The Great Resteeming Dilemma & Other Unwritten Steemiquette Questions
What better way to show your appreciation for a fellow Steemian’s hard work than to resteem his or her post? (Ok, besides a 100% upvote from a whale).
As a casual Steemian and irregular poster, I never thought about how my blog appears to others—its content buried beneath a bunch of other people’s posts.
Resteems serve two purposes for me:
- To pay compliments to authors
- To ‘bookmark’ stuff I intend to come back to later (because Steemit really needs to work on its interface! Bookmarks and a search function that brings up recent and relevant results would be just super. Mmmkay…)
But as @enjar pointed out in recent discussion on @Denmarkguy’s post – a blog full of resteems turns off potential readers. (What about @ -ing people? Is that rude or annoying?…I honestly don’t know, so forgive the blunder if so!)
It’s something that should be obvious – I know when I look at blogs, if it’s all resteems, chances are I won’t follow (unless those resteemed pieces are really good or relevant). But I never gave it much thought – for my own blog - until the last 24 hours.
I was chatting with a potential new friend earlier in another comment section, giving unsolicited life advice – as I do – and she said she’d follow me (if I spent half as much time on my own blog as I do in other people’s comments, I’d actually have a decent one…but I digress…).
As I compared our blogs, I panicked. Her stuff was really good, no resteems to be found, and my latest piece was from nearly two weeks ago, and buried underneath a bunch of resteems – two of which were contests.
It finally clicked if anyone is judging me by what’s on my blog – it’s hardly a reflection of actual me, let alone, Steemit me. Thing is, I have stuff to say. I have strong opinions and lots of ideas and comments – not all of it rubbish, some of it maybe even interesting – but no one would catch even a glimpse of that unless they spent a serious amount of time sifting through my feed. And like the ubiquitous meme says:
So…what to do? For those of you (I say to the bots reading my blog) who participate in contests that require resteems - is there some ratio of resteems to your original content that’s acceptable? In general – is there a ratio?
How do you cope with the guilt of not resteeming a ‘friend’s’ post, oh you strong willed Steemians, you!
Should you just never resteem, and never participate in contests that require it? (are those frowned upon too? is 'never' too extreme?). I really don’t know.
While as of now – with just three to four weeks left until I meet my first kid (who is kicking away, hiccuping hello, and pounding her little feet against my ribs as I type this) – chances are that I won’t even begin to realize the potential of my blog until spring…though I know I’d like to at least try eventually.
But it seems like my chronic resteeming could sabotage any chance of ‘success’.
Since attention spans are short – and I’m verbose – I’ll save the discussion of unwritten steemiqutte for another day. But it’s something I’d like to bring up briefly here.
Another thing I learned from Mr. Denmarkguy’s comment section is that seasoned Steemians don’t want to see too many posts from the same person in their feed. There seems to be an annoyed vibe with posters who do too much. Is this because they feel obliged to upvote the people they follow? Is it just bad form? Is there a Steemit guide on etiquette somewhere where I can find these answers?
So many questions, so much to learn. I’ve been here a while but still consider myself ‘newish’.
It makes me wonder am I the only casual Steemian out there? Is anyone else on here erratically sans a long term plan? Sometimes I feel like there are only newbie minnows with lofty goals and seasoned Steemians with admirable wallets, engaged audiences, and well-crafted niches. Then of course, the omnipotent whales, who occupy another realm all together (and judging from flagging wars in trending…aren’t always the nicest guys, reminder to self…don’t piss one off!) Still finding out where I belong ☺
I'm still a little foggy on how Steemit works. I would resteem this if I knew how. It'll give something to do tomorrow. Did you really post this at 1:50? it would be interesting to see how many upvotes youll get this hour of the morning.
Resteem button is to the left of reply. It’s that half square shaped arrow.
