Hey @abh12345,
Delegating to support other users is an honorable and great thing to do. We all have our share of responsibility to improve the overall health of the blockchain and its ecosystem.
Delegating to SmartSteem is profitable yes - but that isn't a bad thing. We've shown we make it our number one priority to reward and empower good content and actively work on reducing abuse via whitelisting and blacklisting.
@thejohalfiles, is a very active steemian who has been curating manually for the past 2 years and is now looking for ways to reward quality-content through delegations while still making some profit of his Steempower.
He also delegates to @utopian-io and is interested in platforms such as @dlive and @dtube, so we not only trust he has the best interests of the community at heart but also feel flattered that he sees the same value on our service and trusts us to keep up our standards.
If you have any worries whatsoever, we're always available to have a chat!
Hey @therealwolf
I didn't mean for the post to be a personal attack on @smartsteem or @thejohalfiles, you are just the latest high profile delegation case and the most obvious example to use.
I have respect for @smartsteem in being the first Bid-bot to produce a white list, and as you know I have bought votes from you quite frequently recently.
However, if every account delegated to a bidbot, what would Steemit look like? The only posts receiving votes would be those where the author had paid to promote the content. Is this what we want? Surely not!?
A delegation to @utopian-io is something I have in place myself. There, each post is moderated prior to receiving the same sized vote as every other post in that category, this gives the best posts in that category a chance to shine.
They are one of the reasons I still support HF17/19s delegated SP introduction, applications like utopian-io and dtube would really struggle otherwise.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to comment here. You don't get an upvote today though as you've already topped my blog with your own vote! That is the 2nd time this week someone has done that and I must say that it's not my favourite thing in the world! However,
As you are mentioned in the post,
It's fair that your side is visible.
Cheers!
Hey @abh12345,
first of - I didn't upvote myself for the rewards but to make a statement since you mentioned smartsteem in your post and I believe that the response is important enough that it shouldn't be buried under all the other ones.
Now - I also don't take it as an attack, it's just that you made clear that you're not a fan of delegating for profit. Which I can understand - but I don't believe that his is any significant risk to STEEM as plattform for content.
The far bigger risk are big stackholders who are upvoting each other in circles.
Upvote-Services on the other hand, give everyone the chance to also get visibility.
Also - smartsteem.com is NOT just another bid-bot, but a whole plattform with the goal of empowering quality content.
I understand it was not for profit.
Sadly this cannot be stopped, its 'proof of stake' here and we cannot help with this.
You need money for bid-bots, not everyone has this. And so it is the case that good posts (30-60$), are not as high up in the hot/trending as the ones voted by the creator, that do not not match this quality.
I would still like your views on what you think Steemit would look like if everyone chose to delegate to a bid-bot.
Personally, I think it would be a case of the richest person wins, and hope that's not what you wish for this platform.
Big props to you guys for implementing white list and I hope in the future the service goes white list exclusive for the vote selling side. I want to note I flagged your comment solely so that another comment from @techslut which I feel is some amazingly succinct advice for Steem beginners rose to the top here - not my intention to get into a flag war. Hopefully no hard feelings. I am curious though - you don't think that further increasing the wealth inequality on platform (which vote selling services that purchase SP delegation from whales cannot help but doing - they funnel funds from minnows up into the pockets of the biggest whales) is bad for Steem? I personally feel it is the single biggest issue facing Steem today. Welcome respectful debate.
FLAG WAARRR!
Yeah, not a chance. I've stuff to do.
But allow me to give my 0.05 SBD on the topic of vote buying.
I am not a fan of it. At all. But it's there, and it will continue to be there. Disclaimer: I work with Buildteam, who run minnowbooster.
There is a lot of room for improving the way vote buying bots work. Yes, whitelisting and a strict anti-abuse policy are a good start, but it's not enough. As long as the system permits it, delegations will be leased and votes will be sold. I don't think it's the biggest issue. There are numerous ones. Power centralization is, without a doubt, a bigger problem. With better power distribution between the users of the platform, there simple would be no demand for vote buying services.
@carlgnash
I understand.
I don't believe in funnelings rewards from minnows to whales - since many of the sellers are actually minnows.
However, it is true that people with more power, get more rewards.
In the real world and also here on STEEM.
When someone gets so greedy that they only want for themselves even though they already have so much - then that is indeed not good.
But let's take me as an example.
I'm currently selling votes and upvoting other posts on a 50/50 basis - at least that's what I think; haven't made any calculations yet.
And I don't see any problems with that. I like to give, but I also see the importance of growing my own Steempower as only then I can be free to give to others.