Look forward to reading what you come up with!
I tend to think we can get further with cooperation and "carrots" than we can with taking adversarial stands and beating people with sticks to create compliance.
I'm not against the bid bots, per se, I'm against their misuse. SO why not INVOLVE the bid bot operators in the process?
I know @yabatmatt already indicated support... so why not others? And why not create a trending that's there because the bot owners commit maybe... I dunno... 20% of their voting power every cycle to organically upvote worthy content for free? Based on manual curation. It would be a HUGE incentive for content creators to do their best to "win" one of those coveted votes... and it would be a great "advertisement" of goodwill for the bot owners to sell their remaining 80% of voting power. It might predate your being here, but there was a time when @blocktrades would throw an upvote at significant posts and that was like hitting the jackpot... I never got one, but I have friends here who did.
thanks!
gah your last paragraph is RIGHT ON THE MONEY!! initiatives like @ocd, @sndbox, @curie and @tribesteemup by @kennyskitchen truly keep me coming back and back again!!! i want to keep creating better content because of these!! they are communities who are truly enlivening and perpetuating the blockchain as something people want to come back to. i know i don't speak for only myself when i say that this is what keeps a lot of us going!
i did get a couple @blocktrades votes reaaaally early on and totally made my week! it's one of the reasons i stayed on and kept creating content.
i keep my standards for my own posts incredibly high because i want to keep that ethos of what is possible on the blockchain. and, as i get more followers i really want to keep upping the content to keep that high quality and not be one of those who "sloughs off" and shitposts when people give me support.
your idea is "spot on"!! that would truly "be a great "advertisement" of goodwill" and i believe would draw more people here!!!! AND KEEP THEM (that retention is a huge issue)...