@Brotherdave - that's a very good point lol. I'm a ridiculous night owl, always have been. But if I do target a US audience - I'll need to figure out better times to post. I can't say I 'don't care' about upvotes and rewards (duh, of course I care, we all care lol) - but really want to get in the habit of posting regularly before I worry too much about those details.
One thing I've learned after a long time away was that it helps to look at Steemit as a hobby and place to 'socialize' too. If you start thinking in terms of rewards/upvotes, especially in your early days here, you'll give up. I used to be a Twitter addict - and there was 0 chance of making even a penny there - so anything on here is a bonus lol
I'm just learning, and every little thing that I learn is so rewarding. Most Rewarding thing I learned is all steemians want others to enjoy the unique way (also pretty profitable)this works. 3 places to get great tools and info Steemian ---Steemithelp.net----jerrybanfield
I follow Jerry - I need to actually sit down and take some time. He does have a ton of info. Thanks for the Steemithelp link! Will check it out as well.
Many people have tried 5am est since certain time zones are already awake that carry large votes.
Outside of that it is dependent on your audience. Many post at different times of the day testing out what is there best time zone.
I forget name of a app/site that would find this data for you and suggest times to post.
I just post when ever I get around to it. Not the best idea.
steemian spreads out your post to when you want them published
You and me both. I've been here two weeks and I'm trying to keep at least one post/blog a day.
I came here with one intention and discovered I was way off on what Steemit actually was. I'm just watching, commenting, learning, and whatever else I can do to get a grasp on things here.
Well, I'm sure we'll find our way through the crazy waters of Steemit!
With big loves from me,
JGV
Blogging and random shit with substance. You can share your art here but don’t have any expectations as some stuff just gets lost in a giant feed. We are all spread very thin but we want quality too!
steemithelp.net to the rescue
7 blogs a week is a lot for someone new. It’s more about being consistent week after week. I see people try and push themselves doing 1 blog a day and after a couple of months when the ball starts to roll they are burned out and take a month off. Then they came back and post and no one is even checking in on them anymore.
I had to take a fair amount of time off for some IRL stuff. I lost all momentum.
Instead, focus on a more manageable number like 3 a week to start with.
Totally agree. One post a day sounds easy and reasonable - until life gets in the way.
Never hurts to have a couple of finish blogs that are not time dependent when they get posted. Then on those busy days you just have to find a couple of mins to get it posted.
I got some I'll use if I go almost a week without posting due to real life.
That's awesome and a great attitude to have. Like @whatamidoing says - do not allow a lack of response on art posts to in any way to get you down. If you've been here 2 weeks - you probably already have a feel for the type of content that does well.
That said - Steemit is so new in the scheme of things, I have a feeling artists and writers eventually will get more attention - as more people (and influencers) come here.
Also agree with @enjar - I set my goal post low after failing last time. Now I aim to post once a week lol. Three sounds more reasonable and less lazy haha.
Cheers to (hopefully) navigating the white water rapids of Steem lol
(This comment is in response to @brotherdave 's first comment - I feel like a loser upvoting my own comments, so I'm way down here lol - but just for context - this belongs ^ there :-P )
I seriously pumped up my account so my votes would be worth something. It turns out, about 10 grand of steem power only brings your vote value up to a dollarish or so. So I support those who I think could use it. And I reward myself for the effort. Sorry if upvoting yourself makes one appear to some as being a loser. Its just a sound financial decision. And I'm out trying to help newcomers feel noticed and welcome. Hello, Welcome, Here is where you can learn some stuff and meet great friends.Now I'm going to upvote this too .the loser I am
Totally not judging you on upvoting comments. I mean - me upvoting my own comment on my own post isn't a good look (good point though...the ability exists, and not bad if it's not abused.) Upvoting one's own posts makes total sense. I forgot to. But once we put work into something, I think we deserve our own upvotes!
I'm kicking myself so hard for not putting in more back when I joined Steem at $.20. Of course, it was new to me, and I didn't know if I could 'trust' it. 10 grand of steem wouldn't even be an option for me now. Shoulda woulda coulda.
