Value of upvotes still needs to be included otherwise there are going to be the armies of low quality posts, with low quality circles commenting, engaging and resteeming. As you know, for some countries small rewards go a long way and in some places it only takes a small amount of people to game it.
This is quite true but it should not be the major criteria. Every other aspect should also be considered. If there is no engagement, e.g. comments, then even if it is on the trending page, it should not be the highest trending. Why I say this is because there are blogs were the writers post but do not interact with those who come to comment on the post. After all they have a voting trail that upvotes them if they fart, why do they need to talk to anyone?
The upvote metric also with the circles of independent voters vote trading to hit trending would explode. There is also no actual way to see if it is a bot or human voting.
If they are going to be vote trading, they better be commenting sensibly on the posts that they are upvoting. They should actually read the post. For if it's just upvotes, they won't still get to the trending page. They will need comments too.
It is definitely a difficult problem @tarazkp, as is everything involving money. But we have to start from somewhere.
I hope people who know better will think of a way forward in making a better system to make the trending page worth the name it bears.
Thanks for stopping by sire. Do come again. Peace