It would be very, very easy to program this process to do it nearly instantly.

That's not true. Because I actually was just saluting each individual in person, using a coustomized sign for each one, that took my own time to create. A bot can't do that. Bot's are pre-programed. Those programs has no clue if the actual person that enters the network deserves a welcome message or not by judging their introductory post. Bot's can't handle a personal assitance like I did. And lately I wouldn't do any kind of software for that because my aim was totally the contrary and any one in good faith taking the time to actually check for real how I interacted with newcomers can easily confirm that I am being unfairly accused for no valid reason at all.

Take a look at their reputation scores now (Hive account@wang, for example, is a -16). That should tell you something about how this network feels about welcome bots or activity which mimics (or can easily be reproduced by) a welcome bot.

Stop naming me a "bot". The "network" can't feel. Also a "network" if you mean as social network means individuals. Hive account@smooth and Hive account@smooth.witness is the same person, two accounts and the only one who decided to "flagg" and destroy my initiative. Maybe he doesn't like competiton for this kind of tasks, who knows?

An indication of "how the network feels" is also the fact that NONE of the new steemians complained and also the positive feedback on my welcome message before I was censored by Hive account@smooth. That's like 100 people alltogether.

Also an indication of flagg abuse, by the way.

Reputation as of now can be easily destroyed by ONE individual with enough SP and that has nothing to do with a "network feelings", it's just a power game for a very few.

At this moment Hive account@ned upvoted this post, but I don't want to start a "whale fight", I just want to get some of you into reason and don't a like "bots" destroying user's reputations just because you can.

The fact that MANY people liked the service of the Hive account@wang bot just proved there was a need for someone taking care of newcomers. And the ones who flagged Hive account@wang said it was because it constituted a "bot". You talk to look at the -16 rep of Hive account@wang, why don't you look at the messages of many steemians backing him? That is a "network" of people. And guess what? Since I'm not a bot I manage to do my task without complains from the ones who were welcomed. So now comes the "steemit police" and destroy my rep when there was no "victim".

Hive account@smooth calls me a "spambot" and that just isn't true. I am a human curator that welcomed in a nicely way as much people as I could rationaly handle. I did it, because it's very sad to see newcomers with introductory messages being ignored for hours. So by making them feel that they are not alone on steemit encouraging them not to early abandon this platform.

And I acted as an INDIVIDUAL not as a member of a SP gang being rude to others just because they are not on my "team".

Let's talk about how humans like to abuse their power over and over again and NEVER understanding that at the end it will always harm everybody not just their "enemies" or "competitors" (real or imaginary ones).