I've given these things careful thought. Thoughts that evolved over time into something that would allow all of these things to work together and benefit everyone involved.

The reality is, mentioning these paid votes are a problem often gets converted into, "Ban paid votes!" But if they truly are meant to be a tool used for advertising purposes, I know there's demand and money to be made. But these systems only work when they're working together, like a team.

Actual content lures the eyes in, and those eyes might click ads. When they boost advertisements and dull announcements to the top, the actual content capable of creating a buzz is pushed aside. The act of placing the ads and paid programming on a trending page like this shrinks the potential market. How many businesses exist forever if every sale means they're just adding another bullet to their own foot they keep shooting? The more they do it, the less eyes and interest they'll get.

The proof was there for all to see. 20 posts and maybe ONE had a decent amount of engagement, when you remove the disingenuous comments left by members who've been misled to think the content was popular and the producer was wealthy (kissing butt and hoping for a vote someday). The real engagement was almost nonexistent. Nobody here can tell me they didn't see that. For years, people would say, "I don't look at the trending page." It was said so much one could have printed that line onto a shirt and sold thousands of units, while the one wearing it gets laughs at these community gatherings.

The business model eats itself to death. It can't scale up. The exact moment it becomes as successful as it possibly can is the same time it falls apart.

If this place was booming and 1000 people all wanted a top slot at the same time, your advertisement would get buried within seconds and whatever amount of rewards are placed next to the post would become the new starting point of ZERO. Everyone would blend back in to the crowd they were attempting to stand out from.

Now, on the other side of this world we have content producers. I can prove to you right now, as I have a post on the trending page that was pushed up there organically, how the paid votes will force me out and diminish my chances of receiving what are supposed to be the benefits of being there.

I will not purchase a vote to maintain that status. They're making a mess, and I'm not going to pay them to get out of the mess they're creating. I certainly don't mind getting bumped down by other organic content but that's not what's happening. And now to add insult to injury, people will assume my post is there because of bots and won't vote. The trending page has a bad reputation now, people haven't been able to trust it. Every content producer here hopes for that viral post. Now there's no real place for that. Unpopular by default.

I can't change any of this. The folks who made this mess will not even give my words one second of their attention. In the past, I've been told this is "whining."