Why upvoting someone for Their Resteems or Quick Remarks can be a Big Mistake‼️ 🚩
Sometimes I forget, people don't see what I see. I make one of my blunt remarks and people get upset at me. Just because they have no idea why I said it... Anyhow, why you shouldn't upvote people just for their resteems and quick remarks... (Talking about the comments section of your posts here!)
Who is it really, that you are upvoting?
First of all, I am not saying that upvoting people for a resteem or quick remark is by definition a bad thing to do, it really depends on who the person in case is! If a known Steemian says nice post it is very different from a person with no reputation at all and a comment section full of the same kind of remarks. It's all about the intention behind it, and this is something I've seen several people been lacking in. To judge whether a comment was ment with honesty or just a way to get upvotes.
Now the person I am gonna use as an example I've been following for a while myself, but after seeing the same practice continuing, even trying to explain him what he is doing is only hurting himself, without getting any respond, I was clearly done with it... In case he might read this I really hope he re-thinks his "strategy", as I only say these things with good intentions. So the person I am talking about is @onealfa. We're going to use the following post to show what I mean:
Currently in this post, of the top 7 comments, only one did not resteem. In this case he is mostly rewarding people just for resteeming. Now the problem with this is that most of those people who did the resteems, only did so because they know he will upvote them for it. Most of them don't even make their own posts. This still ain't too bad considering not everyone blogs. And he should choose how he spends his upvotes, right? So no further harm in it... Wrong! He is only making it worse for himself. Because the resteems being made from those accounts often only have followers that entice the same kind of behaviour (you know, the follow4follow, resteem4resteem crap). Why would any sane person follow someone that only resteems random posts. So by upvoting these people, they will continue the same behaviour. And by doing so, more will follow to do the same. The law of attraction.
Vice versa, same applies
Now the same applies to upvoting quick remarks. Either by upvoting people in your post for being one of the first to comment, or simply for making a comment, and with the same upvote value as everyone else in your post, people are less inclined to actually engage. I've seen so many posts filled with crap comments, and I could just see the same kind of people come back over and over because they get rewarded for it. It's kind of funny to see how quickly this can change when you start changing your behaviour towards rewarding your followers for their comments.
If you want real engagement, real followers, all you have to do is upvote them for what you believe to be value of comment, and in turn more will follow. The law of attraction.
So how do you know someone's intentions?
Now to give you some simple tips how to spot if someone is genuine or not. Check their blog, see if it only consists out of resteems or not. Secondly, check their comments made, look at the time difference between each post and what kind of remarks are made. Are they made in a short time spawn of one another? Are they of actual depth, or are all of them very general remarks? Maybe it takes you a bit of time at first to notice the rotten apples, but eventually you will spot them very quickly!
I am new here and still learning how this all works. Thank you for sharing some of what you have learned so I can make the most of steemit!
This is exactly why I avoid following people that say they will follow me if I follow them. In this case, we both do not gain anything because I will probably unfollow him on a first crappy post on my home page and he will probably never read my post or unfollow me if I post some crappy shit. People should follow if they are interested in your content and not because you fucking followed him. @drocil
Exactly. That's why engagement is also the number one way to improve your ratings.
Well said @droucil. I have not been on Steemit very long but I have noticed exactly what you mention about re-steeming. I've been here two weeks and have re-steemed one post that I thought was of value to the community.
People should value their upvotes and re-steeming ability , other wise it will just dilute what is trying to be built here, which is to create value for good content.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
ps: no up-voted desired , just expressing my thoughts
Like you I am a newbie to Steemit, though not to writing or professional communities. It seems that some up-voting is being done by ‘robots’ (computers executing programmed algorithms). IF this impression is correct, I feel that we should ask the authors of these programs to explain why they benefit the community, unless they have already done so and now could not simply provide the URLs. I'm not saying they do not benefit the community; but am only asking for the explanation, which at this point I do not have and would like to see.
