I myself have been a sucker for randowhale, I'm not sure why, I suppose it just feels nice to give your post that little extra boost and make it appear that they are worth more, because you know they are and you put a lot of hard work into them,
but when you really think about it, it's kind of a seedy affair that always leaves you feeling a bit selfish, which is not what steemit is all about, it's supposed to be a mutual aid society but the only one benefitting from randowhale is rando and maybe you, if you are lucky enough to profit from it.
Yesterday I discovered @promoted, this bot upvotes you if you promote your post, the bot does not make a profit, you get your post in the promoted tab and your post gets that little extra boost, you won't make money but the money you spend on promotion goes back into the steemit eco-system and the reward pool grows instead of it going into some guy's pocket.
Another approach would be "what goes around comes around" I have started to donate SBD to good causes as I feel it is a huge part of what steemit is about, the other day I read a post by @stellabelle about @joanaltres who has over 10k followers, she resteems other people's posts to get them more exposure, she does this out of the kindness of her heart and never makes anything herself, she does it to help, in this post @stellaballe encouraged people to send a donation, so I did, only 8 SBD but every little helps right,
within an hour of doing this @joanaltres went on my blog, found a post of mine she really liked and resteemed it, within a day of her resteeming I had gained 40 new followers my post got 80 more views and I think It gained about $30.
This has happened on more than on occasion, once I donated 5 SBD to @elderfinancial who was trying to get a friend to join steemit, @elderfinancial posted his friends artwork and promised to donate all proceeds from the post to his friend to get her to join, I really liked the artwork and thought she would be huge asset to the steemit community so I upvoted 100% and gave a donation,
unfortunately, she didn't join so @elderfinancial gave back the 5 plus another 2 for being nice.
My whole point with this post is to prove that what goes around comes around, and the more good you do on this platform, the more respect you will get and the more you will grow because of that, and if you really want to see your post go up a few bucks, then just promote it and @promoted will bless you with a upvote that won't leave you feeling like a cheater.
I don't agree with whale hunting but on this occasion I say lets turn rando into lipstick. Shout out to @heimindanger for making me question my rando addiction, all SBD from this post will be used to promote a minnows post.
Update, This post has now been resteemed by the great @joanaltres, in addition to the SBD from this post being used to promote a minnows post @joanaltres will also resteem the chosen minnows post.:) any suggestions for a worthy minnow leave in the comments, I will get one of Daughters to choose from 5 minnows in need of a boost :)
Peace and love to the World
Good discussion and an important topic. I do know of a certain whale who is thinking about dedicating some of his SP to downvoting posts voted up by bots as a means of suppressing the use of them.
This is a really tough issue for me to decide where I stand, because I'm very "pro minnows". I understand the frustration some of them are experiencing. It's hard to tell them "don't use voting bots" when they are trying so hard to get ahead the normal way and seeing little benefit for their effort.
At the same time, the bot owners are not using any oversight to deny upvoting on posts that many in the community would regard as poor quality or thin content. That encourages draining the reward pool for any content and bypassing the community's judgement entirely.
Resteeming this to 12,000+ followers.
Edited: As I've had a couple of days to think about this more, I've decided to take a firm stand against the voting bots, and from this point forward I won't be resteeming posts where a voting bot has been applied - the exception being when someone has used a voting bot to gift a vote to the author of the post. I also can't do anything about voting bots that are used after I have resteemed the post, except to not resteem that author's posts anymore.
It's great to see your kind, genuine views on the platform. As a minnow loving the platform and info sharing is amazing, my firstborn week I got downvoted on one comment I made on my second day that I'm still puzzled about but I've just enjoyed resteeming and upvoting good content and I hope to keep adding value myself. Love steemit!
Yes It is a tough one I agree, but I really think if we minnows did not rely on rando to boost our post then we would find other ways, like engaging with the community and helping each other,
So far that has worked better for me than any vote I ever payed for.
