It's a little disheartening to see so many people complain about this almost every day, I get it, we get it, trending is filled with things that don't make much sense most of the time, people buying their positions on global trending with questionable content is ugly we know. But the truth of the matter is that to get worked up about this, to get angry, to even flag these posts is as productive as screaming at clouds.
Who owns the tags?
This might seem like a bit of a trick question, after all there are initiatives within Steem that have coined a tag or more importantly use it to be able to function. For example #openmic uses it so that us the judges can find the entries easily and pull of the monstrous feat of listening to 300+ entries every single week. But I don't think anyone within the community is too bothered by someone using the #openmic tag even if its not an actual entry for the contest.
This is of course assuming that the user who is using a tag like #openmic is doing so simply because he/she believes its a good strategy to get some traffic, and not really some scheme with ill intent. I'm obviously assuming many things, but I think my point becomes apparent. The tag itself is not owned by @luzcypher it's just the tag he started for his initiative, yet It's not policed by any of us as if it can get stolen if we stopped watching.
What about the Popular Tags?
I guess there are those who believe that tags have some sort of sacred element to them, meaning that if someone uses the #music tag on a post that just talked about music but did not really have a song or even a beat, then that person is hijacking the tag!!!
I guess I do understand the argument, at least if I'm able to stand on the idealistic side of the conversation. #art should be used for Art and #music for musical content, but at the same time we seem to forget that our personal ideas of what is or is not #art are not the same, and sometimes by a long shot.
For example:
By my standards this piece of #art has absolutely nothing remarkable to speak of. Don't get me wrong I like the color blue, as a matter of fact it's my favorite color, but what I fail to see is how this blue square with a while line can sell for 43 Million Dollars. You read that correctly, this blue square sold for more money than we will ever see in our lifetime, and I don't see anyone yelling injustice on the streets looking for blood.
If they are buying their Trophies... let them
I for one have never looked at the trending page and thought to myself... "How am I going to record a song today when there is a Dmania post about Nutella making $80 on the trending page??????!!!!!!!".
I realize I'm being a little ridiculous here, but I'm trying to make a point. What does the nutella post have to do with my emotional necessity to create as a musician? If It's stopping me from creating, if looking at the trending page removes my inspiration, then I must have to revisit my motivation for creating, maybe In my heart and mind I have to something figure out that goes a little beyond the nutella conundrum.
As much as you hate it.... we need them
If these rich Gremlins are "Hijacking" the trending page, by spending all their bitcoin to buy more steem and SDB's and then send them to the bitbots in these negative ROI moves, keeping the price of Steem from plunging back to under $1 that is a good thing for you! Yes you, artistic soul putting your heart and experiences into short stories, poems and songs, you want them here, you need them buying up our currency.
What gives this market its liquidity? The answer is not artists.... We would want it to be, but if an amazing/unknown artist all of the sudden jumps into the platform and creates his masterpiece it would do NOTHING to affect the price of Steem, and I'm not being fatalistic, this is just a fact.
Before you attack me for selling out
I'm not, not at all... I'm just too old to believe in this magical world where money is ugly and icky and I don't want to see/hear from rich people because of UGH!! and barf!!!
Do I think the trending page needs a makeover? Yes, hands down!!! I happen to agree with @lexiconical on this matter, trending page should probably be reserved for authors of content that have the most upvotes and interaction and not so much payouts, since payouts as we know have very little to do with quality.
A couple of days ago @themarkymark made parody post about this, and what is hilarious to me is that even there, where he was basically showing the warts the way our trending page works, instead of people understanding his point, his message, he got attacked by the same cloud screaming trending defenders.
Do you want things to change?
Act like a grown up, engage in discussion, talk to the people who can make a difference about changing trending. Maybe if we stop attacking the people who are spending money on the bots and adding liquidity to this market, but change the code of Steem to showcase quality content we can have the Rich Gremlins buy their trophies all day long and the artist get featured for adding good content to the platform.
The whole virtue signaling thing gets old and really fast. If I had a satoshi for every time someone makes a comment about their titles and degrees and how this platform does not reward true talent I would be a freaking whale right now. Your complaining with no action does absolutely nothing to fix this, and masturbating your ego because you are frustrated about how things work, saying to everyone on a post "I'm leaving Steemit because I'm not being appreciated" shows to me at least that you are not in this for the long haul, you don't get it and you think life owes you something.
Here is the cold, ugly, wart infested truth....
The price of steem!!! What is happening????
Honestly, as I was collecting my thoughts on this weird rant post, (I started writing this a few days ago and abandoned it) I ran across this video by @benleemusic and since I could not do a better job than he did, I will recommend you watch it if you are feeling a little down about the price of Steem....
In any case... I'm sorry for my rant.... believe it or not I'm not upset, I just want everyone to get a grip of themselves...
Love you all
