One of the first suggestions I made for Hive, early on, after seeing platform politics and far too much inward facing content 'trending', was suggest that type of content be tagged accordingly and automatically be disqualified from the general content trending section. We still need to have our board room meeting style discussions and they don't need to be pretty, but that content had never mixed well with general content.
I also think it has to be more clearly separated. A dedicated Hive User Forum as a separate front end would make the most sense to me. 1. Discussions like these could benefit from a different style of sorting posts and discussion threads as some questions and ideas are more "timeless" and should be subject to continuous discussions until a solution is made instead of just popping up ad nauseam with a short timespan due to the trending algorithm resulting in it being forgotten before anything was actually done. 2. To give new users the sense that there is actually a place to go to offer feedback and be part of a community effort to identify problems, propose solutions, and find agreements on what to do. I think the benefits could be more than simply separating discussions and content, but also making it more productive.
I suggested it be disqualified from trending, then shifted over to a new, internal section.
I would actually do the exact opposite (although arguably the result would be the same practically). I would like to see the Trending page be only about Hive, and not about some artist's paintings, long form writings and my occasional shitposts that get voted by haejin. I know this discussion has also been up before where some (and I suspect this may include you) would say that discussions about Hive isn't what will attract new users or make time on the platform pleasant. However, I think it is natural that Hive-related discussions are Trending because by default it is the one topic everyone here have a direct interest in. So I would like to see good contributions made to improve the platform from providing good feedback, cool ideas, or documenting actual development to implement those, end up being rewarded the most.
As for content then, I just don't think that a global trending page will ever be interesting. People don't want to see or consume the same things. And users have completely different judgement on what works. Other social platforms that have succeeded greatly in recent years have done so by getting better and better at providing individual users with the content they are most likely to engage with and spend time on. Stakeholders and trails are never going to do a better job at this. So I would much rather see a development in a direction where Hive is a decentralized, open, and user-owned platform where users can choose the content discovery mechanisms (front ends), or open sourced sorting/suggestion algorithms that they want to use to best serve their own wish to find good content or discover new people worth forming connections with. To me, this would be real innovation in better solving user needs and helping them find value as opposed to the web 2.0 platforms (facebooks etc) that run content algos to serve their benefits and not their users.
What I'm getting to with all of this is that I'm just frustrated (as you are) that we seem to be stubbornly insisting on making Ned's basement idea from 5 years ago work, rather than analyzing the actual user needs and how a blockchain like ours can best be used to address them.
Dude. I'm impressed you actually responded.
I appreciate my feedback as raw and unfiltered as possible. So no problem ;)
And see, I'd take it the other way. I'd place that Hive content, development news, platform politics, etc, in it's own tab. It would look exactly like the trending page. I wouldn't make an entirely new front end since it should be easily accessible. One click away. Much like deciding to instead browse the 'hot' section rather than the 'trending' tab. Call it the 'development' tab perhaps. Or, The Boardroom. The front end could decide to make that boardroom the landing page if they wanted.
General content has a tendency to appeal to more people on the outside. That's why Youtube's trending page isn't about their platform politics. It's full of organically popular entertainment/information, and people gravitate towards that. Millions of them.
I think the first time I attempted to describe this was here in the comments: https://peakd.com/hive/@justineh/hive-witnesses-or-more-communication-needed
I'm not sure if you're aware, but even since the earliest days of Steem up to today here and now on Hive, a lot of people have actually been annoyed with the Hive content/platform politics trending consistently. It's to the point (though improving as of late) very few actually look at trending because they think it'll just be more of the same, and I think it's fair to say majority aren't interested in platform politics. I enjoy it, and I'm sure you like to have a say in matters. Most people just want to chill and do whatever.
My ridiculous post with 170 comments. Sitting next to development news with twelve comments that day? That doesn't mix well together. It makes it look like more people are interested in having fun and not interested in Hive, yet that fun is meant to be a part of Hive. It feels weird though placing comedy or one of your random shit posts (you said it!) in with important chain news and information. Arts and entertainment has never mixed well with this stuff.