i am really confused about the arguments about whether voting bots are good or bad or just useful tools. everyone seems to have a conflicting opinion, and i am concerned because most treat them as a get rich quick scheme without weighing the costs. the question is, do bots negate the need to power up as heavily in the platform? shouldn't we be incentivizing curation instead?

I think an even bigger problem is the curation services, which only reward posts by authors under a certain rep, leaving anyone just getting a handle on steemit earning less than the person who has been around two weeks. they skip over some subsets of people entirely, those who dont have the proper skills, equipment or opportunity to write these dream posts that curators look for. the people who tend to get rewarded are (well off) authors who put out like water. aren't we then rewarding the tech writer over the poor farmer? i think we need to widen our gaze as a community, and work together to reward ALL good work, not just those in our own tiny cliques.