'Curation Trail' vs "Promoted post" an ethical dilemma...
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"Curation trail"
I tried to join a "curation trail" when I first joined steemit, but I didn't get it, some friendly dude I didn't really know wanted me to post my "posting keys" somewhere... I wasn't sure about what "posting keys" was or how they could be used, So I guess I failed in joining because of my "paranoia"... And then I just never joined a 'Curation Trail' again...
"Post-promotion services"
I do use post-promotion services from time to time, they go out to more then 10-20 k of users, some might be bots, but the accounts are alive, I have checked that, cause when an account is dead it drops from the "followers counter" you know the one in the top of the header.
Some of these "post-promotion services" come with "auto-votes"/"bot-votes", just to sweeten the deal a bit I guess, but you still get exposure to a decent amount of "normal" users too, I did some research on that in another article and yes some of the followers of "post-promotion services" are a bit questionable, but far from all of them are bots...
img source pixabay.com
Now I do read peoples conversations here sometimes in the comments and such, I don't always interfere, just reading a bit, someone a "red fish"/"dolphin", said something along the lines of, "I never upvote articles or follow users who I see are using promotion bots", I think the point being was that "post-promotion services" was "cheating" and that it was all just bots and no real "organic upvotes". This "dolphin" uses curation trails and plenty of users auto-vote this "dolphin".
And that same user made a valid point, if it's just a vote and no "Looky Looky!" at the post, I can see how some people would consider that whole concept a tiny bit questionable...
img source pixabay.com
Back to the point...
What was the point, yeah right, uhm, well some users frown-upon "post-promotion services" but they utilise "Curation trails", (and trust me @friendly-fenix don't judge), but okay, lets say you post a youtube video of yourself playing guitar for 25 minutes, then you get 356 upvotes from your "Curation trail" after 15 minutes on your youtube video post...
A week later the youtube video of you playing guitar shows 12 views...
Isn't this kind of on the same ethical level as using "post-promotion services" with some extra "bot-votes"?
I would be glad to hear your opinion on this one???
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I personally don't see anything wrong with either, as curation trails and post promo are available to all users to take part of at will. If either were exclusive, I'd have a bigger issue with it. I actually appreciate some post promotion, as there are a lot of great articles written here that no one ever sees, because of a simple lack of exposure, and has nothing to do with the quality of the post.
I've never used a post promo service, but I also wouldn't NOT read someone's post just because it showed up as promo. Perhaps it would be more ethical if they announced which were promoted?
When a huge group sees a quality post and promotes it, obviously that's the best, and probs most ethical way but usually they also have a curation trail of "mindless or read less voting".
That being said, I still take part in curation trails as I feel they help boost the steemit community in general.
To sum up, I'm all for live voting, but bots obvi have their place, as they are here, and accessible to all, so it's hard to fault people who use them when anyone can.
IMO also, quality posting will always win out on all levels, the rest is a playing field which means there will always be "cheaters" as well as those who are simply viewed as such, even though they are only using the system as it was designed. It's a fine line!
Good question btw
Xx ToL
Nice to get a good decent sober comment @thetreeoflife.
I agree to the fullest...
So having a "curation trail" inhibits giving a nicely "100% powered upvote" to a really awesome article you stumble upon?
I'm not on discord and not always up to date with the latest trend also tend to go my own way, so I don't really join up with serious groups, (well,I do use @artturtle because I'm a patron of the arts, but other then that no).
I am considering to utilise https://steemconnect.com in order to join curation trails and auto-vote, because Im getting a bit too attached to steemit, and I could use a little x-mas break...
But Im not sure... Also Im afraid that this attitude against "post promotion services" is like a general attitude in the upper echelon of the steemit echo echo echo system, (the last sentence was a bad joke)...😜
/FF
It certainly doesn't inhibit further curation, and that's a good point.
I guess my next question would be, is promoting posts using bots actually harmful to the platform, or are people upset about it because they feel it's unfair in some way?
If it's not harmful, then it just comes down to personal principles and priorities.
Some may choose to boost their own accounts based on personal principle of live interaction, some would rather not, and so long as it doesn't hurt anyone or the platform as a whole, meh?
