thank you for your informative post. I am keeping it so I can use the links for later. I had thought, after @stellabelle's article that @joanaltres is actually philanthropic - because she lives in a poor country and hopes to help others in those countries make money that they could never make - I did pay her brother for his service once and it did nothing for my post. The other dude 420 it seemed like the accounts were baseless... I decided to give up on all the bots to upvote and just accept low numbers - when I joined last year my posts were much more valueable. I want to let go of my need for money... the other day I wrote a post and this kid posted HIS article in my comments - this seems to be a new thing - I dropped him in steemcleaners and then let him know he was in for an asswhoopin - but then he just posted a bunch more pictures and comments about HIS work in my comments - so I had to flag him and mute him - his article was 100% plagiarized - the cheetahbot had already bitch-slapped him... a few weeks ago someone PAID ME to go look at their post. It seems like a flood of polluted water just flowed into our steem pool - I just hope the tide takes it out, however the idea that "dilution is the solution to polution" is not going to last forever anywhere. As we polute our planet and steemit - eventually we might have to become moral...not holding my breath.