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Sometimes when you use certain third parties like the esteem app to post or comment, you'll get a few votes come in from people who have bots set up

Thank you, so these bots are not able to automatically upvote on the regular steemit platform?

They can, they just have to be set up to do so. I know the esteem app has accounts set to auto-vote on anything posted from there, but they also take a 5% cut of your earnings...

I appreciate that you have taken the time to respond and answer my questions so far. You are one of the users that help make this platform so valuable.

I have a few more questions if you or any other knowledgeable persons would be willing to explain or point me in the direction of any related information.

In your opinion, do these bots a positive or negative overall effect on the platform?

Could it be a good idea to separate the bot voting from individual user voting with another indication?

Personally, I like the value added by these bots, but I also tend to value a person's vote over a bot's from a fundamentals point of view.

I know this comment got kind of long, but I am just trying to get a better understanding of how the entire platform works. So please feel free to correct me on any incorrect or possibly dumb comments I have made here.

Whether they're bad or good depends on who you talk to, and the situation. When it comes to contests that count votes as points, it would only be fair to not include those votes. This would keep players from going "around the rules" to win