But can't trending algorithms be changed at the condenser level? Trending. That's really what the whole bot voting thing comes down to isn't it? If the site developers could come up with a better trending algorithm, and showcase better content on the main pages, it would drive more users to Steem. Mind you, I'm not saying do anything with the rewards. Whales upvotes, self-votes and all that would still work...which would make abuse less noticeable, so there would have to be some brainstorming on a solution for that. I don't know. I'm just throwing out ideas.
The same thing could happen for rep which sucks currently. One person, no matter how powerful, should be able to totally silence or otherwise affect the reputation of another. This is a main factor that kept minnows from joining the fight as well. It could be totally changed at the condenser level...in fact it already is a function of the condenser, based on info from the blockchain.
I've thought that TRENDING should maybe only show the top trending post of 1 per person MAX. That way the system can't be gamed. More people's trending post would get to appear on it. Not just @Haejin's garbage.
This implies identity verification for participation on a block-chain and most people are against that for various good reasons. Correct me if I am wrong on this. I would like to be.
Well at least 1 per steemit account which I was kind of trying to say. Something like that. Have a max number of post a user can have trending at a certain time.
No Abuse?
So, the three other accounts that voted up your comments would be able to get to the trending page too? Don't you think that is gaming the system as well?
I think this is a hard problem.
The Tragedy of the Commons
Many users do not know what is considered wrong behavior for the platform. There is a tragedy of the commons problem where every user can get more utility by up-voting themselves (either directly or through alt-accounts). We would benefit more as a group in finding better content if we all would vote articles according to article quality. Those that do not vote for themselves are fools that get less and less utility and thus become poorer and poorer.
Flagging people with very large stakes to that vote themselves have problems
How do you know how to map accounts to people? (An answer bittrex memo codes). Votes can be bought and so how do you determine which were bought when votes can be bought (out of band: another altcoin, or fiat)
Flagging can also be abuse
Is it right to flag all of the posts because of what a user wrote in one? This is flag abuse. Or flagged because she is the wife of Jerry Banfield.