I think there are many who especially upvote and comment trending posts just because they believe that they'll get a piece of the attention someone else just bought by voting for them. Actually it's the other way around. Trending is now known as the place where you definitely don't find quality content, and where no real social engagement is taking place.

Something that @ned strangely finds entertaining and good publicity - which makes me seriously doubt his judgement and leadership skills.

I remember he commented a post from grumpycat or berniesanders once, saying that it was amazing how much traffic these guys were bringing to the platform. I replied to his comment asking him if he seriously believed that these two were bringing traffic from the outside - or if it was rather the case that the post just made a couple of thousand views for being boosted to a top trending position where it was found by the local drama lovers then. He didn't answer back.

Thanks for stopping by and keeping the ball rolling, @atmosblack.
Something needs to be done.