You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Welcome To The Steemit That Vote Buying Hath Wrought
Unfortunately the law is 'the blockchain allows it'. Bidbots incentivise shit, so that is what is served, screw actual content producers and organic rewards systems.
Oh, you thought this place was different to all the lobby group, cronyist, corrupt political systems? ... so did I...
This could be stopped in 5 seconds if the bot operators (other than MarkyMark and therealwolf) had the balls to even implement a blacklist and unvote without refunds.
Instead, they cry that they can do nothing while making 40+% APR for constructing toll roads.
I may lack the words to be as blunt as you can be Lexi, but I think you win the internet for the next 10 minutes.
The blockchain allows it. Freedom! Profit first.
No matter how they tweak it, it was never going to lead anywhere good. The most incredible thing are all the people involved who once spoke of the future, self-governance and integrity. Integrity is only observable in action, not words and we are seeing the way they govern themselves, which is much like any other official government in this world.
@tarazkp as much as I know your intentions come from a very good place in your heart... one thing we can't fail to consider is the fact that even though bid-bots are kind of new. Not so much vote-buying , it just used to be closed groups and arrangements done in private conversations.
So if we effectively eliminate bid-bots we just move the practice right back into the shadows. I happen to believe it makes more sense to properly tag posts that are "promoted" as promoted.
The circles still exist anyway, it is not like they have disappeared. There are massive amounts spread through vote trading and the like. The bidbots haven't replaced that, they have added on top of it.
That is a fair statement... I won't even attempt to refute it. I just wanted to point out that making something illegal (granted I'm being dramatic here) has never stopped criminals (more drama, I apologize) from acting like thugs.
If psychology and thousands of years of history have taught us something is that to effectively change behaviors we have to create an incentive based system that makes it more profitable (I'm not only referring to money) to be a good actor than not.
We can't argue for equality of outcome of course, we simply can attempt to level the playing field as much as possible.
So here are some truths that as much as I don't like them, I have to accept.
We can't believe in "freedom" while arguing for control, we can't claim voluntarism while establishing norms of behavior for the people who participate. We could change the "ism" that let's say dominates the Ethos of the platform, and to some "anarchism" has failed here once again but if we change the "ism" we might just find ourselves switching a radiator leak for a busted transmission.
so, make them unprofitable. Part of the problem is that many of those who have power over decisions on the blockchain also run/delegate to bidbots. Why would they even attempt to kill such a cash cow? Check some of the numbers from @paulag 's latest posts as she has tried to answer some of the questions I have had.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
Just came back from reading it.. thank you for pointing it out.. it does confirm some suspicions I had... trickle up fudgeconomics..
well, the suspicions were raised by at least myself 8 months ago when rando started. there is a lot of nonsense going on and people are much too smart to not realise the game they have been playing for many months now. All of those people who wouldn't join talking about the circlejerk, scam at Steemit... this is proving them right.
"trickle up fudgeconomics.."
Gross, and funny.