If you need pictures with your content, the children’s bookstore is thataway.
We all know that Steem and Steemit and everything associated with it is, in large part, a way to make money. People who just want to write and not make money can go Creed Bratton style and write a blog onto a Word document and let it sit there unread for eternity.
Notice, though, that I said “in large part.” There are obviously some people around who are here because they like the concept as a whole and don’t care much for making money, as long as their sociological/ideological goals are advanced by being on here.
Other people (HELLO!) are just a bit out of their minds and don’t have much of a good reason for using Steem beyond some crazy inner ultimatum or understanding of the world that the less insane don’t (and shouldn’t) understand...because it’s nonsensical.
Most importantly, though, there’s always a part of the experience on here, for most people—or, at the very least, those people who aren’t complete pieces of human waste—that is about getting some value from the content being read and experienced. Otherwise, you could put your money in some equities and make way more money with a lot less engagement than you can from Steemit.
In that sense, since you all have to be here, engaging in some form with the content, you would probably be much happier having some content that is easily accessible (i.e. sitting right up at the top of the trending page) which benefits or stimulates you in some way.
Assuming that the blockchain isn’t exactly the best or easiest way to get pornography (stimulating in an obvious but different way), the only other kind of stimulation and benefit you can get from here is something educational or interesting to read.
It is also nice to know that the community you’re spending time in is not made up of a bunch of idiots and low-rent money-making schemers. You could go to a local time-share presentation and get s better return on your time-investment if that’s the type of drivel you’re looking for.
So you should be very interested in the fact that the Trending Page, which purports to represent the “trendy” content on this platform that the community values, contains such a significant level of mental garbage, that it’s making all of you dumber while wasting your time.
The point of all this, by the way, is to encourage you to explore the little, underdeveloped (hey 
Note: This is a listing, in order, of the Top 10 on the Trending Page at the time I wrote this...By the time you read this, some other waste-product may have taken its place, but the entire point of this post remains valid notwithstanding.
(1) A Decent Story
Amazingly, the top of the Trending Page is a fairly decent story. So at the outset, you can see the community is coming around. If all the Trending posts were like this one, there would be no need for this.
(2) Good Concept, WTF?! Execution
This post is from a group that professes to be (and as best I can tell, truly is) about “Enlightening and empowering women in the blockchain & beyond.”
That’s an amazing mission. Women continue to be wrongly treated as second class citizens around the world. This, of course, is one of he worst problems in society. Until women are treated exactly and fully equal to men within ever realm of life, the world will continue to exist in an unjust manner.
So great idea! And then how do they go about executing on that idea in this post? Well the person posting (who isn’t, as best I can tell, the actual women in control of the women empowerment mission) puts up a couple pictures of some photogenic, smiley white-ish women and some other jargon and sound-bites about empowering women and having a kind of Steemit “scholarship” for women content creators.
The problem, of course, is that there’s very little information on WHY it’s important to empower women (and it IS important) and WHY this type of Steemit scholarship is the best way to do that.
Like I said, good idea, crappy execution.
If they—and you—truly care about empowering women, there are already lots of great, established, proven, audited, legitimate places where you can get involved with empowering women all around the world, with their own high-level content, albeit not confined to a single blockchain. They’d do well to promote these organizations and all the ones out there like it:
International Women’s Health Coalition
(3) Decent Content - Has Potential
It’s a contest and contests can be boring and unoriginal, although this one seems to have curated some very good content (the first prize winner’s story about her husband is engaging, thoughtful, and well-written, so we can assume the guy/gal running this contest has good taste). Hey, that’s 2 out of the Top 3 Trending posts, which gives me some false hope that I’ve been wrong about this all along. Let’s see how number 4 is...
(4) Oh. A profit sharing referrals program for gamers. How exciting...
And now, only 3 posts down on the Trending Page, do we start reaching the money-making, “get-rich win this totally-nothing-like-a-scuzzy-MLM-scheme” scheme. Being promoted by royalty no less. This is like the pop-up ad you click out of on every crappy webpage you’ve ever visited. Anywhere else, it’s kicked to the side as an annoyance. On Steemit, it’s Trendy!!!
Nothing bad to say about this. It’s fun. It’s a good fit for Steemit. You can get better information elsewhere but it’s presented more enjoyably here. Let’s have more of this type of thing.
Yeah, it’s a lot of feel-good pap. But that’s kind of Steemit’s MO right? Enjoyable I’d you’re into this kind of thing. So probably deserves to be Trending.
(7) Dogecoin Does it Better. The economic arguments run from “very sound descriptive economics” to “normative hopes masquerading as descriptions of the world” to “wrong.” If this wasn’t a post shilling for a particular crypto-currency/product/service, I’d be tempted to say that it was a few Kahaneman and Twersky articles away from being worthy of the Top 10-20 posts on the Trending Page. But as it is, this is marketing material. You can read the same range of sound and unsound economics arguments on the advertising pamphlets sent out by junk penny-stocks.
If you like economics and want to read about how currencies work, here’s a start, and it’s not in the tank any particular product that will make someone money if you buy into it (has an Austrian flavor, but read it along with Keynes and then choose which one you like more yourself): On The Origins of Money
(8) Another Crowdfunding Thing
I get it. You’re going to “help the Steem community” and have an “innovative” and “jargon jargon jargon” way of doing it. It’s cool that you’re doing a thing that will help Steemit. But this isn’t interesting content. It’s just a thing you’re doing. It’s s business venture. People start businesses all the time. It’s not something all that unique. I can find a drunk at the local bar who can tell me about his “disruptive business idea.” This isn’t “bad” content. It’s just not something that is proving anyone with any intellectual stimulation or value, other than the dream of making money. I can get that by googling “roulette wheel” or “micro-cap stocks to get rich.” Let’s get something more than marketing material here.
These guys have the right idea. They are promoting content that could be mentally engaging. They seem to like promoting art and stories. But do they even have someone editing these things? The stories read like a first draft of s college Lit class assignment. By all means, the stories could be REALLY good, with a bunch of editing and rewrites. As they are now, though...these are the types of things that don’t get accepted in literary magazines for a reason. They’re not YET good enough. Nobody is truly reading these and enjoying them. Up your standards Adsactly.
(10) Steemit Updates: The Emperor of Boring
It’s not for nothing that popular and money-making publications don’t constantly run front page headlines about the amazingness of that same publication. In case you couldn’t tell by the heading here, that’s because it’s boring.
To that end, I wouldn’t want something like this post you’re reading here making the Trending Page. It’s information that should be out there, somewhere, for you to access if you feel like it. But Steemit posts about Steemit, critical, approving, or otherwise, are as fun to read as the legal notices section of your local daily.
The Point of all this...
is to hopefully get you to avoid the Trending Page. It’s not worth your time. Find a topic or poster that you enjoy and gets your brain working and stick with that.