I'm new to the platform and it's been an interesting first week. Well, technically I signed up months ago but I got side tracked and didn't start posting until now. I've finally spent some time learning the way things work, reading posts with high reputation, viewing videos and tutorials. I'm starting to get a sense of how it hangs together.
But I'm curious about The Bots. There are quite a few of them and I have to wonder if they are well accepted by the community or if they are a cancer eating away at the purpose of Steemit. As I see it, Steemit is supposed to be about user curated content. The idea is that good content gets recognized and rewarded by the community.
But don't vote buying bots subvert that? These clever little daemons promise to pump up your reputation. I suppose if your content sucks they won't help all that much, but being able to buy your way up the ladder weakens the feedback loop of users getting rewarded for good content and so they generate more good content. Bots don't give a damn about the quality of the content.
Are bots good for Steemit or a scourge? Do they change the purpose of Steemit from a content creation platform to an upvoting, clickbaity free-for-all? What does the Steemit core community think? The Witnesses? The leadership?
I'd love to hear you opinions on this.