The last couple of days the bot community has been hit with crazy upvote values. This in turn allowed some sketchy posts land on the trending page due to them.

We at Hive account@bellyrub headquarters wanted to try the 50 % vote value which resulted in a 1.2 Hour window. The outcome was not what we expected the results were less users jumping on the windows, which is not so good for us since we pay for all delegation.

We have decided to jump back to the 100% vote as a result. I have spoken to many many users that rather keep the 100% vote value, also voiced their concerns that bellyrub is an auction system and there really is no abuse to be made. Please read this quote here from this very specific user, this conversation was between two individuals on a recent post I made about abuse of Hive account@bellyrub.

Again, I ask you to define how bidding in an auction, which is the VERY design of an auction, is rigging the system? I am literally doing the thing I am supposed to do. Is drinking water abusing water? Is breathing air abusing air?

This is exactly what Hive account@bellyrub is it is basically a auction "bibot" No real gaming the system. You bid you get out bid you bid again.

Not only am I not doing that (because it is impossible to prevent others from bidding), I am helping to keep the service running by increasing Hive account@bellyrub's profitability. That delegated SP will leave and find a better return if the bot is getting paid $40 for $240 upvotes. The free market is a bitch.

Hive account@bellyrub is a service and it is just that, in order for it to continue to run it needs to be run at its optimum level, Reason for the 100% vote value again.

"So basically you are taking away the chances for others to go visible"
So? If we both bid on an Ebay auction, I'm taking away your chance to get the item for cheaper. That's how a free market works. This is a good thing.

Again perfect point, the difference between this and steemit, is the reward pool, votes happen and the reward pool gets smaller, that is when the flagging comes in that is basically the market coming in and leveling itself out.

Below is his final comment, which moved us to the decien we made.

That would be like Budweiser refusing to sell to alcoholics. The whole target market is "self-promoters".

Hit the nail, Hive account@bellyrub will return to its 100% vote value resulting to its full $250 value, If someone feels that, that post in question has a high reward value than he/she can down-voting resulting in declining the reward for that post.

@Bellyrub will start a blacklist for users who send super high bids for content that is very questionable. We have realized that in doing so will help out all users, but also start something new in the steemit economy. Keep in mind steemit is still a year old and bidbots are also fairly new, trying to balance out everything is just to complex.

The issue at hand is not as simple as it appears but Hive account@bellyrub is already on it with some integrations to counter this. Hive account@bellyrub is a bid bot and will continue to be one unless it becomes unnecessary, we cannot afford to convert it to a minnowbooster or even a randowhale. We run 24/7 Hive account@bellyrub votes every 2.4 hours which is 10 times a day.

Hive account@bellyrub is a free market and that is how it should be, steemit is a "decentralized" platform and the market will decide what the reward for a specific post should be. Putting a limit on an auction seems a bit absurd and not necessary.

Hive account@bellyrub cannot control the content it votes, but we will integrate some new tools to over come them.

Hive account@bellyrub is the biggest and is being targeted for that same reason, they see accounts sending massive amounts of bids to posts that are not worth it. Which I agree I am not saying every one that send in high bids are abusing the system just those individuals are making it seem so.

Hive account@bellyrub is meant as a promotional tool nothing more. There is no profit to be made really just a promotion tool much like the one steemit has.

Hive account@bellyrub does not sell any private bids, I was like that before and it effected the time table which was stopped weeks ago. Before the new power came into play. 100% of the vote is meant for the users, no private bids no private deals.
Keep in mind this is not free delegation as some might think, it is being paid for, as far as users saying Hive account@bellyrub is abusing that power is plain absurd, it is not free SP it is being rented out, for the sole propose of the bid bot Hive account@bellyrub.

Here is the best answer I got today

I think the real solution is for people to downvote it
the community is supposed to manage this
if someone spends a bunch to get their post trending, and it's crap and gets downvoted and they waste their money they will stop.

Thank you Hive account@yabapmatt for that.

Let me know below what every one thinks please, we feel setting limits to all legit users is not "freemarket" We will let steemit's own flagging system control the reward pool at the time of writing this post this is the "pool reward_balance 721431.202 " Which is a very large amount now is it daily or weekly or even monthly?

Hive account@bellyrub will never self-vote, never sells votes privately, and we provide 100% of our VP to belly's bidding windows so users can feel safe the whole 100% will be used for them, no manipulation of window times and amounts will be done by bellyrub's operators.

Bellyrub is back to it's 100% [Read Service Announcement]

Hive account@bellyrub will never self-vote, never sells votes privately, and we provide 100% of our VP to belly's bidding windows so users can feel safe the whole 100% will be used for them, no manipulation of window times and amounts will be done by bellyrub's operators.