Manipulating the Steemit Hot and Trending Pages
Do You Frequently Wonder How Some Posts Appear in Hot / Trending, But Other Posts Do Not?
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Simply from observation, and maybe a little bit from discussions around Steemit with those who are more familiar with the nitty gritty details, I think I am understanding the shortcomings of the Steemit Hot and Trending pages.
I'm going to try keeping this brief, because I really would like a broader discussion in the comments from those who can confirm or deny my observations.
Most of us know that there are "curation trails" all over Steemit, and I believe that being part one of these more popular trails will automatically elevate a post to the Hot and/or Trending pages.
Let me explain why...
The Hot Page will show you some of the "more recent", highly upvoted posts. Now before you get excited (or angry), if you have 100 votes from 100 accounts with 0.500 Steem Power and Reputation of 25, you're not likely going to see your post on the Hot Page. I believe that the Hot Page also considers Steem Power (as does almost everything related to Steemit) and potentially Reputation. Therefore, If you're part of a curation trail with some Higher Reputation individuals (who typically also have higher Steem Power), then your post is more likely to become part of the HOT Page. In addition, I've noticed that if you Promote your post with several SBD (or more), you're much more likely to see your post on the HOT Page.
The Trending Page will show you highly upvoted, commented, and promoted posts from the past Several Days. Similar to the Hot Page, I believe that the Trending Page also considers Steem Power and Reputation. Again, If you're part of a curation trail with some Higher Reputation individuals (who typically also have higher Steem Power), then your post has some more potential to become part of the Trending Page. Since there is a longer timeline for these posts to be allowed to exist on this page, you need a HEAVILY Promoted, Upvoted, and Commented post where many of the voters/commenters have a high reputation score, and considerable Steem Power.
I touched on this above .. PROMOTEd Posts get TONS of Attention on Hot and Trending
If you take a look at some of the Top Posts from these pages, you'll notice that a common denominator is that they were Promoted. This is definitely more relevant for the HOT Page, but Trending has it as well. @jerrybanfield is notorious for Promoting his posts, and I think he even posted a blog about it quite a while ago (before he quit his job and made Steemit his full-time job, if I remember correctly).
Personally, I feel that Promoting a post should NOT have an impact on appearance on the Hot and Trending page. This makes the pages seem misleading in that those with the most power (i.e. Steem/SBD) will have the most influence on these pages (which is where "Manipulating" comes from in my Post Title).
What do you all think?
Feel free to test out some of my thoughts / comments. Specifically with the Post Promotion -- throw 3-5 SBD toward a post that you think people might enjoy and upvote, then hop over to the HOT page and see how far down your post lands. I'm willing to bet if you throw more than 5 SBD toward Promoting your Post, you'll see it no more than 30 Posts down on the Hot Page (unless others have caught on to this trick since I tested it last).
Might the Steemit Developers consider changing these algorithms to help promote non-Promoted Posts too?!?
We already have a "Promoted" Tab, why should promotion get you into the Hot AND Trending Tabs too..?
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Promoted with 4.0 SBD and immediately placed at Post #91 on the HOT Page (I guess that would also be after receiving an upvote from the "Promoted" Account... but here's the near-immediate screen shot:
Post # 130 on the PROMOTED Page:
Nowhere to be found on the TRENDING Page (I got bored after scrolling/refreshing through 200 or so posts).
Yeah but the thing is not all people have the SBD to promote the post, like my situation, my rep got the destroyed well its probably my own fault should not have bad mouthed the guy, but now i cant post pictures and that incase leads to people ignoring your posts... so how does one get out of that?? anybody got any solutions for me please???
UPDATE: At 45 Minutes, 3 votes, 5 comments, 6 views: Ranking = POST # 33 on HOT:
UPDATE: At 60+ Minutes, 3 votes, 7 comments, 7 views: Ranking = POST # 158 on HOT:
I don't think it has with promotion, it has with the upvote value. I used @zeartul for upvoting. I send 10 sbd's and i get a full upvote. I will not post till I confirm that @zeartul is online and available to upvote immediately. That's the trick - to get a high value upvote right after posting. As soon as i got the upvote it was in the top 30 - if I remember good - of hot.
Ok, I'll believe this.
However, do you feel that a "HOT" post is one that is simply valued higher? I don't think that the HOT posts are ordered from High to Low value.. so what else might you think is contributing to the elevation of some posts over others on the page?
EDIT: at the time of this post, I'm now Post #25 on the HOT Page
I don't know exactly, but I do know that what I wrote works. I tried it and got results.
Hmm, ok. Well.. I still think that simply getting a quick upvote (of high dollar value) shouldn't make a post included on the Hot page as a highly elevated post. I mean, this post is/was just one simple scroll past the top 20 posts on Hot, and it came from 3 upvotes (including my own).
That doesn't seem like a valid "Hot" Post to me...
I also see some posts with 100 votes but a total value under $1.00 ... that might be considered a "Hot" Post, but it's most likely just a curation trail of bots.. which shouldn't be "Hot" either.. There are some flaws in the algorithm that need to be adjusted.
i'm not sure if that was the only vote, because I got votes from minnow support too. But that's low value and usually don't get you in the hot.
I thought the whole ethos of Steemit was for people to read quality posts and interact with each other.
The more time I spend on Steemit the more it seems to be about manipulation and 'money / power games'.
I am feeling somewhat disillusioned with this. Isn't there anything that can stay true to integrity and not be corrupted / bought out by money?