Hi - I've dabbled (briefly) with bid bots, and just feel dirty having used them. I personally think they have no place whatsoever on steemit.
They give a completely misleading impression to newcomers about the value of their posts. I've in fact unfollowed quite a few people recently just because they use them, and give me an unrealistic idea of the value of their posts.
Not that it's all about the money of course, but it is part of being here.. I'm much like you I just want to earn a reasonable second income from the platform by sharing my slightly quirky views on social issues.
BTW, you sound like you've got something of a sociological brain on you, I'll keep an eye out for future posts, just try and blinker yourself to all of the shite on here.
I agree with you about the misleading impression part. But I've also realized that bid bots are here to stay and I also believe that newcomers will understand if and when a bid bot is being used to reward articles. At least sooner or later.
One of the saddest parts is the trending pages in my opinion. Articles reaching the trending pages just based on paid votes. That's ridiculous and plain stupid as those articles will reap much more rewards just for reaching the trending pages. I mean, even a vote worth 0.01 will bring you a ton of rewards in total if you get 1000 upvotes worth 0.01.
That's the first time I've heard that and I appreciate it. I'm just glad that I can write decent enough so others understand what I'm trying to say. :)
Yes I do find those trending pages annoying, thankfully if I stick to my feed I can blinker myself to them. My life is very much improved in quality without bot user extraordinaire @joeparys (for example) in my face.
It certainly can't have a positive affect on the appalling attrition rate of this platform. And that's a lose-lose situation for all of us.
We have authors making ~10 posts per day, and use bid bots to reap rewards on all of them.. And that's not good. I don't mind if someone use a bid bot on a few posts and with a reasonable amount of money. But spending 100 sbd on votes from several bots on the same article is nuts and bad for the community.
No it's not! Although thankfully I'm oblivious to that extreme abuse. I'm going to write something about this later today.... I was inspired into a suitable analogy after my gym session yesterday.