Agreed. The issue with many of the bots is that they're abused by people who have no interest in the platform itself, and are simply here for money. That's why you'll see awful posts with just an image (likely not their own work) and one sentence receiving high rewards.
It's a shame because it does highlight poor content while others struggle to gain any attention with their well-created posts. Like you say though, it's a case of use it yourself or see others do it and find yourself stuck.
I think some more strict rules enforced by the community at large would be helpful?
Would people actually profit from buying upvotes if they just post uninteresting content? I doubt that many additional people would upvote such a post, even if it's in the hot or trending section.
How would you get consensus among the community for stricter rules? I reckon that something like that would only result in additional flag wars.
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You're probably right about the flag wars, yeah. It is a very difficult situation to police, but it's a shame that people are abusing the system.
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