IMHO, *any* methods which attracts paying customers is fair game. To call bots "cheating" or to suggest they "game" the system baffles me.
You could argue that LL set up a flawed system, but we all live in it equally. Everybody is equally capable of using bots, or ads, or whatever else they can think up.
If you believe that bots "harm" SL, then tell LL. Don't take it out on the poor small business owner who's just trying to stay afloat.
You all want "honest" marketing? I hope you all recognize an oxymoron when you see it...
I certainly appreciate that some of you have "enlightened" shopping skills, like avoiding the first page or two of search results. But looking at it another way, you are rewarding incompetence, or at least laziness, by supporting the business owners who can't even be bothered to market themselves effectively against their competition.
If a person believes that someone behaves unethically in their conduct of business and that person doesn't support their business efforts as a result, to characterize that person's strategy of avoidance as lazy or incompetent is absolutely incredible. Hmmm . . . even self serving?
