I think it's not the bots, but the whales that are the problem with the trending category. We should exclude whale votes and comments from being counted, in a special "minnows trending" category. I know it's not likely to happen, since it would mean SLIGHTLY less money accumulating for the whales up front, but who knows, from their pov it wouldn't be that bad, as they'd still have the original "trending" category, and it could lead to larger gains down the road.
I think we'd soon see a large quality difference between plain "trending" and the "minnows trending", and thus most likely the old one would be less and less used for searching for good content, which would lead to more talent joining, and so on in a positive feedback loop.
Why? Because logically minnows are where the talent pool is deeper. Whales atm statistically should have less proclivity for writing, dancing, drawing, photographing, painting, sculpting, etc, because they were initially not selected for these qualities. But minnows are self-selecting for talent, that's the reason most of them come here - they have talent, and looking for a way to leverage it.
This should also be in the interest of the whales, as imo it's the only path to grow Steemit to its full enormous potential - making it as tempting as possible for talented creatives.
"as they'd still have the original "trending" category,"
If this is true, and it remains the main landing page for all new users and people who view Steemit for the first time, then it is irrelevant if we add a new trending. Few will use it, much like Promoted.
Minnow trending would be jammed with these bot users who post garbage, or YT links that aren't their content, but spend hundreds of SBD on bids to get large payouts. Go look at the bid windows yourself on the bot tracker, you'll see what I mean.
"But minnows are self-selecting for talent, that's the reason most of them come here - they have talent, and looking for a way to leverage it."
Lol, no, most minnows are garbage posters, generally speaking. Go peruse the new category and you'll see the ratio of quality is atrocious. There is a clear trend where size of stake generally correlates to less garbage posting, for whatever that data point is worth.
Yes I realized in the intervening weeks how many less fortunate people around the world have been and are being attracted to steemit by the promise of hard easy cash - a matter of survival for many of them.