RE: Is HF21 a trap?
It's not going to solve anything. Really, in an ideal world, we all know what should happen:
1 - Author rewards not getting slashed in half for the sake of easy (and double) curation rewards. There are enough manual curation initiatives out on this platform at the moment so this whole "it will encourage curation" nonsense doesn't add up.
As a content creator, I'd be fine with 2/3 post payout to author and 1/3 to curator but now it's going to put off a lot of people creating as the rewards aren't what they were before (which was not a lot in the first place!)
2 - Bid bots have to go - All of them - full stop.
3 - If 2 won't happen then (as much as it pains me to say it), bid bots can stay only to support manual curation initiatives such as curie, c-squared, helpie etc etc and get that manually curated content on to the trending feed and it benefits everyone. BB owners get the curation rewards (which won't be unsubstantial) and content creators get their varied content more exposure which is what that damn trending page needs. Travel blogs, science blogs, music videos, supporting talented artists to name but a few.
4 - Ditch that rep system whilst we're at it. It's pointless as it can just be bought (although if all of the above happen then it will actually mean something).
Apologies if none of that made sense - I've been travelling across a massive desert all this week and flew back to the city an hour ago.
Yours
Nicky