to say, but the purpose of this post is not to try, on charge or in defence, bot upvotes, so I will stop there.
A little note of humor, to relax the atmosphere!

This comment made me laugh a lot!

I will summarize my feelings at the end of this post, after at least a month of research, investigations by saying:

Bot abuse is dangerous for SteemitHealth!

It’s important to me to give the last word to two separate bots:

• the @busy.org bot ( @fabien, @ekitcho, @gregory.latinier, @sekhmet, @kpdesigns) that rewards you if you use Busy to post your articles.
  It is here where you can find out the conditions, but in summary, the percentage of upvote depends on the SP of your followers.
  So do not hesitate to post via Busy; the interface is really at the top and multilingual.
• the bot of @utopian-io, the first meritocratic bot upvote, an example to follow.

It really makes me finish this post which was very difficult to write on a beautiful image for Steemit's future.
You can read the @elear post on this topic which also thinks that upvote bots are bad for Steemit!

It seems obvious to me that Steemit Inc. should take a position on this increasingly delicate subject, in order to clarify the situation and ease tensions.
For example, banning through a captcha seems impossible to me, given all the useful and even indispensable bots that gravitate on Steemit.

Albert Einstein,

An unresolved problem is a misplaced problem.

To go further:

• Article from @fubar-bdhr, that explains for the bots are bad for steemit.
• Article from @inertia, which even if it is a bit of a discharge because I remind you that he is the owner of @drotto, clarifies things well about the use of bots.
• Article of @flauwy which takes again the history of bots on Steemit. The comments are also very interesting.
• Article of @ruah posted via utopian-io, which summarizes very simply the different types of bots and suggests modifications for the new @utopian-io bot.
• Article from @raised2b which proposes a solution to slow down the use of bots.

Applications I discovered while writing my article

• Steemistry created by @followbtcnews and @crimsonclad, which allows you to search articles by keyword. Here's the introductory post.
• SteemWorld created by @steemchiller that allows you to have an overview of your account on a very simple and very pretty interface.
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Christel French Girl Steemiens.
Thank you @lenadr for the correction.

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Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors

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