There is a lot of debate on Steemit about voting bots, and I would like to start this post with my opinions on why I think they are very needed on Steemit. Also, I would like to explain a little about the @ecotrain voting bot, why it is different, and how it deals with most of the criticisms made against voting bots.

Why We Need Voting Bots

Until a few short months ago voting bots were not an option for people to self promote their posts. Also people with a lot of Steem Power had few options as to how to use their voting power every day. Anyone who has a lot of Steem Power will know the challenge of curating! There are a lot of minnows who would like dolphins and whales to manually curate, but the thing is that is actually a very tall order! It is not really practical or feasible to ask people to spend their whole day reading and upvoting posts constantly. It is very hard work, and most people with a lot of Steem Power probably don't have the time!

There is of course the option of delegating to other users and let them do the job of curating, but standard delegation brings no rewards back to someone who has invested. Despite this there are several amazing whales such as @jamesc who have and continue to delegate massive amounts of Steem Power to others, but we cannot expect the majority of vested users to do the same. Most people either want or need a return on their investment, but don't want to spend all day having to curate. Because of this we used to see a lot more vote exchanging and self voting on Steemit, with the majority of upvotes going to the same people every day for posts that were often not even worth the kinds of rewards they received.

The Pro's of Voting Bots.

Voting bots have given us a way to distribute the rewards pool to way more people! They have also allowed individuals with very little voting power to gain support for themselves by using bots. Not only that but some people, including me, use voting bots to upvote other people with much larger votes than we could do ourselves. Voting bots have allowed me to create the Minnow Support Project, where I send several dollars to dozens of minnows each week to encourage them to keep writing and posting. This is a great thing because there are so many new comers to Steemit who post and get almost nothing back, and then give up. SO voting bots are an amazing tool for us to really share the wealth of Steemit and support the entire ecosystem.

Also, I have to be honest that when I look at the trending page of You Tube there is almost nothing of any interest to me on it, whereas Steemit's trending page is, in my opinion, much more interesting.. SO things are not a total disaster as far as boosting posts go. Also our protective whales spend time flagging those posts that are boosted too much and don't add value, which serves as a strong message for people not to boost low grade posts just to make money... and that seems to be working! I rarely see trash on Steemit's trending page!

The Con's of Voting Bots.

Now, I'm not saying things are perfect by any means! Voting bots are still relatively new to Steemit, and I believe will evolve quite soon to help deal with the problems that occur with them. My main criticism of nearly all voting bots is that they allow anyone to post anything they want, including really terrible or even copied posts, and get very large rewards for them. This is NOT what Steemit it about! Also it is a fair criticism that people with money can essentially buy a place on the trending page as well as boost their own reputation to artificially high numbers regardless of the quality of their posts. That is really not good and I do think that our reputation score should now be calculated in another way, such as by the number of upvotes we receive (not the value of them but the number of them 1:1).

The Solution!

We are now starting to see a shift in voting bots and how they operate. I am very proud that the @ecotrain voting bot that I run and manage is dealing with nearly all these problems! I have achieved this by enforcing whitelisting on my bot, which means that ONLY people who I approve are allowed to use it. The only other bot i know of doing this is @smartsteem. When someone asks to be whitelisted I check out their blogs and see what they post. If I am happy that they write posts with value, and don't copy or plagerise other people's work I add them to the whitelist so that they can send bids.

I also don't play games or try to be greedy. In my opinion Steemit should be a win-win-win for everyone, and we shouldn't allow for people to lose money when bidding! This is because it is quite technical and all too easy to use a bot that will allow you to lose 20-50% ROI and this leads to many people getting quite understandably upset. To prevent this, the @ecotrain bot has a fixed 11% ROI built in, so that anyone using it will always make a profit on it! This means that the whole system is fair to everyone, including delegators!

A message to delegators.

Now talking about delegators is a VERY important part of this post! As anyone who delegates knows, it is possible to delegate and receive 100% rewards of their share of the bids made on voting bots. The @ecotrain bot is NOT like that and only returns 65% back to delegators! I think this is very important, and would like to explain why. In the old days of Steemit, people voting with a lot of Steem Power would only receive curation rewards. These rewards were tiny in comparison to the kind of rewards you can make from delegating to voting bots.

