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I'll leave that to @fyrstikken. It's his own term, not mine.

What I can do is to explain the underpinnings. Each day the blockchain generates a certain amount of steem power and steem dollars. These are the rewards you compete with other steemers to get as reward. Bid bots change this and it's not necessary to contribute to other steemers to get a reward. You can simply pay for it. This is done to huge pool owners who either has amassed their stake naturally or rent it. Also known as delegation.

This is what I see as reward pool rape. What fyrstikken does is beyond me. But the term stems from him, not me.

It's not raping the pool though....it's the stake that they have.
Are we calling it rape because it can be purchased instead of just giving it away manually....that would be more like prostitution.
There is ZERO rape of the reward pool though.
These bots are designed to run every 2.4 hours, 10 times a day....not abusing the daily votes provided to them at all.

Like I said, it's fyrstikkens own words, not mine. I would have to disagree with you on your simplistic view on bid bots. They are the death to steemit and makes a good idea irrelevant.

The way Whaleshares was set up would have been to join a black market voting club and establish a monopoly, of course I launched Booster and more than that, by choosing a great team player we were able to mass produce boosters so now there are hundreds of upvote bots and resteem bots. The alternative would have been one giant megabot ruled by one guy and a very small community. If you do not understand how free competition works, then please do us both a favor and read up on how markets work. I could not stop whaleshares from existing, but I could make a competitor and for that I feel very accomplished.

https://steembottracker.com/

Have fun, use them, or do not use them, it is voluntary.

Speaking of "club". I think it's high time we shake up the witness club and get in new blood. Who has the platforms and its users best interest and not filling their own pockets. I would even pay them higher to see it happen.

So. You can go play with your booster now. I'm tired of your self-upvoted excuses to game the system that sadly allows it's own guardians to game it.

If the content is that good...someone should be willing to invest in it themselves and find that visibility.
Every great product in the world advertises, plot twist...so do shitty products.
Welcome to reality.
By the way...it's not a view...it's a fact.
That's how the system works, but that is how the majority of the bots operate.
Now, if all this stake was just voting for themselves, or if the bots were voting all the way down to 20% voting power...that would be rape.
That's simply not the case.
If you want to be upset that spammers and shitposters are benefiting from the sale of these votes...that's fine...but even that isn't raping the rewardpool.
Add to that, many of the bots are adapting to blacklisting and whitelisting....such as @therealwolf with @smartsteem, @minnowbooster, @themarkymark with @buildawhale, @yabapmatt with @postpromoter and numerous others.
Seems it's your "view" that is simplistic.

It makes the platform irrelevant for new users. Both readers and creators.

It is "My Opinion" that you are wrong.

It is also "My Opinion" that without the bid bots. There is ZERO reason for anyone to join this platform.

As it stands right now. In order to make any sort of money on the platform. You have to have a whale in your pocket, a la Haejin. Which is something that is out of the question for many new users.

However, now with the bots, new users have the ability to upvote their posts, make some money and gain visibility.

I would also like to point out that mathematically speaking. If someone is bid botting their content. And that content is shit. Then in the long run. They will not make money. No one is gonna follow shit posts or vote for them. Meaning that eventually the problem will solve itself.

If you could come up with a solution that solves the problem I'll be all ears. But until that time the bots are the best thing for the platform. Until whales get up and start helping the minnows gain traction.

With your opinion it is zero reason for me and others to spend time on it.

Well. It's not all a shit show right? There are some good things about this platform. Worth being here to enjoy.

I think that the bid bot issue can be a problem if someone abuses the bots. If someone is making ten posts a day and bid botting all of the posts. Then yeah. That's clearly abuse. There's a problem with that.

But if people make a post or two a day and use bid bots to upvote. Is that really a problem?

What are your thoughts on that?

They are a free exchange between willing parties on a free market. What's the matter, can't compete in a free market?

Meanwhile, transparency bot is redundant, unsolicited spam that adds to blockchain bloat and operational costs for no good reason.