I really dislike Steem services framed as businesses that pool investor money for passive ROI coming from gaming the reward system.
Aside from getting a post seen better based on pending reward payout, I'm not too sure what other benefits there are which help the community or Steem thrive.
Most know the harm they do for our trending page that shocks and confuses new adopters/investors. Most also know that they tie up Steem Power and encourage apathy and laziness. They also frustrate genuine authors who try to earn their way with effort and respect, while others pay for a service that offers a quick fix, and not a solution. Doesn't seem to healthy to me... BUT they make people easy money!
But, but, these services help give authors a platform to be heard! Yea, if they pay enough liquid Steem or SBD they probably don't have for it...
The entire system of for-profit bots is predicated on people trying to farm Steem from the rewards pool. With tons of Steem allocated to them, this forces more people to think they need to use them in order to be seen, with less and less SP is available for manual rewards or genuine projects that help the community/individuals. Instead, Steemians want the passive ROI that looks good in the daily wallet payouts, but the harm these banks do overall irks me to no end. It's clearly profiteering greed to me. What a clever win-lose system/sinkhole...
While most of the owners are probably well-known in upper tier Slack and Discord channels, I think it's important to be able to identify who runs the major for profit bid-bots. Now some owners have their name and face attached like Jerry B. or Joe P., but most aren't publicly listed.
I know a few and have met a few in person, but not most of them.
So, why would Steemians behind these "businesses" want to keep their names out the picture? Do you know who some are? It bothers me that so many people have issue with them, blog about them, but the owners remain behind their curtains.
Now this site above may not be current because I don't see Steemium on there (which shops across the bots for the most punch/profit for you), but it's just for starters. There's a bid-bot tab and a promo-bot tab, as well as a third tab for others.
I won't name the name of those I know, but I strongly question why they try to keep their names out of it. If their services are so good for everyone, I'd imagine that there'd be no reason not to show their face or let people know who's behind the mask. It'd be good for business and their reputation could help them prosper... right?
If only that SP was used to develop projects or individuals who were trying to make this place better.
Maybe I'm wrong, but this has always been a red flag for me since their inception.
