3 Years Old - A Flashback to the Past

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I don't know what it was, maybe all the drama regarding @jrcornel and that style of writing (which I personally found to be quite useful), but I thought I would look up a similar author from almost 3 years ago.

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@charles1 was one of the first people I followed. I initially marvelled at the rewards he got not knowing at the time it was all fake and bought.

For those who have joined HIVE recently, or were not about in early 2018, these were the days of the bid-bots.

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...'@charles1, gone for almost 2 years. What happened to him?'...

Then it was STEEM, now it is HIVE. You will need to do your own research on the divorce which was around a year ago and that is another story, still raw in some minds.

You could send 100 STEEM to a bid-bot (a large voting account) and add the URL of your post in the memo field.

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...'@charles1 had some massive rewards, or did he?'...

Within 15 minutes, a massive vote would come your way that would be larger in value than the 100 STEEM you sent. You were paying for votes.

That wasn't all, why not vote stack (send that 100 STEEM to 5 or 6 bid-bots) and be a greedy bastard? Vote stacking was quite normal in March 2018 and posts like this quite regular.

Then there was my pitiful FULL VOTE stuck on the top of $0.001. I figured if I could beat the bots and vote early I could make some curation.

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@charles1 was a speedy bastard, sent his STEEM at a rapid pace, and it rarely happened.

People from outside STEEM saw these big votes and were lured in on the promise of ‘big money’ unaware that this was a load of bullshit.

That was then and this is now. There are no bid-bots anymore and anyone who would dare to start one would be down-voted to zero before you could say 'I eat piss and shit for breakfast'.

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…'even @meesterboom was a @charles1 fan. This was way way before we met'…

@appreciator, @upme, @smartsteem, @rocky1 and @boomerang were all bid-bots amongst others. If you wanted to be on Trending you simply paid to get there. Many bid-bots have died and the ones that remain now curate.

STEEM was over $2 each then, but the quality of the posts and state of the infrastructure was terrible.

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...'steemit.com..., once my home, now indecipherable and still with ludicrous votes for shit-posts'...

No Splinterlands, in fact, no games at all. Yet the value was a lot high than the 35c it is now.

Given the state of HIVE, I expect it to breach $1 in the next 6 months if this bull run continues. It has a lot more to offer than the STEEM of 3 years ago. Compared to now, well just look at that Trending page (up above).

So it's... Happy Birthday to me!

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If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, rehive, engage me or all of these things.



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42 comments
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Ah boomerang. I remember it well. At least, once you'd reminded me. 😂

There were some right characters around then, remember that Jerry Banfield guy? I just googled him to see what he's doing now. just as prolific by the looks of it but all over the shop. 😂

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Jerry was a little before my time. He did bring a lot of people to STEEM (for bad reasons) or so I am told. I did see the aftermath and his demise. A sad old story.

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Back in 2017 I was mostly known as @sift666 and I thought bid-bots were bad so I didn't use them - but I kept pissing big fat whales off, my rewards sucked, and I never got my rep past 65. I was self righteous but not "approved"

So I decided to start again with a new account - @frot was starting off at 25 and I thought "fuck it I'm going to bid bot my rep up to 65" - so I did - it was fast and easy. Then I stopped and it's only taken me 3 years to get up to 69.

My dirty secret!

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(Edited)

Don't bring me into your psychosis you lowly vote buyer...

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I used them in the early days. It was 'normal' then and a case of 'if you cant beat em...'. Part of my rep is bid-bots, but never in the $100's of dollars range like @charles 1. I love STEEM stories of the past, @felixxx is doing some posts now on the early days.

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One thing I don't think people realise is how good the Steemit content was in late 2016 - it was a real treasure trove. And the payouts too - I once got over $400 for a post (no bid bots) and that was not unusual. I'm going to start reposting some of my old sift666 posts on Hive because there is no way I would spend that much time writing a post now - I'm a lazy old burnout these days, and I make more returns from curation (catch is, there is nowhere near as much good content to curate now).

Your posts stand out like dog's balls because they are as good as the best Steemit posts from 2016.

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I heard about these massive payouts. I have yet to break $100 (but have come close). if this lousy token ever goes up then maybe it will happen.

Your posts stand out like dog's balls because they are as good as the best Steemit posts from 2016.

Well thanks.., I just start typing and it flows usually. I don't make any special effort with my posts, though I put them all through Grammarly and attempt to proof-read them all before publication.

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It was funny - all my best payouts came when Steem was worth bugger all - when it was up over $5 my good payouts were around $40 and I didn't think that was anything great (I would now!)

In Aug 2016 Jeff Berwick got $15,000 for his first post - and that was pretty much the first thing I saw happen on Steemit - my eyes popped out of my head!

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Hey, thanks for this! I joined around then, in August of 2018 I think, and I had no idea what any of these things were or did. I ignored them, just trying to publish my little poems and hope someone somewhere noticed them. It took three months to get my first reader and to make my first penny!

I never did learn what a bid bot was, until today. Thanks.

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If it doesn't breach a dollar this year then I don't think it ever will barring a miracle. I don't mean to be down on hive but as you say, pointless projects have been worth a lot more with nothing to show for it. Here's hoping Madame Butterfly's marketing drive might help. It's always been said that it is what we need. I guess we will soon see!!

Charles Charles Charles, I sorta remember him. I think he engaged a bit with others in the comments. Some of the biggest bid bot users never even bothered with that.

