Hi Rosemary, thanks for the comment... and yet it does feel dishonest.

In a "truthful" incarnation, "Trending" allegedly represents the most widely read and upvoted posts on the site. "Hot" is more about posts that are recent and got a lot of initial attention. At least that's how it is supposed to work. Except the whole picture has been rather skewed by the bidbots, because you can buy yourself onto Trending.