I have come full circle on the issue of bid-bots. I now believe there are far worse things than someone investing their own money to promote content. If the content is of a good, fair or downright bad quality, it is still the person's choice to invest in it in whichever way he sees fit. I no longer agree there is really something one can call abuse of a bid bot. Whichever way one tries to define it, it isn't really abuse. It may be in your or my opinion, foolish to invest in poor content - but it isn't an abuse of a bid bot.

It is far uglier (abusive) to curry favour with bullies or other influencers in the hope they will upvote your content. This is something I see in many of the so-called curating leagues (not all of them). A lot of the content is sub-standard, yet it continually gets supported because it is profitable for that league or group to continue to uphold the illusion. Content like this post by @snook for instance, is far more worthy of trending than any random selection of some of the circle-jerking posts who shall remain nameless here ;-)