Steemit is Similar to Reddit, but Stop Using it the Same Way

A quick rant about posts that only share links and videos without any additional information or paraphrasing.

When I first joined the platform, I came with the Reddit mentality:

I will post what I want, when I want, and maybe some people will like it, maybe some won't.

Often times I will find something interesting in the news or some entertaining content that I have a desire to share here. When I do though, I will always at least try to provide a brief summary of the video, or perhaps my quick opinion on it or the creators. In my mind, this is helping anyone else who comes across my post to have a quick primer on what I am sharing.

But many others do not even go this far, they simply just share links.

Browsing the #new section on Steemit shows how many people are using it like this

Too many posts will just contain a link, a picture, or a video without any text or any background information. Occasionally, there will be posts that give a sentence or two about something, but assume that the readers are already completely aware of the backstory behind what they are sharing.

In one of these posts with too little information, a commentor asked the author if he could elaborate or provide sources for more context. The author just replied, "Google it."

Want to lose your audience and turn people away?

Then force them to leave your post to do their own research about what you are talking about. If you can't take the time to Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V a link, and give just a couple sentences to provide much needed information to your readers, do you think they will have the time to upvote your post? Anytime I have to Google something I read in a post to find out the real information behind it, 9 times out of 10 I will not vote on the post. And that 1 time out of 10 usually is a downvote because the author is misrepresenting something or is plagiarizing (art, photography etc).

Reddit upvotes are worthless (for say) so they can be given to any content users enjoy. But on Steemit, you have to provide some value for users to "spend" their upvotes.

If we think of Steemit like an auction, where every post is up for bids, what kind of content do you think people would go for? One liner posts of just an image without a source or credit given? Posts that tell users to do the work for themselves because the author is too busy to do it? Or the posts where you can tell the authors spent a decent amount of time formulating their thoughts onto paper, and proof-reading it for errors?

Your posts don't have to be perfect though. I still look back on my own content and find errors that somehow I overlooked when I first wrote them. These might hurt your professionalism to a degree, but they also show that you are a real person who makes mistakes and that you are at least willing to try and put in some effort on your content!

So stop being a Redditor, and become a Steemer providing real value in your posts!