Can anyone make an argument that those of us attempting to follow good-faith social norms, and create quality content on this platform, are not simply suckers acting as an ATM for certain abusers and whales? Particularly, those of us dumb enough to have traded Bitcoin for Steem?

<center>![Abuse 1.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmd2DnSsog2yD8LMHWMwZF4nrQ2C6MNq5rXLqnkhq2GFoR/Abuse%201.jpg)</center>

<center>*I did not sign any contract for this, yet I still feel demeaned.*</center>

Because absent a good one, I'm running out of reasons not to simply post numbered comments and self-vote them rather than spend hours a day working on researching and composing quality content. I would actually make MORE money that way, doing no work, than I am now.

I'm *deadly* serious about this. My next 10 posts might be "placeholder." (This is not satire.)

In the following image/post, there is several times more money than I've made in 6 months of full-time work (at least 40 hours/week) and 6500 "posts" on my blog, and I actually bought a lot of Steem to boost my influence ("it was the style at the time.")
<center>![Abuse 3.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQ4jXwBY9iqnysRvHfKUpcx6rM5RkaheRQ2rVZ4MYXuov/Abuse%203.png)</center>

<center>*There are pages, and pages...and pages more.*</center>

Those are worth about $900 each, given SBD were $11.33 at the time.

A few good faith witnesses are ~~wasting~~ using their voting power, that could be building the community, to try and stop some of this - but it's like catching water in a colander.

STINC sits by with enough stake to neuter both this and the hateful flagging wars without breaking a sweat, yet instead chooses to tacitly endorse it as an accomplice by doing nothing.

Why should we bother to create any original content, when we can simply cut and paste someone else's content from YouTube (or wherever), slam it with a $500+ bot vote immediately after posting with a bid at the last second, and profit off of all the other bidder's losses, despite no views?

![Abuse 2.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmT1XwEZ4dXzr2VM1KVZ1tb4jBEAvegFaAUCcVvjRQ6uhk/Abuse%202.png)

<center>*I self-voted this comment 100% btw, but cut it off for image sizing reasons. Whatevs, go flag it if you like. Fucks I have left remaining to give are scarce.*</center>

<center>![Abuse 4.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZyDdd9gxrxT2gCmo9VX24Zkp3qxdF4Q2SBxMzCM2rp9T/Abuse%204.png)</center>

<center>*Works 92.32% of the time, everytime...but only for Icedrum.*</center>

Hell, let's skip even making the content. Why don't we just abuse a bug in the bot voting logic to steal votes from curation guilds!

https://steemit.com/steemit-abuse/@droucil/exposing-one-of-the-biggest-abuses-on-steemit-booster-and-how-10-000-dollars-went-to-one-nifty-abuser

Has it taken only 24 hours for me to owe Transisto an apology? Is he simply more jaded than I and therefore ahead of the game on this topic? Is he right?

![Transisto Hypo 4.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmW2ggjjzbfZxuGXoS7s3NhbkXugonvicdoVC3NmQBDp1t/Transisto%20Hypo%204.png)

![Transisto Hypo.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmeJAMdkgZvvhuhi5M9soaofu17koqtxTuvDrvpec6xRBP/Transisto%20Hypo.png)

![Transisto Hypo 3.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmeb4u3guUM8eLXWmGCM7VkUPKiMrKGg3s85D5VLBEcPxx/Transisto%20Hypo%203.png)

Why would anyone bother to use their VP to responsibly curate, or prevent abuse, on this platform when we could simply-vote ourselves for 10x the gain or more?

Transisto, perhaps on this topic, I owe you an apology after all.

If you see me lowering myself to this level, and I'm going to tell you, I am this <-> fucking close, remember this post before you decide who is most deserving of your ~~ROI donation~~, ~~self-harming prisoner's-dilemma~~, ~~logic-failure~~, flag.

<center>[*Try SteemFollower today and get rewarded for every vote!*](https://steemfollower.com/?r=5490) </center>
<center>[See my explanation of SteemFollower here.](https://steemit.com/steem/@lexiconical/steemfollower-the-upvote-and-follower-exchange-that-isn-t-vote-4-vote-but-is-quite-effective)</center>

<center>![PAL Logo.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRSmRyg4MdRdiKsWTMbfyiAG673K1yP65MoUTbCXGp9Xi/PAL%20Logo.gif)</center>

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<center>*[Almost 80% of Steemians do not vote! If you wish to make me your witness voting proxy, I will attempt to vote in Steem's best interest based on the information in my witness reports. You may set me as your proxy by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the Witness Voting page. Proxies are instantly revokable at any time.](https://steemit.com/~witnesses)*</center>

<center>[![Proxy.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmV7EukwPiajCok1zWTGUTY4oiWy5zFGTYhLqHrBuJAcUf/Proxy.png)](https://steemit.com/~witnesses)</center>

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