Votes have very little to do with this
There are a few ways posts can be discovered on the bigger hive sites, but generally they lack even the most basic discovery features such as 'related posts' and 'suggestions' etc.
This is mostly by design since the aim is to keep focus on new posts that are up for being voted on currently as part of the POB process.
unless voted into Trending (most don't read there)
What traffic data is available to corroborate that assertion?
Most of the comments I get and new followers come when my posts are in Trending and not at others times. I personally always check trending and a few other places.
you will never have your message suppressed in any way again,
Within the VYB community that is correct in theory - but at the same time there is limited growth potential in a space with limited capacity for monetisation in a world that relies on money to do the most basic things. I will be helping market and promote/evolve their project (and others) for free, as and when I can.
Now there is no reason to keep trying to get support remove downvotes from the Hive base layer,
I have literally never suggested doing that. You won't find any of my posts where I suggest removing downvotes from the Hive base layer. I have only suggested reducing the amount that are available for free since the current figure of 2.5 per day is arbitrary and has never been optimised.
Oh, unless this is all really about earning HIVE and not protecting your ideologies at all.
As with all of the things I am reiterating to you here again, I have stated numerous times that reward pool payouts are relevant and vital to Hive's growth as it stands since Hive already has better designed and marketed competitors that are already thrashing it based on it's ability to offer censorship resistance. Economic support of creators is a powerful tool, but only if well managed.
Luckily, you can sort your posts how ever you want now... how fortunate!! Of course, it was always possible earlier too.
Most users use peakd, not hive.blog - peakd sorts things differently and uses communities to filter information.
so it is about the money.
It wasn't arbitrary, it was well discussed openly and publicly.
Invest in those places then - make your money on them and then you will have all you want.
The most successful social sites tend to operate on post suggestion algorithms powered by tagging and other parameters.
I think you have missed the point of the specifics of my question here. You said that most people view content on trending pages, but peakd has several trending pages (which I use a lot). PeakD provides traffic data via Matomo in the tools area, but it isn't possible to see stats for the trending pages in comparison to community and profile pages afaik - which is why I asked if you had data to backup the idea that people don't use trending pages.
The entire Hive blockchain is powered by money, it's essentially what motivates creators to get involved a lot of the time - it's what powers the development and it is disingenuous both to try to claim that being involved in the economic side of Hive is somehow 'negative' and also that I am saying that money is the only relevant point or even a high priority. I have said none of this and you are manipulating here for your own reasons that seem distasteful at best.
It was arbitrary in that it was not based on real world data since none was available at that time. Now we have data it makes sense to measure it more accurately.
I will use whatever works best to achieve my goals (which actually include helping humanity evolve beyond money, ironically - but that's not so easy when almost everyone is trying to move in the opposite direction). For now I am open to continuing to work on Hive and to make use of the many years I have put into it.
And you are free to implement them on your site too!
No point missed. you can go have a look at alexa.
Ask @Jarvie
I don't disagree. If you want money from base layer tokens, you will have to find ways to convince base-layer stake to vote on your posts, these are the owners of the platform - they are the ones who have put their value where their blockchain is and what gives the token value. Nothing you have said convinces me that you will add any value to the tokens I own.
And, the vast majority of people with stake think it is working fine as is, including me. You want governance voice, buy stake or convince enough stake to support you.