Thank you for taking the time to reply. I have spent the last 40 minutes since my post reading your threads and links on those threads to other threads. I am glad I did, you are a good man. You seem to be involved with a really good group of people as well (the alliance).

I understand completely when you say:

You can easily liken it to him standing outside my shop beating my customers up after they leave, taking whatever they bought from the shop then threatening them to never come back or he will do the same thing again. Do you know how many times I have read someone say, oh i didnt know grumpass, i'll never use that bot again?

And to be blunt, the tactics are working. I spend what little I have spread out for as many small upvote bots as I can get in the hopes of enough visibility someone who may enjoy what I share will like and follow. Many here seem to be against the bots period, thinking they are giving this huge return. My experience is averaged out they produce a slight loss thanks to last minute bidders. But it is worth it to me to invest in my writing, I believe in myself.

But the point is, referencing the quote I pulled from you, I don't use you. I CAN'T use you. Nor can I use any other bots that are not compliant. I really want to make it here, and can't afford to get caught up in some war that makes me a casualty. Hell, I barely understand how any of this works.

Please forgive the length of all of this, but I am curious of one more thing. I have to imagine as the people using your service find themselves getting that special vote that strips them of everything you must be finding your bids decreasing as people shift to the compliant ones. I do not see how you can stop this, so do you just close down shop once there are barely any users willing to use you?