Remember all that shit they shouted about it just being promotion... Wankers!

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Charles Charles Charles, I sorta remember him. I think he engaged a bit with others in the comments.

You left a comment, and his response would be, 'I agree', or 'Yes, I think so too' or 'Totally agree'. If I didn't know better, I might have guessed his comments were automated in a string array with a loop hehe...

..then every now and again he would drop me a vote on my post. Those early memories of birth are vivid!

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(Edited)

I love historical posts as there is so much that happened there to chew over. I depsise the bid bots. When I wrote a post about them being bad once I had several quite personal attacks in discord from either their owners or flunkies of their owners. Back then when they were starting out they were quick to stamp on any dissenting voices. Absolute twats.

I think old Charles actually commented on my Uncle Boom posts, unbidden! I am sure it was him. He always seemed tickled by the Gentleman part of it all. It's funny how when the bots disappeared on hive so many people did too.

I was quite tempted to reply to your reply with I agree - LOL!

!WINE !

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(Edited)

'I Agree'.. hehe..., remember this? That Bidbottophant still cracks me up! @katharsisdrill needs to do something that is pertinent to our times. It was all so full of drama then, now it's boring in comparison.

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Hahahha, the bidbotiphant!!! Oh that made them angry!!! It was so good though. It really ruffled feathers!

I am glad we don't have to have the same old arguments with the same old people about it being bad.

I was quite surprised by the whole jrcornel business, more so that he just thought fuck this and is powering down and offski!

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I remember that time, I was there since January 2017 and I have a lot of memories about the quality of those posts. 🤪 Happy Birthday, dear Slobberchops 🤣

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(Edited)

Thanks Silvia!, I always remember the first people who gave me some attention (and votes), and you were one of those. I wish I could have gone to Lisbon, a big regret.. I was into stocks and shares then and it happened just before my first taste of crypto just a few months later.

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I think the first post I read from you was shared by @steevc and I have to thanks him because your posts are always interesting to read ❤️

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I haven’t looked at the old site for a while. The trending page screenshot says it all. Seven in Korean and one in Chinese. It would be hard to upvote or downvote, it’s all Greek to me.

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Yes, it's all in the past and yet it seems not so long ago we were chatting in Bangkok when everything was STEEM. !WINE

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I prefer sustainability than sudden burst in price for the most part.

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We do seem to be getting that now (so long at BTC doesn't come down), almost 40c. It's been some time since I saw that.

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Lol, oh the bidbots. That feels like a long time ago now, amazing what happens in 3 years! Happy blockchain birthday

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I have a scheduled post for the anniversary of the new chain. Man, those bidbot days were bad.

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They seem like a bad memory. It was 2 years ago, all that. It feels like yesterday to me. !WINE

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Holy cow I totally forgot about bid bots.
They ruled the roost, and any honest account holders (like us) didn’t stand a chance and marvelled at the often ludicrous rewards.

Didn’t realise I had joined Steem at a similar time to you (I thought you were a 2016 guy)
Our experiences will have been very similar being new on the platform. Building out accounts.

Happy birthday, it’s fun and weird to look back.
But you do know that YOU’RE a big account now who new Hive users look up to?! You always have very healthy rewards for your posts (rightly so) so I bet that’s a good feeling.
New users still here in 3 years will be like “I remember joining and seeing the massive rewards from an account. The avatar was an insane slobbering man, I think it was Slobberchops, he seemed to love hanging about in shitholes. And I was like woah, how do I do that?? My vote was only $0.001 and I wanted what that guy had” etc etc

Have a good day man!

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I don't know how I got here, just some belief I suppose. I felt bad that people were voting for me, and I could not give anything back. The answer was to buy STEEM, as so I did. !WINE

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Thanks for continuing to make Hive awesome.

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(Edited)

I almost left during the bid not era, a good 80% of my friends did, but there were a bunch of us who just kept hanging out at discord and ended up curating for OCD and they told us when things started getting better. I think the longest I spend away was 3 months, but there was an 8 month period where the quality of my posts dropped a lot cause no one was engaging.

Mid 2017 when I started was fantastic, bad rewards distribution but soooo many awesome people, like now but 20x more in numbers. The better reward distribution is vital to make it sustainable though. I think we'd be a million strong now if the Great Flood of bidbots didn't occur. It's ok. We will repopulate.

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Ah... so you are not new, and I had my hopes up that someone could be new and actually write. Well.., it's better than not having you here at all. Welcome back!

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I'm not new, but my main reason for starting a youtube channel is that I figured if I was putting stuff up at 3speak, I might as well try to fish a few new hivesters out by putting stuff out on youtube, and maybe a few readers for my novel too. Everything comes back to Hive, after the bid bots were defeated and as soon as we split, that's when I bought in big with my old account and became a real believer in the future of this project.

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Ah yes, I remember those days. I really wish my account would have been in a different place then. I can't deny that I used a bid bot once or twice, but my account was so small it only netted me some pretty small votes. My real growth has really only happened in the past couple of years.

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(Edited)

LMAO, this was quite entertaining as I remember the circus and charles' posts ranking high often. I tried to game the bots but was never very successful. Happy B-Day man!

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At first I thought Charles's stuff was deemed that good that it merited over $100 per post. It took a while to sink in about the bots, there was no instruction manual.. there is none now! Some things don't change. !WINE

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