The bought-upvotes have caught many out in that they see some getting big rewards and feel demoralised with their much smaller reward on maybe what they see as better content.

They caught me out thats for sure! I remember feeling cheated when I figured it all out. I did some testing with the bots but never felt great about paying for votes!

Yeah I may have become a bit lazy and stale in terms of finding new people to engage with! Thanks for the push in the right direction I might start hunting down some new people to follow and chat with :)

Cheers!