Claude Shannon suggested randomization helps deal with these kind of gradient climb problems. So randomizing the trending page a bit ought to help, I suggest. Or perhaps get rid of it entirely, so that users who are not logged in have more incentive to look at specific categories. @Dan was debating Vitalik and he was not trending. You had to scroll way down to see it. Most people don't scroll. Especially those not signed up.
This makes it less meaningful to buy votes that generally lose the purchaser money if purchased them but had to bed purchased to trend.
In the broader world there is no single shelf space on which products are ranked. There are many shelves at different places.
Anonymity or at least pseudoanonymity is still necessary for people to be able to post without fear, if those people lack any other microphone. I would sign up for a nonanonymous platform, because I have another microphone. I'd have more readers. Easily. But most people don't have another microphone and power asymmetry in the broader world would discourage many of them from posting what they post. Platforms with anonymity will be far more interesting so far as content goes, I suggest. If they're properly balanced.
How many writers of fiction would publish mainstream fiction, and I mean professionally, with a well known publisher, under their own name rather than a pseudonym, if they're starting out and employed elsewhere? Or if they have a social position that is higher than that of a typical writer per se? The answer is too few, I would argue.
Many highly paid contracts for most people have a clause that forbids publishing anything without permission of the employer . . . and people have been fired for publishing even academic articles in well respected journals under their own name without asking permission from above. Because the permission would be denied. Anything you do under your name usually reflects on the institution you're part of and that must be controlled to minimize the risk. People get offended so easily these days that most institutions are paranoid. In many cases correctly. State an opinion or argument under your real name, which is affiliated with the institution, and you may be out.
That means the best people can't participate. It's why China requires signing up with real address and state registered phone numbers. Because of the chilling effect on the most competent and most otherwise well positioned people. It prevents the organization of such people on social media platforms.
yeah, speaking up contrary to the group gets one ousted from the group, so it goes... Maybe having less fear would allow people to stand up for what's right rather than remain attached to an institution that prevents them from doing so... I guess we need abundance and easier survival in society to allow people to lose their jobs :/