I could even argue that If someone has a great idea, it could be a disservice to the platform to NOT share those ideas using post promo. Couldn't it be more important to get great content actually seen than not, just because of principle?
I don't know Im not that kind of person, but I could guess people who have been "grinding it away" here for a few years, building connections, teams and such might get a bit "salty" when they see new users pushing their articles to thousands of steemians with resteeming services...?
The only harmfulness would be "dysfunctional resteeming providers" who "over charge" and only have bot followers so I guess you have to watch out for those. I usually I don't make a super positive ROI when I use a whole bunch of resteeming services, but at least I get my article seen/read/upvoted by some more people, and in the long run I guess its "brand promotion" so the ROI might be a positive in the long run anyway...
I agree, principles are only good if they make sense...
Thanks for your comment.
/FF
Still doesn't understand about curation trail 😂
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Hello Mr., Mrs., Ms. or Miss @mediawizards!
So what did you think about the point I was trying to make?
/FF
I saw so many post there is write in portion join our curation trial add our account in steem auto. If we do upvote them what is return?
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@mediawizards
Im not an expert on "curation trails", this is partly why I made this post.
Mr. @pwny here below in the comment section, who is also an excellent meme-comedian and steemian, could probably explain "curation trails" better since he is more involved in "curation trails"...
/FF
I see....
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A curation trail can be many different things really. If you want more info you should join a few curation trail discord servers and find out the rules to join and reap the benefits. I'm on @trevonjb's curation trail. If you look at steemauto and browse the most popular fanbases you may find a trail you'd enjoy.
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I think it's ok to use bots. To grow your following though is different. Follow for follow isn't very healthy. Natural curation is good for gaining followers and so are collabs with similar steemians. If you drop by and make friends with others they will look at your stuff eventually. I use a curation trail for a steady income but I also manually curate as mush as I'm allowed.
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Resteeming/promotion services? (not talking full on bid-bots in this article)
Thats good to hear, I think you are right in what you are saying.
One question is curation trails a bit like vote-4-vote? Sort off, right?
I need to read more about how they work.
/FF
The resteeming and promotion services haven't been profitable in my experiences so I don't care if people use them. A curation trail is better than vote4vote because the whales get involved and you get a better return on your votes. It's kind of delegating in a way but you just have to follow a few rules.
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I find @resteembot, @marcocasario and @reblogit to be cheap/almost free and worth a shoot... Im going to use them now... Because why not...
The other "bigger players" are expensive, and it's definitely a risk using them if you want a direct positive ROI on your post...
@pwny maybe try those top three on your next post and see if there is any more upvotes or comments, followers then usual? As an experiment...
Im going to further investigate curation trails...
/FF
I've tried almost all of them it seems. Lol The best I found is @crypto-n-custard
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@crypto-n-custard sent me a wallet message the other day, I was tempted to try, why was @crypto-n-custard good?
/FF
The return was actually positive and consistent. I don't use resteem services anymore just because they cluttered my feed to much and I don't resteem anything so my page shows all of my work. If anyone has a better post model I would like to see it! 😁 I need to do some collabs with others too.
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@pwny
Yeah but the normal resteembot don't force you to resteem anything...
They just resteem for some SBD or STEEM...
Oh yeah, when you follow them, right, that can get a bit intense in the feed, right right...
But my feed is pretty intense anyway so, but yeah i miss my friends posts and I don't use Gina...
You got a point...
/FF
I feel this platform is just another distraction for us.... "Crypto" + "Currency"= currency you take to your grave.
You can't take nothing down in to that tomb my friend. Or maybe a few scarabs and other stuff you might need in the after life... =)
/FF
Explain that to all the folk who continuously buy crap they don't need, lol. <3 Wait, don't do that, it will make you look, "crazy"....
Yes, you are probably right, I have almost no RC and Im getting sick of it, so I might be off for a few days or only log in sometimes, not able to comment on everything and such. Take it easy.
/FF
Thanks, it is the only thing I can do in this weather. It gonna rain! Take it easy, friend!