We really need to switch the word bid-bot for promotion service - in essence, they are promotional tools and bidding is one way to pay for it.

Now, @steem-ua is an interesting experiment, but there is a fundamental difference between promotion services and @steem-ua.

@steem-ua re-distributes wealth among multiple people, based on an algorithm which works in some cases but not in all.

For example if a user is very new and has no real visibility / following yet. Even if the algorithm takes in account the upvotes, comment, resteems and whatever factors there might be, the average new user will have either a very low UA score or none at all. (I've implemented UA for Smartsteem already and tested the different cases)

So in that case, when a user is very new, he/she can use promotion services to push the visibility and gain valuable followers, which might give him/her an increased UA ranking.

So while I do find this experiment interesting and want it to see unfold and improve, the real deal personally for me is the UA algorithm.

And if I'd compare @steem-ua and promotion-services towards economic models, then @steem-ua would be a somewhat smart socialism, as wealth is distributed regardless of the input, while promotion services were capitalism - the more somebody invests either through montery value (promotion) or time (writing posts), the more he will reap in terms of rewards and visibility.

Regardless, I'm glad to see you back active on Steem, @stellabelle.