Is it Possible to get Trending Without Using Bots?
Enough has been written about the quality of the Trending page on Steemit. I think it's safe to say that over 90% of all posts residing in the Trending section, have only gotten there because hundreds of dollars were spent on promoting it. I'm just stating facts here, not passing judgment on whether it's fair or not.
I'm just curious if it's possible to get on Trending without using any sort of bought upvotes. This includes using any of the services listed on Steem Bot Tracker and using vote markets such as SmartSteem or Minnowbooster.
A Rare Sight
These past couple of days, I've been watching the Trending section pretty vigorously. I've noticed that you'll occasionally see some content that does not appear to have been upvoted by a bot. When you see content like this on the Trending page, it's almost certain that it's of exceptional quality.
Example
The North Korea in China (2018 Documentary) by @laowhy86
The Main Problem
It seems to be completely impossible to compete with the people who are consistently buying votes. I really wonder how much great content we're actually missing , just because the competition among vote-buyers is so fierce. I do believe that Steemit is working on a solution to this problem. I'm saying this because we've seen some small updates recently, which shows that Steemit is still actively being improved upon. At the end of that article, they also state that they're working out a strategy to combat bot use and spam. I assume they basically mean they're going to try and clean up the trending page.
Solutions?
I think it's certainly possible to come very close to trending in sort of a consistent way. Joining communities on Discord seems to be the most straightforward way. Content from Qurator and Adsactly members seems to be doing really good in some cases. Other kinds of curation services might also play a significant part in getting content to Trending, @curie is a good example of that.
I've also seen some posts get upvoted by whale accounts, though this seems to be based on having luck. In other cases, it's because there's some connection between the post author and the whale. Whatever the reason may be, I don't think it would be a good idea to focus on trying to get these votes. Sure, try to make as many friends as possible on Steemit, but don't let greed be the drive for that.
Questions
I'd really like to hear what you guys think. Is it possible to get on the Trending page organically, without using any sort of upvote service? Have you ever gotten one of your posts trending, without paying for it?
Let me know what you think in the comments and consider upvoting or resteeming if you like this type of content!
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If @curie picks you up with the curation trail then I think there's a chance you might get there. I cant see how in any other case.
I would welcome Steemit.inc's policy if in fact they do get rid of the bots. I do use them, but I don't abuse them. If they were gone tomorrow and we all had a level playing field again I would be the first to cheer.
I've seen some cases where someone got upvoted by some random whales. Made sure it wasn't a bought vote from Minnowbooster or Smartsteem. Also Dtube manually upvotes good content, at first I thought it was a bot, but apparently not.
Maybe if you have the highest reward tier from @qurator you'd get there with some additional whale votes?
I'm really not sure what the criteria is for trending. Its a place that I never look at anymore. I think it might be a case of big $ and many votes to get seen there.
If I'm looking for some new good content I tend to look on @thesteemengine's baggage-car area. There's always something worth reading there.
I tend to check Trending occasionally just to get important Steemit-related news. Mostly browsing through Hot and the different Discord channels otherwise.
If the Steem price keeps increasing, we might become the next whales, if we ever manage to get +50 dollar upvotes :-)
I think it is almost impossible. Especially for the hotter/bigger tags. Perhaps hot is possible for some people that got upvoted directly after posting.
Did you also check some of the most popular Steemonians?
Like @haejin, @exyle and @famunger? You should think they make it some time to trending? However they probably don't because their posts gain very stable amount of upvotes. And what you need is 1 post with very high reward.
Hot is definitely possible for almost anyone I think, maybe not with the most popular tags.
I've seen a couple of @exyle's posts on Trending, but usually it's the more lengthy posts.
You could also ask yourself the question how important it is to make trending?
I would love to be @haejin even though he doesn't make trending. Or at least he doesn't make it all the time. I guess this guy earns over a million. And most likely everyone prefers such financial rewards above getting posts into trending 😀
I wonder if there's also a ranking for which Steemonians receive the biggest part from the reward pool?
I think writing in steemit, no need to chase upvote. Write as much as you can, and learn. Because actually, there is no smart and stupid people in the world, as long as you want to learn to work, try hard, you will become the next whale.
it is now difficult to recognize the content that is the bot or not, it seems like a mutual solution is required soon.
It was possible last December I had a curie post and it was over $250 in value and there were not a lot of bid bots yet and smartsteem has not received it biggest SP delegation yet.
Most of the post were about 200-300 so it was there for 3 days without any bidbots
but now you see posts at the thousands and curie can't upvote that high hell even Haijen can't compete with one post with all the botted post there.
Seems like community initiatives just can't keep up with the 'competition'. I think we'd need hundreds of similar curation groups to keep the Trending page a little bit in balance.
I was in a witness show earlier today and that was being discussed how even with a lot of the curation groups we have here none of them have the SP to be able to support good content and get a post to trending.
Hell we are even lucky to see any curie votes there right now and they have one of the largest, together with SteemStem.
I never look at the trending anyway. although for new users or non users who want to see something like this
https://steemit.com/life/@cliffpower/making-a-difference
It really is kind of a lost cause then, at least with the current status of Steemit. I do see Adsactly posts on Trending quite a lot. I don't really know what it is though, kind of like a curation community?
Yeah I had noticed that exact post as well, the author even says in the comments that he is well within his rights to promote a post like this. He's not wrong... There doesn't even seem to be that much backlash in the form of downvotes.
I decided long ago to produce good content that I can be proud of. If I get noticed, trend or make pennies on a post are irrelevant to me. It is hard to hold that perspective when you spend hours creating a post that generates less than a dollar. But steemit is a popularity contest. Whales, gaming the system and networking all can make a difference. I prefer to just interact with a few groups on discord and hope to get noticed sometimes. Steemit will never make me rich. But it gives me an outlet where I get paid for my content. Fair enough.
I trended when I had a month here, Curie voted me, but it happened very early last year, I think it was March. Since then, a lot of things changed and, as you mention, the bots are a huge part of that.
I’ve never seen anyone I’m familiar with on the trending page. Such huge payouts are a mystery to me. Using bots or making large delegations must be part of it. I don’t have to worry about that for a long time! 😃
I'd just like some consistent upvoted posts in the $20 range without having to buy votes. Trending is the farthest thing from my mind. It is too bad that it is so hard these days to get your content out there and viewed. The competition is so vast.