The only way co tent should be trending is by users upvotes or number of resteems or views. Or by the authors own money paid as a form of advertising.
Bots are too confusing and put new users off ("come to our decentralised and free social platform.... Where most of the votes are bots and paid for. Where we pay bots and cheat the system to get random crap to the top").
This isnt how Steem.it can grow. I came here all excited, wrote honest posts, voted, read, just to see that the whole thing is controlled not by users and good content, but by a few tech savvy folks and their bots.
What we have here now is a nicely centralised platform that shows you junk on the landing page (hello new visitor, we're full of shit), and isn't curated by readers for readers.
Whats the point?