Should bid bot votes be stripped out of the contribution towards reputational score?
Those pesky bots.
One thing I've noticed on Steemit lately is the quick rise in reputation of some users who use paid bot votes to upvote their post to higher dollar values in the hot and trending pages.
Dollar amounts are one of the sole drivers of reputation, and newbies seem to be exploiting this trick as they back fill their posts with dollar laden bot votes to boost their reputational score.
I believe reputation should only come from moral community values, and should not be subject to gameification. Others may disagree and believe it's a truly free market. But then where do our morals end on this?
I recently saw a newbie who shall remain nameless who'd been on the platform only a few months and had a reputation in the high 60s. In the old days of Steemit this would've taken nearly 10-12 months of hard writing to earn. Very few tread that path now. It's been abused by the rise of the paid bots. Quality work is plainly not being seen via the reputational score.
Community values.
This all comes down to the morals of a community and whether we value the reputational numbers that we hold or not - @berniesanders at -18 may be the exception to the rule here, as he is a man unto himself. Bernie is a sociopath that does attack those that prey on the gameification of reputations. Even sociopaths can do good.
The ultimate aim here for all of us is to get to reputation 100 to enable a spam-free network. But what behaviour shall we demonstrate on the way to get there? Yes, many of us on here have made errors on Steemit. Some have corrected them and some have not. @craig-grant for example has been hounded to death from the platform at reputation 75. It's sad in a way for me personally, as Craig was one of the first people I met on Steemit, but he did fall on his own sword with the Bitconnect and Davorcoin debacle.
It's taken me 18 months to get to reputation 72, and I have destroyed my idol of Steemit at times along the way as I patrol its borders and weaknesses. I've published walled garden content, inverted images and many other tricks to test @cheetah. @cheetah does great work, but I'm sure the tweaking of the algorithm persists. @pfunk has done some great work on this, and I've been caned by him and others on several occasions as I walk the perimeter fences of Steemit.
So, as @ned continues to take our platform forward on a full on assault to take on @dan (should he start his own EOS Steemit variant), my money is on Steemit. An EOS Steemit variant would need to build a reputation system with morals that exceed Steemits to be any kind of competition - and thus solve the Steemit's 'stickiness' problem with it's new users. Even after 2 years Steemit still hasn't fully solved this yet.
Hopefully by the time an EOS Steemit variant arrives we'll all have a reputation number that truly means something, as without morals and only greed, the platform remains meaningless.
Steem on!
I would like to see everyone use the promotion feature. It voids the steem thus giving value back to the hodlers. It seems the best way to go, so I occasionally do it.
An enhancement of the Promoted tab might just negate the bots?? Just a random thought!!
I really don’t like the whole paid upvote service concept but it’s seems part of the ecosystem now. The fact people are buying their reputation as well is really the sign that these paid upvote services make The Steem ecosystem a less genuine community.
Governance is currently failing us. Rivals are starting to line up. The fiddling in Rome needs to be called out now before the fire starts!
Absolutely agreed. I certainly smell smoke and hear the sounds of fiddling on the wind.
Also, full disclosure: I paid my oldest boy, @walky123 , a hundred bucks in sp to make a steemvoted and include me in it.....and do some chores. I personally know every person who has a votebot aimed at me. Is this morally palatable? To me it is.
Family or friends voting for you is no problem - as is voting for yourself. When it comes to wholesale bot voting in the thousands of dollars, that is what really shifts reputation quickly. The gameification of reputation is now rife. No one thinks to question it amid the stench of greed.
But according to whom is this a problem.. Who is the board of people deciding what is morally acceptable on steemit. I'm pretty new here but the people who want to control steemit and place their own values on to it are kinda scary to me. This is how oppressive regimes start off, a bunch of people get together with their "great ideas".. then they eventually start pushing them on others, then they start enforcing them.. Very scary.. but I guess this is also natural.
You pay to play on steemit, whether by buying steem from blocktrades or renting delegated steem or taking your chances with the bid bots. Those who fail to see the value of steemit are free to leave, nobody is keeping anybody here.
Are we capitalists or socialists? I think the market decides here, so it's not up to any person to dictate how someone can use the system. The majority of people go for an opportunity when they see it, it's not cheating, it's survival, a natural instinct. I see your point, but I really just don't agree with it. There are a ton of heavily moderated communities out there, I just don't think any actually earn you any money.
As a new member of this community. Really i thought it is common here. And there is a huge number of bots also.
I agree with what you pointed out @mindhunter. And I do not agree with people who do things like that .. it's not sporty ..
In fact, I have been looking for 4 days. And I found a very interesting explanation in your post ..
Thank's @mindhunter .. let me resteem this post ..
Thanks for the RS Jamal. It is indeed the road to ruin. Soon we'll go from Steemit to Game-it!
We do not know what business that bot runs .. but will be honest in using .. we have to believe in ourselves .. cheating can not avail ourselves.
From what I can see, it has become the norm rather than a mere exception. Everyone wants to game the system and as a result, unfortunately, good quality content is kinda fallen along the wayside.
Imo, it's a pity. But I'll also be the first to admit that I do use upvote bots. Not as blatantly as most, but I do. And it's mainly because, otherwise, posts just don't get any attention without some external help.
Just because it's the norm doesn't make it morally right. Even @dan has pointed this out in his good governance post. If Rome is to burn here, then I imagine @dan and his disciples will be holding the matches whilst Rome fiddles ... I may even join them on the outskirts of Rome. My match is ready.
Don't worry. I'll be right there with my torch as well. Gonna make sure there's an abundance of pitch on it so Rome will go down in a ball of flames ;)
I'll even use English matches! :)
)
I would support the area where no one should be able to pay or buy reputation upgrade, to the real fact, it should have been an automated system that should regulate the level of every account, it doesn't make a good moral to the community with what i saw on your post, i think something need to be done. I love Steemit, please people should not destroy it.
I I agree with you about this article. Reputation is very natural from mindet and attitude from what we do
Thanks for the support @elfahlevi