Someone suggested that the Bots are a good way to boost other people posts like an extra form of support, but that's exactly what you can do by promoting their post, the other day I boosted someone's post by promoting it, I payed 10SBD, there post got promoted and they got about $6 upvote from @promoted and instead of the money going in some guy's pocket, it goes back into the reward pool. Win win win, I think together as a community we can come up with alternatives such as this to help minnows.
Thank you @joanaltres for your feedback on this matter and for the support by Resteeming,
I am actually going to donate the SBD proceeds of this post to a minnow by way of promoting their post, and I would like you to pick the person you think is most deserving, if you want to?
I don't want to be the one to choose, but whoever you pick I'll also resteem as an additional boost. :)
Great idea thank you very much.
I like your idea of promoting, instead of bots. That makes a lot more sense and seems more honest and beneficial to the steemit community as a whole.
Fortunately, not all bots being created are voting bots. I resteemed a post a little while ago about a friend-finder bot for Steemit that matches your interests with others on the platform so you can connect with them on the Discord channel they have set up.
this was the kind of bot that could really be super helpful, I was a big booster bots fan, I'm only almost 3 weeks old here, so I thought bots could be a great "strategy" to make my posts more viable, but with time I realize this is nothing but cheating on yourself, your hard work, and the whole idea of the community. A nexus bot, between members, matching same topics and tests sounds amazing, we need to connect more between us, I joined Discord two days ago, and instantly changed the way I thought about Steemit, people really want to help you in the best way, and is amazing what can we do if we make it to get all together helping each other. This is awesome to read, and see how this is taking the right shape.
Wow that sounds great! I look for that post. Thanks!
Since I became active on Steemit in May, I've heard a lot about bots and how, as a minnow, they can really make all the difference. However, the idea just never seemed quite right to me and after reading this, I'm glad I haven't made use of them. I'll stick with what I call 'conscious curation' by upvoting and resteeming content that I've actually read. I would also much prefer to be upvoted by someone who has read and genuinely enjoyed my content rather than by a bot.
Thanks
That's a great idea, giving people an incentive not to use the pay for vote bots, I have also been thinking and I think the only way for it to stop would be if there was a donate or a boost button on posts, people could boost a post by donating or the author of the post could directly boost there own post, this I think would slow down the Bots if not eliminated them. Boost button on posts, how can we make that happen :)
In fact I have just made a post about it.
Hello @joanaltres, I have donated the SBD from this post to @sandzat, she is a very good writer who does really good quality post's, I think she can go far here on steemit so that's why I'm choosing @sandzat for the donation and the resteem :) let me know what you think? . Here is the post chosen for a resteem https://steemit.com/life/@sandzat/childhood-life-as-an-adult-and-a-great-wish-called-steemit
Take care :)
Based on this reply, I am going to try your upvoting offer that I have in my wallet. I am a new steemer - a content creator here to get my message out - I am 100% against bots that do not check the content. It's a tragedy in the search results outside of this site and blows credibility.
One video with no text should not rank! This is the one that bothers me the most since it also causes link jumping.
Anyway, thank you for the offer and I will see how it works in a day or so after my post ages.
Nice post. I agree. Voting bots and voting trails are Robot Media. Steemit is not social media it's robot media until the necessary changes are made
I'm a bit of a bot novice, I only really know about rando. but I'm starting to hear of all kinds of bots on here which is a shame.
Thank you so much for this information, I just read the interview and I was touched by her story. What a beautiful person she is Joan! I just made a donation to her, she deserves all the help she can get! Thank you for sharing @markwhittam
That's great we'll done, that's the spirit of steemit, I'm sure this good deed will not go unnoticed, thanks for sharing your thoughts here with us :)
My peasure 😊
I think that as of now there are a lot of authors compared to consumers, this probably makes the bots get a bigger presence than they would otherwise. Over time there should be more people interacting compared to people creating (like most other platforms). When this happens I think that the bots will matter much less :)
Interesting post, upvoted!
This is a very good point, yes maybe in time it will all even out and there will be less need for these Bots.