Also, an up vote that is associated with text that exposits what things about the article the commentator thought were helpful or stimulative of questions that need to be raised brings much more value to the community than the “empty up-vote” or even the ubiquitous "great-article" comment.
Thus, some 7 to 10 days after an article has appeared and has garnered significant commentary of the kind just cited, the author should go back over the comments and identify the ones that seem to significantly add value to the package of communication that comprises the original post plus the comments.
The authors of these selected comments should either receive a special up-vote or the author of the post should recommend to the “Editorial Board” that they be awarded tokens not unlike those offered to curators.
The contributions of the curators are without doubt valuable; but when people sit down and significantly add value to a post with their extended commentary, that too can benefit the community in important ways. An accumulation of these idea-rich commentaries produces valuable enrichment of the website. After a while, the set of these commentaries will help to raise Steemit to a higher level of quality as a source of helpful information.
Yes, there is a bunch of bot up voting taking place. I not computer savvy, but have been paying attention to a couple things that look like questionable practices going on in this community. All of which are just meant to extract wealth out of the community. I 'm still learning so I couldn't offer an answer if an explanation has been given about bot votes adding benefit to the community.
For someone that is just new you pick things up rather quickly.
Upvote bots are a common thing on Steemit, it has its up and downs, the downside mostly being a phenonom called "circle jerking", in which the same authors are upvoted for the best curation rewards. Actually might have an article you mind find interesting concerning this issue: https://steemit.com/curation/@thecryptofiend/the-curation-conundrum
As for the comment engagement I totally agree. Right now upvotes are mostly concentrated on articles, and I think this should be balanced out more. However, waiting a week before upvoting comments wouldn't really be a good option in my opinion. Because it would make the engagement less, seeing that after 7 days a post's payout is already done, leaving the comment section to a dead zone.
Thank you for your informative comment and URL droucil, and apologies for my late reply. Only today did I learn where to go to keep track of replies. I guess I got lazy from all my forum services which arrange to have an email messages sent to you when there are replies.
haha :P Seems like you still got some things to learn then ;)
Couldn't agree more with those words!
ps: you're still getting an upvote
You earned your self a follower :D
Cheers ^.^
nice message, now I'm going to pay close attention to the comments and followers! thanks for this
Upvoted after a thorough read. I am also resteeming because i think you might be right.
Thanks ;) It's good to see one of the genuine resteemers here!
Nice post.
No, really! :)
I can't stand the "follow4follow" etc, and I generally check the user's comments if they made a short, "no-reference-to-my-content" comment. If they make the same comment everywhere, then I flag them and write a comment telling them why, including the URL to their comment page, and explicitly state "Steemit is an open platform, everything you do is visible."
I tend to upvote every comment though, just not all to 100%. Most comments I give a 5% upvote to, and if it's a friend or really good comment, then I'll increase it. Previously it was a "ternary" approach -- either no upvote (if they're mean, basically), a 5% upvote in general, and a 100% upvote for great content or close friends. Now I'm starting to vary it more, sometimes giving a 50% upvote, etc.
Some people don't write much though! Best to tread lightly. I also, when downvoting, will say "demonstrate that you understand this and I'll remove my downvote."
How one specificly rewards their readers is up to them, but being consciously aware of who you vote and the effect it has for your blog is the most important thing if you ask me.
A good post.
I am relatively new here ( a few weeks posting).
I think building up genuine people you know who write good posts, and ignoring all the others is a good way to. - If you are looking for interesting people and genuine exchange - and building up a solid following.
I ignore all upvote/comments that do not really say much nowadays.
At least you know you have real followers - doing real posts.
This is my latest post. Everything I post is genuine.
https://steemit.com/blog/@lucylin/depression-my-story
That's exactly my point!
You are right.I have been seeeing people commenting thinks that are not even related to the topic. Most of them stick with Nice post..
I have been guilty of upvoting people who comment on my posts. I have probably made just about every rookie mistake a person can make when they first become an active Steemian.
It took me some time as well, to find out how things work. It's natural ^^