I used bid bots like crazy in my earlier days here but I stopped using them. I realized it wouldn't be real in terms of knowing if you created something exceptional. If I didn't get any upvotes I took it as a challenge to improve and turn up the volume a notch higher. The feeling is ecstatic and rewarding seeing people truly enjoying your content.
The feeling is ecstatic and rewarding seeing people truly enjoying your content.
Yes, that is true.
Last year, when I played with them, I wasn't tracking results. I assumed that rewards would be greater for those who voted earliest, so I waited for three days before I bought a vote. What that likely did, in reality, was increase my manual human votes but, as I show, those voters got fewer rewards. There is a reason that these bidbots have a three-day limit on placing bids. After that three-day limit, the rewards for bidders goes down. They'll make less and the other curators will make more as per percentage of post (don't quote me, but I think I read that in the white paper).
When I started this experiment, I thought those who were saying it dilutes the rewards pool were just making a lot of noise because they didn't like the bots. That's why I decided to perform this experiment. To my surprise, that was the only thing I was wrong about.
You do feel a lot better about your posts when you know that actual humans are upvoting them and that you're getting a better-than-average return on account it. I remember the first @curie vote I got. I couldn't believe it. It was for a poem. It knocked me out of my chair.