Here's thing thing though... it is human nature that no matter how much we make we always desire more, and it is SO easy for people with a lot of Steem power to want as MUCH back as possible! I believe this is a short sighted attitude that is part of the capitalist model that has failed the world. I believe that it is our duty share our good fortune with others if we are to have an ecosystem that is fair for all, and allows others to benefit as well. If we want Steemit to grow and have a long and beautiful life we have to temper our desire for profit and keep sharing some of our ROI with others. That is why I offer delegators 65% return on their investment. So, what do I do with the rest? Let me explain!

Making Voting Bots Great (again?)!

I am running a pay it forward minnow support project that upvotes dozens of minnows every week with as much as I can using rewards from some of my posts as well as the @ecotrain voting bot. When people delegate to me they get a very nice return on their investment (sure, not quite as much as with most other bots these days). The rewards that I receive are partly given away to others who REALLY contribute to the value of Steemit but are simply not noticed. It takes a LOT of my time every day (at least 2 hours), and I am busy finding and supporting beautiful people who would otherwise get almost nothing and probably disappear before long! I also use my Steem Power to curate the @ecotrain passengers and spend hours every day reading and supporting them with my personal upvotes. The @ecotrain is the kind of community that I can only describe as amazing, and we add SO much value to Steemit just by the quality of our posts and constant engagement!

You can see my most recent minnow support post here: https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/pay-it-forward-minnow-support-project-week-3-41-minnows-supported

Let it be said that it is the people who post valuable content who drive Steemit, and without them there would be nothing to vote for and no way for delegators to make anything at all! I believe we MUST find ways to support those who do put a huge effort in, or else Steemit is just going to be a fully capitalistic model of self serving investors who basically reap all the rewards and leave the rest of the people feeling upset.

I am a person that believes VERY strongly in sharing and team playing. When I look at our world and see the inequality that we live in, it breaks my heart. When I see how many people live with almost nothing and are just victims of a terrible system of unrestrained savage capitalism it makes me very upset! That is why I am a part of Steemit, and why I spend SO much time on it, because it is a way out of that paradigm!

Do you agree? Then please delegate to the @ecotrain!

If you agree with me then I would like to ask you to delegate to the @ecotrain bot so that I can continue supporting people who really do make this world a better place. I am also working on a long term project of buying land in Europe and creating an entire off-grid community and am saving up some of my Steemit rewards to do this. Your delegation to the @ecotrain bot will help me manifest that goal much more quickly.

Also, right now I am quite limited as to how much I can give away to minnows because the @ecotrain voting bot doesn't yet have enough Steem Power to let me give to more than 5 people a day. With your delegation I can help many more minnows on Steemit, as well as return you a very fair and more than acceptable ROI.

Further Rewards to Delegators

If you are able to delegate a significant amount of Steem power (1,000 SP or more) and have a desire to one day live off-grid or self build then I will give you my consultation services for free! I will give you unlimited (within reason) advice and consultations on any eco building project that you are working on and do my best to support you and help your dreams come true. I have been eco building for 15 years and have a wealth of experience and knowledge about this, especially how to build something beautiful on a tiny budget!

If you would like to read more about my eco building projects and workshops please check out this compilation post.
https://steemit.com/earthship/@eco-alex/a-compilation-of-all-my-eco-building-and-workshop-posts-on-steemit

I hope I have inspired you to show your support and help make Steemit SHINE like a diamond in the rough. Together we can show everyone that this WORKS and that together we can start to make the real changes that we need to see in the world.

If you would like to delegate ANY amount of Steem power, you will receive 65% of your share of the rewards every day from the voting bot.

All you have to do is visit:
https://steembottracker.com/delegation.html

You can delegate any amount of Steem Power and you can withdraw your delegation at any time by setting the amount of Steem Power to ZERO and waiting a week.

IMPORTANT: Please keep at least 50 steem power for yourself as you need it to post and comment!

Thank you for being here. I would love to hear your view about what I have said!

The 8 Pillars of @TribeSteemUp