>Do I think some people abuse the bidbots and send trash into trending? Of course I do, that's why there is a flag button. If its trash, if it sucks, follow your gut and flag it.

bots run blacklists and subsystems checking for different signals. Abusers often get... abused in the end, humans make sure things eventually self correct.

>I'm a little annoyed about this, because it seems like the bidbot conversation became everyone's favorite escape goat.

That is why I wrote this article, point for point as educational material because I too am tired of the yammering rep 43 accounts screaming bidbots this and bidbots that. @Booster will be 1 year old in 10 days, being the first bidbot of course we have seen "it all", and made a ton of changes along the way.

I am sure the bot abusers hate us for it, but well - they have had their golden era. More and more serious content creators outbid them now, and we see a better culture forming.