Hello @markrmorrisjr
I've just reblogged (and tried to upvote - but got an unknown error, grrrr) this post because the whole idea of rewarding quality posts which are not bot-supported is exactly what's needed here.
Otherwise the rich and established Steemians will dominate, with no incentive to uplift newer members who come to share their views and experience, and to share in the growth (and associated rewards) of Steemit.
With more plans like yours, management may come to see that changes are needed in the algorithms that drive Steemit. To prevent/minimize abuses.
I'm not worried about whether the rich dominate, that's a done deal, even if we take away bots. But, the genuine interaction being gone is a problem. It has always been (the two years since payouts started) that votes were quick and most don't read what they upvote, but at least they were having to click a button. They at least saw a title and a thumbnail and said yes to something. No, the algorithms don't need to be changed, the bots just need to be reduced.
Could that be achieved by rejigging the algo?
Gary
I don't think so. The bots are all full fledged accounts. To separate them out could cause issues. They're the same as your profile they just automate things with software. I don't think the algorithm could be tweaked to filter them without killing curation trails. They child force live login to vote, but with so many apps allowing access to steemit, like busy. Org, etc that would be nearly impossible
Didnt know that, thanks @markrmorrisjr
...which to me exposes a flaw in the concept/structure of Steemit
...which leaves room to question its future. Newcomers will try to play the game right for a while, discover its not working and why, then fizzle out, leaving the bots to play with the next batch of newcomers. Or am I being unduly pessimistic?
No, you're not. In fact, It's akin to money laundering. Many of the whales are taking a back seat on upvoting their own content, instead selling votes, which claims the lion's share of the prize pool, by proxy. They let it filter through smaller accounts, take the biggest part of any curation rewards, spend nothing in the process, wash, rinse, repeat, up to a couple of dozen times a day.
And, there's no cost to them to do it, other than the voting limitation, which is what they're selling. No out of pocket expense, at all. So it's pure profit and they make as much in SBD off of a trending post buying votes, as the author. The author gets the SP, but that comes at a much, much lower rate. It's quite a racket.