Hello Steemians,

As we all look towards Hardfork 20, there are many changes that well-meaning steemians want to see for a better steemeconomy. You and I know most of the challenges that you and I are facing here. Except you are a whale or ned reading this, I'm sure you understand.

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Here's the thing there are problems with upvote bots which became recently magnified as a result of people abusing that system to get to the trending page. In essence people are buying up spaces on our trending page instead of allowing other people determine their popularity.

This has prompted many people to ask; what's to be done? This came with a barrage of comments. Many people dropped their own opinions even the ones that were seemingly pulled from their behind. Many were just outrightly retarded like 3 year olds with some chromosomal abnormalities drooling saliva.

One person even said;

Since the trending page is the issue, get rid of the trending page entirely.

Hey genius! How about you get rid of your brain first and replace it with Einstein's cadavar. Pfuuh! The trending page is the front page of this blockchain. That's how we get to show off our $$$ signs and make the bold claim that "MONEY TALKS!"

I know you probably said something a little bit more retarded. Don't fret okay? We realize that everyone is not too smart so we have decided to feature the opinions of the smart ones. Don't feel too bad if yours isn't featured. Just smart up!

So here they are;

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One of the smartest answers imho is from @mirrors.

I dunno whether he is a she or she is a he but I know she his human!😂 And the human has substance.

This is an abridged version of she his comment:

What is the goal of promoting a post?
a) To increase the posts visibility
--- This gives the post, irrespective of the quality, the inertia it needs to attract more upvotes

b) To grow one's reputation (I have seen several low REP accounts overnight sprint from 25 to 65+. This is long term play)
---This calls attention to one's blog, and also attracts more thoughtlessly given upvotes on one's posts, irrespective of their quality.

After this part she he argues further that the there's a problem with the algorithm which tends to be unifactorial and straightforward hence can easily be games. The trending shouldn't be determined only by popularity. She he profers some solutions as follows;

What, in my opinion, is a trending page post? Simply put, it is the is the most read, the most talked about, the most engaging in terms of comments, and as the least of the reasons, the most rewarded.

New algorithm criteria
"(i) The number rather than the weight of upvotes.

(ii) The number of 'human account' comments by the community .

(iii) The number of reply's to the comments by the post author/account holder.

(iv) The number of resteems by the community in general.

(v) The number of resteems by the high reputation accounts rather than the weight of their upvotes on the post.

(vi)And finally, the overall post rewards as a secondary qualifier after the rest above."
@mirrows

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I was impressed that someone has finally given some thought to this. The other day, I saw a new announcement from @steem-plus chrome browser extension. They actually implemented a new feature designed by @andybet named Steem Sincerity see here. So people are working behind the scenes to fix these I guess.

One thing I have discovered is that the society's problems are usually an opportunity for someone smart to shine. Well someone retardedly smart and funny can also shine by making light of the situation.

So I'm waiting for a big announcement someday where someone tells us that he has built a platform on the steem blockchain that uses a better algorithm than Steemit. Damn! He or she is even allowed to use bots just to hyperboost such into our attention.

Steemit will be dumped immediately for a better system that appropriately grades content based on popularity as determined by real humans and not bots! That way, even a minnow can trend with a $5 upvote if he has enough minnows upvoting, commenting and resteeming his work. Then it will serve it's real purpose of exposure . A whale will then vote and boom! Minnows get appropriately rewarded for Hardwork!

On some level, I really think that this is what Steemit Inc wants to achieve. They want users to build on their efforts. They want people to make the platform go in any direction they want it to go without their interference. That's what decentralization means really.

I heard this statement in one of Ned's interviews;

This platform will scale when one or more of the dapps perform better than Steemit!

The point is to complain less and do more. Be the change you wanna see on steem!

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I also saw someone else with a totally different but uniquely smart idea. He feels the problem is not symptomatic but fundamental. This guy's profile picture looks retarded but yet he seems smart. Lets hear him;

The underlying problem with society (not just Steemit) is the substitution of money for virtue. Society is far more valuable than money, and many things far more profitable than financial rewards. Steemit hasn't improved on this problem, as stake-weighting simply completely abdicates virtue to mammon.

For some of you that didn't pick a word from the above, stake weighting is the algorithm we currently have. It ties everything to stake. Eg upvote value is dtermined by stake. Voting for witnesses is same stake.

@Valued-customer argues that this is the one reason for all the problems on the site. I had argued in that light before in one of my posts . I remember someone reminding me that that's akin to asking for Utopia. 😎

He adds further that,

Society is people, not their money. Society, including on Steemit, is far more important than SP, and VP being based on SP is a foul twisting of our attention away from those things that matter more.

If we have a way of separating the social from the wallet model then we are in for a great long ride free of complaints and lovely humanity. Stem is full of many numerous potentials which should not be sacrificed on the alter of selfishness.

Finally, I'll close with the smart speech of @heimindanger the founder of @dtube and creator of the Clean Trending Page Initiative. He said and I quote;

Every social network in the world is a meritocracy, even the best ones like reddit. It's always the same users making the karma and who know 'how to trend'.
The fact that everyone can buy itself to the top of the trending on STEEM, is a symptom of the manipulation that goes on. Sadly, if everyone can get to trending easily, it's the proof the system is rigged. You wouldn't go register on Instagram and expect 1000s of likes on your first pictures, unless you are already a superstar. Should be the same on steemit, getting to trending should be a long quest that takes months of hard effort. Not a few hundred dollars...
I also believe it's pretty bad psychologically for the steemians. Instead of having the feeling of slowly growing up their influence, week after week, they can instantly boost themselves to the top for a couple of days. It's basically a cheat code, that ruins the game experience. I doubt all these bid-bot users will stay on STEEM once the cheat codes are removed or less powerful.

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I have one question for the bidbot owners. Well, it's not mine but @abh12345…

What will happen when all Steemians delegate to bots?

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_{Source Of Comments: @TheRealWolf's post.}

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😎😎Ciao!😉😉

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They call me @Nairadaddy aka SteemDaddy!

My aim is to leave you better than I find you everyday!

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