Thanks @znaffe
They should at least have less presence, there will be other ways to promote content :)
I agree with your message. What goes around does come around. I guess I'm def one these "minnow" things & had wondered what the whole randowhale thing was about...I don't really agree with bots. It's not what I came here for. It took a lot of convincing from friends & girlfriend to join, but it gives me a way to keep up with friends back home after we moved a year ago. That & it's nice to see content from like minded people...upvoted
Thank you @lone-sliver the more people like you that don't see the point in all these Bots the better it will be in the long run for this community. Thanks for the interaction
Hey Mark.. I am new to Steemit and I don't use any Bots. I don't like the Idea of it. I have noticed the Value of my Account slowly going down Towards 50 Cents. Is that because I upvote too much or Because I don't use Bots or a Combination? I Post good Content with Value. Could be I'm just so new as well.
It's because the price of steem is going down, when it goes up your account balance will go up, my account has lost $2.900 this week but it will go back up again don't worry :)
Welcome to steemit, keep on steeming on :)
Okay.. Thanks for this. Now I understand.
I haven't used any bots yet, I don't think but I'm glad they are there for people to decide whatever they want to do and use the options that best suit them.
That's great, Don't start either, they are not good for the community.
Thanks @avva
I wasn't involved with the development of Steemit, so I don't know what is good for the community at this point. I'm still pretty new and glad that it's and open platform and people can do whatever they want. I'm sure if the developers see that anything is completely destroying their platform they will prevent it from happening.
From reading some of the white paper It's supposed to be a mutual aid society, selling your votes to people doesn't really fit in with that in my opinion, yes it's a decentralized platform, but does that really mean people can just do want they want, there is a reason you don't see a load of dick pics on here and that's because people here generally have a bit of respect, and when they don't they get flagged. I am also new here and I was a fan of rando untill I really thought about it, it's one guy make shit loads of money selling his votes to the little guys struggling to make a few penny's of there posts. That to me is just a reflection of the shifty society we live in and not a mutual aid society.
Read the white paper that the founder of steemit wrote, his vision for steemit
I'm with you. I have to admit that I never really fully understood all those voting bots and things. I just want to be a part of a community and make friends. I may not be "progressing" as fast as some others, but I'm having a good time. Upvoted & followed because I know you're a "real" person :)
Haha thank you @denisechips
That's what it's all about really the community the money is just a bonus, if you focus to much on the money it will become like a job, and we hate working :)
I am guilty! I just hate to see my payouts shrink over the 7 days and like to boost it up right before so I can make traction...but patience is the key and I should probably stop wasting my SBD for a couple pennies here or there. My content speaks for itself and with time, people will come to see and appreciate that. I was also thinking of sending some SBD out to people that I really support, like @lukewearechange and @corbettreport...not for anything in return but because I really love and admire what they do and want to support them... I am going to go do that instead of sending it to profiteering bots that don't offer too much in return to the community! thanks for the inspiration.
Great comment, seems like you have the right attitude to succeed here on steemit, and it's great to help someone and not expect it back, then if you do get something in return then it's a lovely surprise.
Thanks for the interaction @michelleart
Keep on steeming on
I have been blessed already and so I am just paying forward my blessing :)
@markwhittam after getting ripped off by the voting bot you mentioned, i quit using it and raised the question as whether they really do what they promise. They have no transparency. Just yesterday I wrote a post about a bot with a ton of followers who promised to resteem a minnows posts if they would follow the bot. Then the bot never resteems, only resteems the creators content. Funny to find your story and you mention @joanaltres who is helping minnows by resteeming and not ripping people off. Great post.
I do believe there is only one winner when using these Bots.
It's amazing what @joanaltres is doing for people on steemit, I believe in karma and she has lots of good karma coming her way :)
@markwhittam this is something a lot of Steemians forget, especially beginners. They come here with the goal of making money. When the real goal is helping others. The goal is to help enough people and money will come as the RESULT. Steem On!