Promoting your post in Sportstalk requires **SPORTS tokens** as a "payment" for promoting your posts under Sportstalk feed. The payment is termed "promotion cost" and it will appear under [Promoted](https://www.sportstalksocial.com/promoted/), [Hot](https://www.sportstalksocial.com/hot/), and [Trending](https://www.sportstalksocial.com/trending/) categories. The hierarchy of posts depends upon the amount of Sports tokens being spent to promote a post, which means the highest promotion cost gets a place on the top feed.

<center>![promotion.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmNu6uqsZ5cKH9sdrbP8p5PRtw7GLMLudmboCjat7aLPNs/promotion.png)</center>

In **Trending** and **Hot** categories, there is an interval of five unique posts before another promoted post appears. The prime reason for this is to prevent clogging, I believe the interval of five is considerable. You will notice if a post is promoted because the post is being **boxed** and a word **promoted** can be seen on the user's post feed.

<center>![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmRyns1Bh3wyrDBXp9LLg5b1JcgYPcEMg2zVVPRvfo1BiL/image.png)<sub>Sample</sub></center>

To promote your post, simply send **Sports** to @null with the Sportstalk link on your memo. These Sports used for promotion will be burned, which decreases the token liquidity. The more users spent to promote their posts, the more tokens to be burned. We are helping the economy of this community with that because it decreases supply of Sports.
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#### I'm Not Backing Down :D
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Lately, the Sportstalk promoted section is on a tight competition. Of course, who doesn't want their post to appear on top right? That's why the top section might get heated up - which is happening.

Me (@korver) and @julstamban have been in a serious battle for the top promoted post. Just please don't downvote us for doing it btw because we're making sure our contents are with pure effort (too shy to say "of quality"). Plus, we're paying it with Sports and we're helping to decrease Sports liquidity :X. I've made a [post]() about the competition so might want to hop in there.

I really like it and it's totally different with what you see in Steemit. Promoted posts doesn't appear on **trending** and **hot** categories on Steemit, which makes no sense to pay promotion because literally almost no one would click "**Promoted"** category. I mean, who wants to see ads?
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<center>![Abuse.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXDVEo8bbENUAjbyxnYZFy8oF2QvaZinWZR9ECELJLwGP/Abuse.png)<br><sub>[Canva](canva.com)</sub></center>

Moving on, I've been changing my activity in this community and I have been loving the way I am changing myself. So far, I've got a good audience now with my post which boost my confidence to write more. Thank you to the support everyone.

Now, it has been recently [posted](https://www.sportstalksocial.com/community/@sportstalksocial/community-guidelines) by @sportstalksocial, part of that post mentioned that we've been vested by 2.5x **downvotes** per day - enough to police abuse. A lot of users have been policing abuse and **referee** system is also being helpful too publishing bad actors.
<center>https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmRUfYQyAT1xheKMzvtCqsZqRWrbQF4HMaGo2XLvw3hBJA/soccer%20pagebreaker.png<br><sub>Pagebreaker from @julstamban</sub></center>
### My Suggestion
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Not all users have the luxury of time to police abuse. It also takes time to combat them that's why some have not been utilizing their downvote power. I've been checking on somebody who is utilizing his downvote power but unfortunately ones I checked is still reaching the 100% VP. When I checked on @referee and its alt account (1-9), it also has been consuming their downvote power a lot.

The only accounts focused on combating abuse (with them making sure they're using their downvote power) are the **referee** accounts. The problem is they are using so much of their downvote power. 

I suggest that **referee's** accounts should also keep in mind their downvote power. Make sure to use only **250%** per day and utilize that so we can trail and will not drain our DP. As of writing, only @referee1, @referee4, @referee5, @referee6, @referee8 are the only active. So they are the ones we get to choose who to trail. If this gets attention and approved,  I suggest **Sportstalk management** will make a publication who among the accounts are have been active and which among the referees they recommend to be trailed.

Last thing, we need to find a good tool that will enable us to trail the downvotes. I found this, https://steemrewarding.com made by @holger80 which can make our goal realized. 
<center>![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmcPjnmWmTZYzzGsP9Rsa6LuU53RAunsRHgoka6paLPoKT/image.png)</center>

You can also scale your VP there by the way so you can make sure it will not be drained. I guess I've posted too much, I'll end this with a good note :

> There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. - Margaret J. Wheatley
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https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/606708552337457162/612937093953355787/capture.gif