Great post.
I like this steem.

>Who will create the content for the Bid-bots to 'promote' in the future?

Probably bots.

Reminder: you can use @heimindanger's clean trending toy to voice your disapproval of this anti-social industry.
https://steemwhales.com/clean-trending/

How would a system that filters bot votes differentiate between bot votes and services like minnowbooster/smartmarket that sell user votes instead of huge bot votes?

Education wonderful and very great well done, my friend
You are a wonderful person and really successful

Perhaps reward distribution should factor in "views" as well as upvotes.

I have said several times I think, the only content needed is a post that says:

"..."

All the bot needs is a target address created. It doesn't care. So, it becomes an auction house on votes for blank posts. It mostly is now and the only reason *any* content is there at all is to try and mitigate the chances of flags (and therefore profits).

Maybe everyone else's final posts will just be crying emojis.

A bounty of 3.330 SBD has been set on this post by @abh12345! You can read how they work [here](https://steemit.com/bounty/@steem-bounty/how-to-create-a-bounty).

Mr @abh12345, for current steemian averages using bidbot.

I'm sure you can do that

Good issue to keep discussing... the bots are everywhere in all social media.  Maybe in the future their will be a way to prove 'authentic' human content... or it maybe just something we have to always judge and determine... just as we always have to assess truth.

just wow

# Bots 4 Bots

Well, I’m sure some people will or already are creating bots to post to the bots for the bots to upvote?  It’s a bot world and some of these people just don’t want to interact with humans. I’m not sure what kind of sad world some of them live in but I don’t want any part of that!

The biggest issue will be for how long will these people still be getting the ROI on both ends? What I find interesting is some of these people are delegating just about all there SP to a bid bot than spending what they earn from that and their rewards to buy more bids. What kind of hyperinflation world do these people want to live in? 

I would just love to see more control in how trending and hot are presented. 

# Should they be doing more for communities around them?
When I look at bid bot system and how easy it is for anyone to exploit it I just wonder why they don’t try and protect themselves more. If all their investors suddenly decide it’s no longer worth the steem they make every week for the amount of damage they are doing and take back there delegation they start to become rather powerless. 

One thing I’m a bit shocked by and perhaps I’ve just never noticed. Why are they not giving out free votes to high-quality undervalued content/creators? If that is the “purpose” of these things like some people claim. Should they not be the ones every week going out and showcasing 10 posts a week or more for free? Surely their investors can’t get upset about that as its showcasing the true power and lead by example of what is considered a quality post at different price points.

If we think about it from an “advertisement” standpoint. Then they should all place themselves behind a paywall and kick bad actors. It’s one thing for these people to have their vote pulled or be downvote on a couple of open posts they have. It's another thing if they are out 20-100 SBD they had to pay for membership on top of buying votes. 

When people don’t feel invested in something they have no reason to respect it. There a reason why if a site runs annoying bad ads people block them. Even more so when some of these ads on sites have malice intent. They get removed as soon as discovered. It just looks bad on the advertisement providers if they don’t create an end-user experience that people are willing to put up with. Which is why people started to create ad-blocker extensions in the first place.

I remember this user who at the time that I joined Steemit was someone that I aspired to become like because his posts were earning 50 dollars and more and he was already in the reputation 60. So wow this person was someone trusted by the community. Or so I thought. 

My rude awakening was when he started posting 5 times a day with just Marvel characters and I commented on a favorite character of mine and he replied with absolutely no fucking idea what he was talking about. 

I revisited his posts and saw the pattern of 1 paragraph to start the post, which talks of the origin of the character,  1 image, usually the hero, and  one ending paragraph that states the powers. He even placed a sourced link of where he "allegedly" got the info so that if Cheetah comes knowing he can say he properly cited. 
Yet I know where he got his info and he changed a couple of words so it wouldn't be seen as outright plagiarism. 

That was it I discovered he was a golden shit poster that tried to outsmart the system by following upme's protocol on what is considered a shit post. 

Imagine that 5 posts that were 50 dollars and more a day. 250 a day for something that he took off a wiki on Superheroes. 

I tried frontrunning his bots for awhile and collected a sizable curation reward but posting 5 shit posts a day used up my SP and decided to stop and just forget about him and focus on upvoting posts that I care about even if i get less curation rewards. 

If we let the current trend that bid bots go rampant then we will look into a future that it is all crap. 

The funny thing is these shitposters don't care for engagement and their post is like a bot graveyard of the confirmations from the bots that it has been upvoted but no human read about it.

This is very revealing, and nearly exposing! I couldn't agree more.

>Am I revealing who I've spotted doing this? Not yet.

Should it ever come to that,  i just might have some idea of some! lol. I mean it. I have been hoping around quiet a lot.

In some posts, including memes....i just stop by, read or watch if it is meme or some shit shot post, and leave quietly without commenting.

On the bright note, is that when i read,  i am able to follow comment and reply patterns/behavior. 

There have been instances when i have read a comment/reply, by the alt meme-dedicated account (etc) and i am like, wait. Have i not read the same comment somewhere else? Under another 'account?

A part of you wills to ask, maybe whistle blow, but then you look at the person's VP, and you are like,...go slow! 

On such abstract matters, just relating words/sentences and claiming they are authors by one 'person' is not enough. Else, you win a disabling flag!

But just as cue, there is really some meme posting account, i am still studying. I saw a comment by the meme author account, and my mind seemed to think it remembered a similar worded comment some time previously, but under a different account, elsewhere.  

What even further arouses my suspicions, is that that previous comment (s), including every other comment of that person, on the post where he/she had written them, were all wiped away! 

>Is it possible to systematically wipe away all your comments from a given post? 

Following the same concerns that you here point out, adding to these 

>... creating an alt. account and producing 'short-form' content or memes and sending bids there?

There is also something else i have noticed. Another way in which some 'whales' are creating alt accounts and promoting (growing) them in broad daylight. 

### Quick Scenario

I am @mirrors1. I am a 'whale'

I have high VP.

More than upvote myself on my known account-@mirrors1 (which i occasionally do.), i instead create 'alt' accounts.

These involve one BIG account (nearing whale status) then the rest minnow alt accounts.

Let us call that second BIG Account @mirrors2

Next, I use this @mirrors2 account and run a contest. The winner wins an upvote from me (@mirrors2)!!!

I enter the same contest with those 'alt' accounts!
>Guess who the winner (s) is (are)? Who is upvoted.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Plan achieved. My 'alt' accounts also grow in money (indirectly self-voted), and their reputation also grows. 

#### Meanwhile, to further increase my camouflage, i use my first (main and known account) @mirrors1 for occasionally policing/flagging the second account running the contest (@mirrors2) 

<br>Huuuhhh.....let me just end here. I hope this rambling is to some measure clear to be understood. i am afraid i had to scribble fast.

As a community we can start now by not voting for any content that is using bidbots and also removing your vote from the witnesses that are running them. I really believe that only a grass roots movement can beat this destruction of steem by greed.