I'm pretty new here, so I don't know much about the subtle nuances of the voting system. I do believe that people should be allowed to post what they like, even if I personally disagree with it. To that end, people should also be allowed (encouraged?) to downvote what they don't like.

I like to think of the steemit platform as more pure in its intentions than other social media sites. I like to pretend that the majority of people using this platform are simply looking for a decentralized way to share information and ideas and make the world a better place, one blog post at a time.

I know the reality is vastly different. I can tell by the number of posts patiently explaining how to maximize your upvote to reap the highest curation reward by clicking at the precisely right time, or the number of people begging for just a little help to get some steem. I know that steemit is a way to make money for many people, but that doesn't stop me from wishing that it wasn't so focused on profit that I see more upvotes from bots than from real humans.

Upvotes or downvotes should be left in the hands of people. This is how we'll foster a meaningful experience that people want to keep coming back to. Gaming the system is only fun for those well-versed in the lingo... for newbies like me it's almost discouraging enough to drive me away.

I see the trending feed as a place for real quality content, not another advertisement. When I receive 20 bot downvotes in a row on a genuine, inoffensive, original post (which I have) it makes me question if I even want to be part of the system.

To wrap it up, I love the idea of steemit, I love the heart of this supportive, genuine community... but the bot invasion is threatening to destroy this idyllic utopia. I fully support limiting the ability of bots to place posts anywhere near the trending pages.