Yep.. and not to mention the fact that selling Facebook-likes and followers is a relatively big industry, I can only imagine how many abuse in ways of selling Steemit upvotes/followers will ensue. It's already happening in plain sight, with people selling their upvotes/resteems for SBD, but it's pretty limited still. What happens when the scale enlarges and this takes over the entire system on Steemit?
We all love decentralization, right? So why are we supporting/allowing a new kind of digital centralization through whale-accounts which we all have to use in order to get noticed? We hated this about banks, but now we are paying fees to intermediaries again..
From the Steemit white paper:
Selling votes is undeniable financial manipulation, and there are various other mechanisms that are as well. Voting by bots is just breaking Steemit. I feel such manipulation is the primary reason that appreciation in Steem price is limited. It is impossible to prove that this or that particular issue is the more weighty, but my review of the concerns of posters in my 90 days here has revealed no greater concern by those indicating concern. Further, the amount of posts and comments either focused solely on money is pretty high, and blatant pandering remains an unpalatable and huge proportion of comments on the posts of those with substantial holdings of SP.
When it comes to using voting bots, even those with all the good and altruistic intentions in the world, I just don't. I am only interested in the opinions of people (well, except dogs. Dogs are the best people I ever met.), and just have no interest in the opinion of algorithms.
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Great find from the whitepaper!
And yes, I agree on your points. I sometimes do use randowhale even though I'd prefer not to use it. Like you, I care about real people reading my posts. But the simple fact is that right now, if you don't use a bot to upvote you, you simply don't even get seen, let alone be read, by real people. I'm seeing so many minnows making super lengthy posts in the New section.. sure they are a bit noobish, but you can tell they put serious time into writing it. It's just so sad to see it drop into obscurity with 2-3 total views. I can almost feel their disappointment.
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LOL I so resemble that remark!
I just posted a lengthy screed for which (my memory is poor, and I didn't pay much mind anyway) am getting less than $2 in rewards.
I just am not posting for financial rewards. What really disappoints me is the lack of criticism. I depend on criticism to straighten me out when I'm wrong, and absent eyeballs I don't get straightened out.
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