I wrote him a little letter on that post.

I guess a solution is hidden between the lines on that post as well.

In this post I suggest posts be moved to promoted and away from trending the moment a bid bot is detected. Combine that with negating votes and rewards once a bid bot is detected(there's no reason to pay an advertiser for advertising to us, that's not how the business works) so people can still see the post, take interest in the author, find their blog and vote for content there rather being able to vote for the advertisement/promotion. The more the member wants to put in, the higher the paid slot in promoted. The ROI should come to the author in the form of leads to their blog much like true promotions/advertising. If people do it properly, it works, and can't be abused for a simple ROI for no other purpose than abuse and leeching profit for nothing out of the reward pool.

The solution is to simply act on it.