The social media mindset - re: chunk of coal
Every once in a while, i see a blogpost like the one that chunk of coal recently made, treating bear like a social media platform. it's always a reminder that social media has kind of conditioned our brains to feel entitled to others attention on sites like these.
But here's the secret, right: You don't actually need toasts. They don't do anything. Bear doesn't even display the total number your blog has.
I mean, seriously. Noone is getting paid for this (apart from herman, i suppose) - it doesn't matter if people upvote your stuff. Your lifelyhood doesn't depend on it, there's no path to stardom here. It's a hobby. Who cares what number of trending your post inhabits.
If you don't like the content that's on trending, just use any of the dozens of content aggregation websites you can find on the web. Have a look at powrss or something.
Traditional social media has kind of conditioned everybody to see this sort of thing as their job, to sort of unconsciously put the people at the top of trending onto some sort of pedestal - "look guys, those are the bearblog celebrities!".
No, they're just random people that also do this as a hobby. You're not going to get "canceled" on bearblog, no one's gonna get their lives ruined by hundreds of people when a "popular" blogger calls them out. I don't have the numbers exactly, but there's like, what? At total of 500, 600 active users on here? People will get annoyed at your post and move on, there's no secret Bearblogging shadow cabal or whatever.
Trending doesn't always show the stuff that i most enjoy reading, heck, most of the time it doesn't do that. But that's what most recent is for. You're not owed attention, there's no attention economy here, because, again, you're not getting paid for this.
Sure, it feels nice to know other people like your stuff, I get that. But it doesn't serve anyone to get this upset over it, to try and act like simultaneously you don't care about toasts and they're Bad And Evil actually, and then to turn around and say you're also entitled to more of them. The existence of the toast system doesn't "force" you to do anything. Turn it off if you don't want it. There's a bunch of userscripts for that, i think I've even made one before.
Stop treating bearblog like a job. You're not gonna "hit it big" here of all places. Have some fun, enjoy your time here, maybe email some people with likeminded interests. Getting upset over the number of toasts other people receive is just about the most pointless thing you could be doing. You aren't entitled to other people's attention.