What you are defending are those shadow vote markets and the circlejerk, you are defending the status-quo while pretending to defend virtue.
I am not defending that. As a matter of fact I didn't bring that up, you did.
What I'm talking about, is what I said. Sure, I have views on other things as well, but you don't know what those are, because I'm not talking about other things right now.
You can keep trying to pick out little pieces here and there with the hopes of discrediting everything I said, but that won't change anything.
I still believe what I believe and I think you're just going to have to deal with that.
I do believe there are solutions as well.
Labeling promotions as promotions would be a step in the right direction. Even I would feel comfortable writing up a genuine promotion, spending money, and promoting some of my previous work and future intentions if the approach wasn't misleading new members into thinking my work is where it is because it's popular. Popular posts belong on the trending page. Promotions belong on the promoted page. There's nothing stopping a blogger here from promoting their work and linking that promotion inside their blog with a banner placed within their regularly scheduled material. They could still get views on their promotions if they knew what they were doing.
Right now, people are using promotion bots, placing X amount of rewards beside their posts, and blending in with the rest of the post that have X amount of rewards beside them. That might as well be zero because that's how much it's helping people. I can look at a post with $50, 8 votes, 4 views and know exactly why nobody is looking. If I was to purchase votes to boost my posts, do you really think all of these people who haven't voted for my work over the past year and a half would suddenly have a change of heart?
Honestly though, saying something like, "I don't support THIS so that MUST mean I support THAT," is so damn ridiculous that I can't even figure out why I'm speaking to you right now.
What is your next move? More spin? I came here to say what I said, not argue with people about nonsense.