:-) And I'm pretty sure you upvoting your comments on my post benefits me - so upvote away lol
Honest, I'm just getting started so for a while I hit every button that got a response. My promote button doesn't work yet. But if it did, I would be promoting everybody too. It's all in fun. Thanks for reading my posts
OMG I just discovered my 100% upvote is a meaningful amount! (at least more meaningful than it's ever been) Now I can't stop lol. Great comments.
Checking out your blog now too :-) I've heard promotion is an expensive endeavor without many results - but when and if I'm ever a dolphin or a whale - maybe I'll go through and promote minnows :-P
lots of tutorials on you tube.... jerry banfield is good hang in there
As I see it, the problem is the lack of ability to filter a feed into distinct categories – either by the author or by the reader. The fact that the whole thing is like sipping from a fire hose makes the experience less than enjoyable.
In my case, I generally avoid contests in general. They just aren't particularly profitable in terms of what I could be spending my time on. It is far more profitable, and I mean that from a personal gratification point of view as well as in a para-fiscal sense, to be writing content that I actually feel motivated to create than trying to chase the Dragon of someone else's motivation.
If you don't want to write it, and you shouldn't.
Likewise, if you don't wish you had written it, you shouldn't be resteeming it. I think of my account as my voice, and the things that you should encounter on it are things that I want to say. I care about a certain measure of things, in particular video games, role-playing games, and weird mathematical analysis – and sometimes computer hardware. I'm a specific kind of geek, is what I'm saying. If you follow my posts, I want you to receive the kind of thing that I want to exemplify me.
I would be much happier creating a broader spectrum of content – and more importantly, resteeming a broader spectrum of content – if I could do so into user facing silos, like Google+ does. On Google+, when you post content it can go into one of your Collections which people can follow/subscribe to individually if they're not interested in everything that you post. That kind of arrangement can free you up very aggressively to share and re-share content of a very specific sort.
That is exactly the kind of interface that we need for the firehose that is the steem blockchain, and it's one of the things we've been promised for a long time (in the form of communities) but never really seen a specification delivered.
And that's a shame.
From a creator point of view, that's exactly the sort of thing that lets us more specifically target an audience and lets the audience more specifically target what they want from us.
For the record, I'm probably as much of a minnow as you are, and I don't have any experience with the platform older than a couple of months at this point. But what I do have is a long, varied slate of experiences on social media back to the beginning and a lot of experience with online communities as well. I know that people read things that interest them – and no more.
So that's what I try to give them.
I agree
"If you don't want to write it, and you shouldn't. Likewise, if you don't wish you had written it, you shouldn't be resteeming it. I think of my account as my voice, and the things that you should encounter on it are things that I want to say. I care about a certain measure of things, in particular video games, role-playing games, and weird mathematical analysis – and sometimes computer hardware. I'm a specific kind of geek, is what I'm saying. If you follow my posts, I want you to receive the kind of thing that I want to exemplify me."
That's really the simple answer. Do what you want! Like an old gym teacher used to say: Keep it simple, stupid. ;-) I definitely lacked that kind of self-awareness before - often resteeming things because I could appreciate how someone even lower on the totem pole than me clearly put effort into a piece - not because it was a representation of the Steemit identity I want to project.
Definitely will be more conscious as I go forward. I envy your ability to blog within a niche - I have the curse of a liberal arts mind without any expertise (or for lack of a better word, 'passion' ) in any one category.
While it's all relative, I have a huge respect for 'geeks' and feel like that kind of knowledge is a bit more useful and superior and less BS driven. Probably why people in those fields actually make money!
There's no BSing in math lol.
I hope the Steemit Gods eventually implement some of your suggestions for a more friendly interface - otherwise they risk becoming the Myspace of the blogging for crypto space.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to promote the work of people lower on the totem pole. And, in fact, that can be a perfectly reasonable identity to have.
