RE: Paid Vote BOTS: DOUBLING your INVESTMENT result in a direct LOSS
Great post, @edje! Very timely for myself.
I have used vote bots quite a bit in my short time here, but not so much anymore. I just didn't see the value, overall, as your calculations have shown. While it's fun to see the 'value' of your post pop up after a bought vote, the end result just didn't cut it most of the time.
The ONE positive outcome I do derive from vote bots is the rapid increase in my reputation score. Now in the mid-fifties, I don't see this as compelling a reason to continue with the practice anymore.
And finally, I really do want my posts to be profitable for my followers to support. When I buy votes, the vote bots are gobbling up the curation rewards which means my regular followers get less of a share than they probably would.
I'm not swearing off the practice completely, but simply feel that the net benefit is marginal at best. And it's just one thing less I need to bother with...
Cheers!!
Thanks for sharing your views and experiences. Indeed, reputation can grow quite quickly for newbies when getting some dollars on the clock. Realise after some time, when getting to the high 50, low 60s, reputation increase requires a lot of dollars on the post to increase further. Anyway, you noticed this already, I think. In the beginning REP grows very fast with a couple of dollars, and slows down quickly when REP gets higher and higher.