@smooth, I'm supposed to be on vacation. It's hard to put this place down.

In a comment here you said:

Yes the promoted feature could be improved in a number of ways.

In this post I explain the difference between true trending content and the paid programming we're actually seeing under that tab. I now believe this burning process could work alongside the solutions/suggestions I presented within that post to further the benefits of taking an honest approach to all of this.

As it stands now, we've been presented with a problem and offered a solution for a fee. That's the oldest trick in the advertisers book. A few more minds looking in to what I mentioned in that post could easily put a halt to exploits and abuse.

Have a good day.