Though if you wanted to do that, I think the current architecture pretty much enforces that you should have two accounts – one to put your personal work on and one to do the resteeming to, allowing readers to choose what kind of content that they want to experience that you provide, original content or curated content.
My gut feeling is that something of that water should have been built into the system from day zero, but I have a lot of criticisms of the way that this platform as a social network has been designed.
The true challenge is not having a passion for just one category, it's having a passion and maintaining it. As long as you are writing and creating content that you care about, that you're passionate about, that you think someone else really needs to see – someone else really needs to see it. If that's not what you're feeling, don't bother. Just go find other stuff that people need to see.
For the record, there is a lot of BSing in math, just as there is a lot of BSing in software design and an immense amount in civil engineering. Pretty much everywhere there's people, there's BS.
If it's any comfort, engineers are jealous of the lotto nature of the arts on occasion. It's all well and good to work day in, day out to build things people want – but once in a while it would be nice to get lucky and sell something for a shit ton of money for what looks, from the outside, like a minimum amount of effort.
We both know that artists be themselves on a regular basis in order to get that lotto payout, but that's the nature of the world.
Remember, there will always be "the next MySpace." It's always something that's currently big. Nature of the beast.
Yeah - maybe I'll eventually do that if I can afford to fund 2 accounts. But to do either well - an 'identity' of your own or an identity as a curator - you're right - 2 accounts is pretty much a necessity.
Shhh...don't ruin the mystique of smart stuff by telling me it can be BSed :-P Thing is, in order to even know that it's possible, you need the kind of mind that understands it first!
I'm not totally ignorant in 'smart stuff'- took (and dropped out of ) a programming course, right after I got my useless BA in Liberal BS - because I wanted to find a career that would pay the bills - and while it was over my head or just not my thing - it was totally worth it. While I couldn't write a line of code (unless html counts haha), I gained a basic but broad conceptual understanding that allows me to at least sort of communicate with programmers and designers, which helps immensely with my freelance work and side gigs.
I now know when I'm getting fleeced on a website project (ie programmer charges an hourly rate for an automated task, but he isn't upfront about it - and acts like he will be working X amount of hours) - or on the flip side - I can communicate expectations without driving the coder/designer/engineer totally insane with vague ideas, as well as appreciate when he/she goes above and beyond to meet a client's expectations. And of course, pay appropriately and not give insulting offers for projects (ie - hey can you create a customized bug-free Airbnb clone for $300? Oh, and I need it by the end of the week)
Those rare people who have both the forward facing extrovert 'idea' qualities - with an engineering mind - (The Elon Musks of the world) - really have it made.
I guess though engineers tend to make more money in terms of salary - they usually have to work to execute another person's idea, and most of their creations end up being owned by the person hiring them or some corporation. But then again, it's really engineers (and science/math/medicine people) who make the humanity changing developments possible.
You can't deny it though - I bet you feel smart knowing stuff most of the population doesn't ;-) Maybe it's tough being a geek in elementary school, maybe even high school - but once you're in the real world - 'you people' are the envy of most of us !
This post is an etiquette post that mentions resteeming but it's the only one I've seen that addresses the resteeming issue. It kind of talks more about how it is or isn't to your advantage to resteem rather than whether it is polite, which may be why other etiquette posts don't include it.
I did a bunch of research before and just after I started steemit. The 'guide to success' posts don't generally mention resteeming either.
This post is an etiquette post that mentions resteeming but it's the only one I've seen that addresses the resteeming issue. It kind of talks more about how it is or isn't to your advantage to resteem rather than whether it is polite, which may be why other etiquette posts don't include it.
I did a bunch of research before and just after I started steemit. The 'guide to success' posts don't generally mention resteeming either.
I doesn't really matter though. Sometimes all you have to do is to do what you do best, writing quality posts and keeping it simple. There will always be people who like what you do or hate whatever you do. Take easy my friend.
