This has been a very hot topic of late, but it's a good one to keep bringing up so more of us see at least someone's take on it and then talk about it.
I didn't take the survey, mainly because I'm going to be the outlier, the one who never uses the bots for any reason.
The more I research and read, the more I'm convinced that bots need to go.
Here's why:
They skew things—they skew the vote numbers, the vote amounts, and they mess with curation as well as what the author might receive. They also affect reputation to some degree.
They're increasingly inefficient—the more they're used, the less they pay. You will need more and more bots as time goes by.
The creator decides what constitutes quality content—while it will probably be a net amount after paying for the bot, the creator is still saying, "It's quality. I deserve to be paid for this." And if the pay amount on the bot is enough to get noticed by others, it's not because other curators got it there.
Human curators don't benefit from the bot(s) upvote—if the bot hits within a designated time (a few minutes), the author doesn't share any of the amount with a would be curator.
They mask the real problem. In fact, they make the problem worse—the problem being human nature. Instead of demanding change happen in the reward system, bots along with other things are an acceptable workaround.
You can lose money with bid bots—which isn't in and of itself a bad thing—if bots are being used as an advertising tool, you expect to spend and not get anything back from the bot. However, most people are not only expecting a higher ROI because of visibility, their hoping to make something back from the bot (because some promise it), either in a fraction of the SBD they spent, or in the net of what the bot paid versus what they spent.
Once you use them, and use them frequently, it can be hard to ever stop using them—why would you stop? Vote bots only get more powerful the more you get powerful, and if you actually have enough to pay a bot to get you up on the trending or hot pages, then you get more eyeballs on your post and more rewards!
There's probably more (I got interrupted and lost the roll I was on :) ) so I'll stop there.
I appreciate you bringing the topic up. It can't be talked about enough, especially if it leads to change.
betterThank you so much for the detailed response @glenalbrethsen! You would be surprised after I read all of the comments at @inquiringtimes 'survey', you are not the only one in this camp. In their essence, I agree with you because it's base reality can be compared to icky get-rich-quick schemes, and of course like anywhere in the world, there are people here who are focused on money only and have figured that out! I appreciate the want or need to grow organically here because I think that's what drew a lot of us in...it just makes for a platform I think. Thank you again, and I'm hoping that @inquiringtimes sees this because I think you make a lot of valid points that should be included in his analysis.