I hate to start the week with rants and critiques, but I can't keep on walking blindly either, on my Steem path. I've been talking about the trending page, the use of bid bots to get on the trending page, the low quality of some of the posts over there and what I would change about these multiple times and can't seem to finish with these topics. So here I am again with this sort of posts.
I don't visit that page too often, but sometimes I take a look at it to see what's new in there and what's changed for the better. Besides seeing @cicbar having a good article over there about [BigONE](https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@cicbar/bigone-hidden-gem-among-profit-sharing-cryptocurrency-exchanges) which I recommend you read it, I also stumbled on some low quality post also that I want to bring your attention to. And when I say low quality I refer actually to plagiarism. YES, PLAGIARISM on the trending page.
The article that I am talking about is this right [here](https://steemit.com/story/@dreamants/passion) so you can check it and see for yourself what it is all about. I am not the one finding it as a plagiarism act, but I am one out of many who feel more and more disgusted about this kind of practices on Steem. The guy who "created" it not only that took someone else work and tried to earn Steem and a reputation with it, but he also promoted it with hundreds of Steem invested in bid bots.
[image source](https://pixabay.com/en/bubble-gum-shoes-glue-dirt-438404/)
One of them, @buildawhale, noticed the post is an act of plagiarism and took the vote/s back. Plus, steemcleaners and other accounts that fight spam and plagiarism took attitude and downvoted the article. The guy hasn't stopped though and posted another "trending one" that is now first on the page. On the recent one I can't say if it's plagiarized or not, but I can say that he seems determined to become successful on the platform and he's on a hurry. How successful will he become with this kind of work only time will tell, but the dumb people commenting blindly might give him some trust to keep on going, for a while...
Whether we like this or not such situations affect all of us who use Steem, like Steem and see it as great platform on the long run and why not a mean of earning some valuable tokens. One that, in my opinion, doesn't deserve such users as the [plagiarist](https://steemit.com/@dreamants) mentioned above. I will point out though why it affects us all and why we shouldn't stay and do nothing about.
**First** it affects Steem's image by allowing plagiarism on its main page resulting in some bad advertising for it and disgust for us, current users. **Second** it affects us by taking Steem out of the rewards pool, from where "we all drink" fresh Steem, through paid bid bots. Luckily though, on the above mentioned post, at least @buildawhale upvote was taken back, but the guy might have gotten away with others that don't review who they sell upvotes to. And **third**, such users make the reputation scores mean nothing. The guy joined the platform this month and he is already having a 62 score with not only "his work". I am perfectly aware that one can get to that score with only one post and have nothing against that, if the post "is something", but in my opinion that guy doesn't deserve that score. Period.
[image source](https://pixabay.com/en/fountain-water-flow-wet-3412242/)
I have said it and I will say it again, Steem needs to do something about that trending page and make it a real trending one. Even if posts get there through bots upvotes some kind of filter has to be applied to it so only good quality posts make it there, no matter how many upvotes they have and the value of the upvotes. I am not against bid bots, even if I don't use them anymore, but I am against promoting garbage on the trending page. If that's what's becoming trending then Steem really needs a revamp and really has a problem with such users that needs to be solved. I believe in decentralization, when properly working, but I don't believe in chaos and the mix of "honey with garbage" so somehow that honey must be kept away from the garbage in order to make that Steem token hit $100 in price in the near future( as it is predicted by quite a few) and keep good bloggers still blogging on the platform. Some other platforms will soon offer alternatives, if they haven't yet...so we have to keep the standards high.
I am not a professional and a highly read blogger, I admit it, but if I were someone who does a great work at this, I would really be pissed off to see that my posts get $4-5 in upvotes and never see the trending page while that type of plagiarism and low quality ones get to be read by thousands of people and even new comers that might believe that this is the way things go around here.
I mentioned above that we should all take attitude and do something about this kind of situations and you might probably ask me now *what are you doing then to change that for the better?*. Well, my only tool is my keyboard with which I can spread the word among the ones reading my posts about such situations. My current voting power is at 0.01 so my flag wouldn't make any difference, but at least I can bring the plagiarized post to your attention and who knows, probably some more powerful than me will flag it. I have to admit that I don't like this flagging thing, as I seen it being abusively used also, but I don't like seeing the rewards pool being drained by such users either, nhore making a cesspool out of this platform.
**Thanks for your attention,
Ace**