@lynncoyle1, that's where I keep ending up with it.
Let's just look at the dictionary definition of "trending." It's definitely NOT about "who paid the most money."
Which is why I keep coming back to having a "trending" feed from which you're automatically excluded if you have bid bot votes, and another feed called "richlist" which just lists posts by their estimated payout value, regardless of whether or not there are bid bot votes on them.
Call things what they are!
Exactly, that makes more sense. Today I was actually thinking that the entire 'trending' page should be scratched and let people do what they want with their own posts. Leave the categories, and people search by subject matter and not dollar value, because I don't think we will ever change the fact that there are those who want to make money and have no interest in quality writing, ethics, or organic growth. It seems like those who care are discussing it, but those who are the "problem" are no where to be found :)