So until you develop a large enough following to ensure that your posts will end up in multiple newsfeeds, you should assume that no one is going to read them.

This is some of the best advice I've seen actually, whether you're new to steem or not.

Begin following bloggers that up-vote comments and move on from bloggers who do not. Eventually you will create a roster of users in your newsfeed in which you can comment on any post and know that you will likely receive an appreciation vote for your comment.

Clever!

A failure to convey that you have actually read the post itself and a failure to up-vote the original post may result in your comment not being up-voted or worse, may appear as spam.

This is also pretty important in my opinion, even though it takes work it really defeats the purpose if you don't put in the work and just spam people and like you suggested in regards to the golden rule, that's why we do social media right? Cause we want people to actually read or watch or listen to the content we put out, so if someone shows they did that then that is extra meaningful and if someone just says something like... "Nice post" you can almost assume they didn't even read it or whatever, unless it's photography and they just say "Beautiful" in that case it's a bit different, but for the most part I think it's pretty obvious and you can tell when someone genuinely took the time to go through what you submitted.

use the advanced prisoner’s dilemma strategy.

That's an interesting name.
I tend to do similar without even realizing it's a strategy, however at some point I got to the point where I can't even keep up with comments or private messages anymore and sometimes it takes a me long time to get back to people and some people I never get back to unfortunately. I'm sure I've lost some followers to my blog or social media pages because of that, but.. I unfortunately just can't maintain it.. I don't have enough time in my life to respond to everything.

Also that actually reminds me of someone on steem not too long ago who unfollowed me and told me so because I wasn't visiting their page enough. I told that person I was just too busy to even keep up with my messages and it wasn't received well, so.. Sometimes I think that people can get a bit umm.. Not sure what word to use here.. Attached? Or.. "Conditional" in their behavior, where they only interact with you if you interact with them when I think true love is just giving and not expecting anything back. So I do my best to respond to everyone, but.. Unfortunately I just don't have enough time in life to respond to everyone anymore. It was like that before I started the IFC and now after starting the IFC it's even more difficult. And we're not even that popular, and I myself am not even that popular.. Some people like I mentioned earlier in this response I think? Get so many messages that it's not unreasonable to try to respond to everyone. Especially some of these big channels on YouTube who get thousands of comments.

Definitely some useful tips, which made me consider how I'm posting and interacting even more and especially good for newcomers to steem or any social media platform really, though if you ever get to a certain amount of popularity for lack of a better word it can be virtually impossible to keep up with everyone.

Finally, the approach increases the likelihood that only high quality content is being created on the platform by reducing the tendency of new users to make a lot of low quality posts simply to gain exposure.

That's a good point.. I think steem and all other social media for that matter would be a lot better if more people behaved in ways in which you have explained. Unfortunately though for many it's all about "them" and rarely do they ever give back. They just wanna post their stuff and never spend the time to interact. Which is why I always try to remind myself that no matter how popular or big I get on social media or in any realm that I need to try to be humble and give back when others give to me. Whether it's attention, time, money, whatever.. If you just take take take and never give back, I think that's unwise and unempathetic.

Great post and excellent entry! I also see by looking at the comments that it helped a couple of people, and it helped me as well! Nice work! Thanks for sharing. :)