This post is an etiquette post that mentions resteeming but it's the only one I've seen that addresses the resteeming issue. It kind of talks more about how it is or isn't to your advantage to resteem rather than whether it is polite, which may be why other etiquette posts don't include it.
I did a bunch of research before and just after I started steemit. The 'guide to success' posts don't generally mention resteeming either.
Thanks much! What a great resource. It's true - there doesn't seem to be a lot on there about resteeming. Just checked out your blog, and hit follow. Living off the grid has been my dream for so long! Super psyched to start reading up on your adventures.
I look forward to seeing you there!
This is how I feel about the whole issue of resteeming. To get a resteem from me it needs to be exceptional and relevant. I mean there's a ton of people I'd really love to resteem but then it forces my content further down the blog-chain
How vain/elitist of me is it to now want to be a person who's resteem means something? Maybe it's just self preservation and I need to stop being such a wimpy little empath LOL
Not vain/elitist at all. I mean we all have standards. When you select your own version of exceptional then you're obeying your own standards rather than diluting them :)
Everybody has their own idea and you can’t make everyone happy. I just worry about what you mentioned “is it a reflection of what I’m trying to express, is it serving its function to the best of its ability given the problems with layout”. It would be nice if they displayed resteemed seperately from personal posts on your page. I’m not uninterested in resteemed but sometimes I’m in s hurry and just want to see what someone is about. I use it as motivation to write more. I usually resteemed when I don’t have time to write and find time to write more than I resteem. I also only resteem users who need it or posts which really blow me away, since even with 1000 followers, sometimes only one or two are likely to click it.
And as for posting too much, some people will engage with you more if you post more, others will stop. I just ask the question, “would I want to read this?” And if the answer is yes, fuck it, I’ll post it.
Yup, what's that saying...about pleasing some people X percent of the time lol. I think posting when you want and can is the best way. Well in your case - you always have something worthwhile or entertaining to say! Like you said earlier, as long as the motivation isn't just rewards (though they can be a welcome byproduct !)
Even though I'm a bitty baby minnow - I do the same - resteeming especially if there are no comments and I see some new person put a ton of effort into a post and there's no likes because no one knows who they are.
But we have like .009 seconds to grab people's attention - seeing a feed full of resteems is definitely a turn off and I'm aware of that now. Even just in my general feed - someone I followed started resteeming a bunch of God and Bible stuff. I followed that person because I like their content (which wasn't religious) - but all the JC resteems gave me flashbacks to my FB days when my dad's friends/hometown people spammed walls with a shit ton of religious dribble - a lot of it not just sharing 'god's word' - but putting down other religions in the process (Islam cough). Maybe that's narrow of me, but hey, it's my prerogative and my feed lol. (again, nothing against Christians, I was raised one, I think JC and the bible have some great stuff to say - but no I'll not repent now or go to a hell I don't believe in :-P )
here to agree) soon two weeks as I'm on steemit) so I wanted to resteem interesting content, support an author, share some ideas with people who maybe wouldn't find it. but then when you see your page all lacerated... and you can't unresteem..if resteems just could show up on the same page but in different column, as your interests..can we sujest this idea for creators)
So many ideas for the creators ! Maybe eventually they will listen :-)
I don't resteem much. In fact, probably not enough to be a top notch Steemian. A while back, @son-of-satire posted a quiz as to what kind of Steemian we are https://steemit.com/game/@son-of-satire/what-type-of-steemian-are-you-original-interactive-quizgame which was fun.
Anyway resteeming... it's often a question of what I want my feed to look like. Which means I am pretty discerning with resteems... and I always try to space them out several hours from when I put up one of my own posts. And I pretty much avoid having more than four items a day (my posts + resteems) in my feed.
But that's just me.
Newish and new types couldn't go wrong by following this advice. If I could resteem a reply - I would lol. This would be a worth it one!