The thing is we already have this option, its called promotion. Which is actually even fairer as whales are not getting enriched by it. Just no one wants to use it. Not sure if anyone browses for new content there. I actually never have, but will go take a peek after writing this.
The thing with the newspapers is they actually do get eyes on your work or no one purchases the ads. Except for the mega spenders hitting trending I think for the most part this is not getting eyes on posts. Which is why so many who have been using the votebots keep spending with little interaction from their follower base. The few followers who they collect are mostly bots. I can say with surety I don't know why most of my followers are following as they do not vote or interact with me. Bots or the follow for follow crowd I am guessing.
Overall I think you may be onto something though. It will take away the incentive of the buyers without all the harsh feelings from down votes. Then the whales will go back to circle voting and return things to how it used to be from what I have read. Leaving the rest of us to socialize and grow through smaller connections that have little to do with trending or hot cats, just as it is now.
This or behind the scenes pay4vote is likely but compared to the scale we have at present, the reward pool would not be hit as hard.
Every 2.4 hours, something In the region of 5 (conservative) million SP is giving a 100% upvote. The bots maximise the efficiency of taking from the pool each day.
I knew it was a lot, but seeing this kind of number is jaw dropping. I know many I have interacted with not only use the bots (which was why I tried them for a bit) but also delegate for higher profits on their account. It would actually increase the votes of the smaller accounts who are delegating as they would have more reason to vote higher/or more since if they don't it is going unused, if most of the bots closed down for lack of customers.
I believe it is helpful that so many who have established yourselves have become very vocal on this. Many come here like myself full of ignorance and take many things at face value at first. The illusions and outright lies are probably just as costly to the long term growth of this site as the manipulation of payouts. I remember debating just a month ago why the bots were necessary for visibility, lol. Took some reading, and reading some more as I watched my own results to really get it. I do believe most using the bots do it believing it gives them low cost visibility, not some insidious plot to rape the rewards. But sadly, except for the big spenders it gets little to no eyes on ones work.
Much of this is perpetuated by how quickly posts are buried, which is why so many have to keep revisiting this issue daily like yourself and tarazkp. It would be nice if they could implement some type of system to pin posts, even if at first only to our own blog pages. A pinned area that receives no payout and one could continuously edit to update new developments. It would help those of you fighting the good fight from starting new at the bottom of the hill to push the boulder (your message) back up it again every day and take less time for those like myself to get it.
Thanks for the comment, 'we' are trying to push that boulder but it's pretty heavy going at present.
When I last checked, around 18m SP was owned/leased by bid-bots. 18m SP voting at 100% every 2.4 hours, ouch!
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@abh12345/how-much-available-sp-is-there-for-steemit-com-content
Hi abh. That is quite serious. They seem to have way too much power on the platform.
Yes, this never really worked though so needs a revamp. Having a promotion tab is like creating a catalogue. Who really reads junk mail? I think @abh12345 has given some interested numbers..