I have been adamant against using bidbots for a while now. I was initially misled into using them a LONG time ago by @enazwahsdarb. His justification is it shows others you are serious about blogging on Steemit.

I soon came to the realization that this mindset was diametrically opposed to what curation is intended to accomplish along with presenting a myriad of other issues such as bid bot abuse (which I have been striving against but it is an uphill battle with the rise of the many negligent bot owners). Bid bots have effectively hijacked and undermined the process under the guise of "promoting yourself" and/or "advertisement".

As @nonameslefttouse also affirms, these sort of paid programming has a place. The promoted tab! Some people complain that hardly anyone looks at the promoted tab. I say

Exactly!

Most come to Steem for original and interesting content. Not the narcisstic drivel that usually fills trending and not for advertisements!

Users are so absorbed with that little number next to their name that they don't care what it costs in terms of long term viability of the platform.

I have a few things planned to combat the problem but am questioning whether it is worth it to work for such a mostly self-destructive and laughably short-sighted community.

• Further develop @flagawhale project to deter blatant junk post reward manipulation and put the spotlight in manipulators.

• Design front end with capability to filter out bid-botted posts, collusive voters and excessive self voters to weed out selfish users.

• Push for drastic changes to the reputation system. It's broke as hell and gives spammers a lot of leeway due to the limitations on downvotes from users of lesser rank. High rep scammers are difficult to address. The more stake they accumulate by cheating, the more difficult this will become. We need more high rep, high stake users with backbone to really address them but too many are not willing to sacrifice their VP to protect this platform. Damn shame.