I'm also talking about upvoting bots, not only about them but partially. To make this clear from the start, I'm not going for the "Burn all the bots and people behind the bots".
The bots are currently a big part of the "visibility ecosystem" we have around here. Upvoting bots are a favorite method to reach trending.
I can understand that. I've accidentally (or "accidentally"?) bought myself in trending with a bot. It was quite nice, but it wasn't a splendid experience. The most attention I got from it was so called shitty attention - people commenting nonsense "nice post well done" etc. "follow me friend" whatever comments the most popular posts receive.
Indeed I got more attention, but does this kind of attention make you happy?
Some are hoping to catch whales attention with this, but can we seriously think a whale thinks you are cool because you bought upvotes from a bot?
The best thing we can reach though is to make us visible to our peers. If even one person who is actually interested in you and the content you create, it's worth it. I have a lot of cool people following me and I'm feeling bad I don't post that often. I miss their comments. I'm too little on Steemit so I don't even always notice their posts and that makes me feel even worse.
But back to visibility.
You can purchase visibility from bots. However, what I think is really sad is how quite many people think the bots are the only way to get visibility. That's unless you're already a big, famous user with a lot of SP.
I'm not sure if they're getting zero visibility without the bots or if they just are unhappy with the amount of visibility they're getting. "I'm getting only 5/10/20/50/1500 views in average per post, I deserve more".
Of course, it can feel wrong. Especially if you work on something and it might actually be good, but in the end you'll get 5 views and maybe none of them actually read what you wrote. Just drop a comment "wow well done upvote for upvote" 10 seconds after you posted. You will surely feel let down.
But would upvotes from bots grant you more people actually reading the post?
This is the special thing.
I really do believe having some upvotes on the post will help. If you see a post from 2 days ago with $0.00 estimated payout, you might just skip it. "It can't be good as there are no upvotes". However, if the post had $4.52 worth of upvotes, it might catch your attention. At this point, you do not know if it's a bought upvote or not.
With an average author, $4.52 is quite good if it's natural votes. With bought upvotes, it might bring some more people to read your post.. maybe.
It's not only about the estimated payout value though. You can't survive alone on that, unless you buy yourself to trending, be it on a specific tag or in the normal trending. You need people to view your profile, follow you. You still need to impress them with your posts - you are competing with all the other people the viewers are following.
You need to build connections with other people, in one way or another. For most of us, it's still personal interactions. The cheapest method of visibility, standing against the claim "I can't get visibility without bots". You are the key to get views.
Many users on Steemit are like single people, sitting alone at home and thinking "Why isn't anyone asking me for a date?"
It doesn't matter how well prepared you are for the date or how great you would be on the date if you're not interacting with anyone in any way.
We can get lots of visibility for free. Good or bad visibility. You can get 5000 followers without issues, but does it help you in any way?
Steemit is a rough competition for views and payouts. You will most likely be disappointed in both.
Personally, I'm not even following the amount of people viewing my posts. I'm just hoping my favorite people will drop a comment.
And when I'm saying this, sorry for not leaving a comment in your post. Sometimes I do read your post but I just can't come up with anything to comment. I hope you still know I read you and I care.
Upvoting bots can bring you whatever you are looking for. They are still not the only way for visibility and views.
I hope you all will understand this and view on Steemit and the bots in a different way. What kind of attention and visibility do you want? Are you wanting it for followers? Upvotes? If you see a post in trending, do you think all the attention, comments and views are because it's in trending - or can it be the author already has friends, loyal followers, a community around him who are viewing his post even though it's not in trending?
All you see is "The post is in trending, there are a lot of views and comments". You always see only a part of the truth.
All images used are CC0 from Pixabay!