I remember these Marlboro adds on the side of the roads from the time I was a child. They were that well made they could convert even a child in becoming an addicted smoker. It kind of gave you the feeling that you are more powerful and more man that you already are by smoking.
This post is not about smoking though. It's about bid bots and the feeling that I have about them now.
I remember when I started using the Steem platform and seeing all the high ranked users with lots of upvotes thinking that I wanna be like them. And I started to post daily...multiple times a day about almost anything. That was my strategy to make myself a name in the Steem industry. It didn't work...
No matter what I was talking about or what kind of "valuable" information was I presenting on Steemit my posts were almost worth cents. Pretty much like they are today. Soon after facing the cruel reality of being a "10 cent" steemer I discovered a trick used by the big boys. They weren't alone on the podium.
Besides the usual followers that gave them some pretty consistent upvotes they had some "mechanical" ones that loved them for money. Then I thought that this is it. I found the recipe for success on steemit. Only that I haven't had enough steem to get that much love from the bid bots and I wasn't either OK with investing in Steem.
So I started saving pennies to pay for bid bots. After a while I was already in the business of making a rank with the help of artificial appreciation. A rank that didn't grew that much as I was expecting, but at least I tried and I was determined to continue. Until today.
While scrolling through my comments I read again the one from @tarazkp that was saying:
You should ask yourself, what kind of reputation has value if it can be bought?
Perhaps real curators will enter the market once more.
That sparked something in my eager rewards and high rank steemian brain that I kind of noticed for a while. Although I was getting more than a dollar in upvotes when using bid bots without them I was always in my "a few cents" niche. Plus, as he said, what kind of a reputation is that.
After pondering for a second I decided I don't want no self paid love and reputation. For how long will this bid bot thing make big names on Steem I don't know, but I sure know that I want to make mine with real people. The ones that I can interact with, learn from, share with them and grow together.
I am sure many agree that bid bots are not "healthy" at all for the Steem environment, bu still use them. It's their decision. We live in a free world and everybody decides what's the best investment for them. I decided to opt out of bots and opt into humans.
I can't guarantee a successful and rich future but, I can almost promise a higher self-worth when we look in the mirror.
If you think that one day the bots might end (in the form they are now at least), what happens to all of those users who can no longer get their hit? Who are their audience?
I don't know where it will all end up but, there has to be a better way than this.
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I don't think they will ever end, but I prefer going the "natural" way. I wasn't hoping to get rich with Steem from the beginning. At the same time I try to avoid looking at who's upvoting big player's posts. I bet on the idea that your vibe attracts your tribe. That's why I'm trying to make myself a "real" one.
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This post has been upvoted and picked by Daily Picked #27! Thank you for the cool and quality content. Keep going!
Don’t forget I’m not a robot. I explore, read, upvote and share manually ☺️
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