RE: PLEASE JOIN ME IN FLAGGING A SHIT POST & REWARD POOL ABUSER
Fact of the matter is, SBD and STEEM are financial instruments. I read another post a while back about it being frowned upon when people power down and withdrawal their steem.
Not sure if you share that opinion. But it can't be both ways. If people are going to keep funds in the platform, invested or earnt, then they're going to want to see a return on those funds. If the platform isn't supposed to operate in that way then there is something wrong with the platform that needs to be addressed from a design and functionality perspective.
What you're fighting is essentially human nature. If I have $1000 to add to steem, I'm doing it on the proviso that I'm expecting that $1000 will grow. It's the same if I earn $1000 within the platform and choose not to withdraw it. I only keep it there because I expect growth, one way or another.
I appreciate the healthy and respectful discussion about this matter.
No worries, and I can certainly see your point. That said I think much of the issue has to do with the platform itself, it's limitations, it's flaws and the openness that has allowed vote selling operations to spring roots here and flourish. I think that vote selling in many ways goes against the original intent of the platform to allow users to decided what content is the best and enrich the overall health of the site. They are basically a little black market niche and human nature finding a way to create additional profit. In all I can not blame the individual users as they are simply manipulating the tools available to them to their benefit, just as I do when I downvote them. The platform needs fixing, vote sellers need to be eradicated and we need to get back to the purest form of the platform where good content is promoted organically.
i do think that vote selling performs a purpose as well. Currently - pretty much the only way to climb the ranks so to speak is to either use vote bots, or have some whales that vote generously. There is too much of a gapbetween the votes of a minnow and the votes of a whale.
I had a post the other day that had something like 65 votes. They were all minnows, so it yielded me around 0.20 in rewards. for something that has that much interest I would expect it to be much higher. If i had just 1 whale it could have been in the hundreds.