This was spelled out the moment steemit was re-branded. You hopers are but fools.
Ned himself made it clear. You spend X amount, your position on the tending page is determined accordingly. He NEVER made a mention of quality or value or all them dreamer words. It was simply business.
Put forth this much, (through the network of automated gaming systems which we have given rise to) and your content, however shitty it may be, will get to rise and periodically exist among the other dogshits. And those who care to look (or for whatever reason, can't look away) will be your audience. Basic Advertising. Repetition = turnover.
The problem actually exists within those who, under some delusion, believe that they will one day see a Trending Page which brings them the "magical golden garden of freedom" which they believed would exist within these confines. I was once naive too. I am first, a realist though.
IMO, this is as good as it gets. SMTs is an exit plan. A way to try to bring in big money before it all goes pear shaped. Because, seriously... how on Earth does anyone think that this is a good system.
A place where automation takes care of all the plays in the game. You merely need to take your position and the results of the match are already known. "Good content rewarded".... the retraction of one of those words, thus leaving two. Would be more fitting. More accurately, to actually substitute that word with "PAID" would make better sense and at least everyone can proceed to exist on the... Same Page. (punmaster!)
Seriously though, where the hell does QUALITY and VALUE..
Fit into this well manipulated shamble that currently is steemit?
The thing is, there really is some amazing quality and value growing on Steemit. It is obscured by all the horseshit, but it is there. I find an amazing new artists every day with like two votes on their art. I got so frustrated I started resteeming like a turbo engine and a bunch of people unfollowed me. There are also some great curating tools on steemtools , but they do not serve every purpose and not everyone knows about them.
Looks like good things are coming. I know Curie has some plans in the works and I keep.hearing about other things. Perhaps Steemit will finally get some competition and so they can see what works on other platforms and steel their ideas. Whatever happens I have a lot of loyalty to this platform as it has been such a big help to me. Perhaps the trending page will always suck, but my feed just gets better and better.
I see your perspective... and I did actually have a footnote on my post which I later deleted. It read:
Felt like I was clinging to hope too much though, which, from my perspective.. is what you are doing.
You've spelled out the remedy well though. Change is the only solution.
Waiting for another to initiate the change and thus becoming a follower.. is a dangerous tactic however. Steemit was and still IS positioned as Genesis. Time grants such a title for a short period though. 'A Relic' becomes of that which chooses to toy with time so carelessly.
I pay attention almost exclusively to my own feed and selected keyword searches rather than the trending page. If I discover new people to follow it's because they used keywords related to what I consume most. :)
Yeah that's obviously an option or a 'fix". One which I alluded to by stating:
The issue is however how the page and in effect, steemit itself looks to new eyes. As, the home page would play a key role in their entry and impression building.
It's so bad that many would turn and not look back. Completely dismissing steemit based on what the page presents.
But, we know how this works now. And if we're ready whenever another platform comes along, we can be first to the goal. Not that I want to start over, Steemit has been very good to me. I feel I'm one of the ones that focused on quality and was rewarded, now I feel like a damn rat in a maze, hitting the blue button, but there's no one there to give any more treats.
Curie is a blip on the radar when it happens to anyone. The only hope is for whatever magic raises the price to do so again at a sustainable rate so that the pool expands in value, where it can't in quantity. I think Steemit is that proof of concept company that builds a new technology, but refuses to acknowledge that its own model isn't built to spec and eventually makes room for the platform that makes this work.
As to there not being any mention of quality, read the blue paper. There's never been anything but. I agree, the natural outcome of linear rewards AND delegations was the current state of affairs, but we're the suckers who keep sending our money to the top of the food chain, just like in the analog world, we build the 1% then we complain about them having all the power.