Steemit Comments’ Etiquette; A Synopsis & Personal Approach by @katerinaramm

Steemit is a blogging and social networking platform where not only blog posts but also comments are very important for its content.

If you keep an eye on steemit statistics (I usually check the reports published by @penguinpablo) you will see that on a daily basis there is an approximate average of 75.000 posts with an average of 2.5 comments per post.

This makes an impressive ~187.500 comments only in the blockchain on a daily basis.

For instance for the day February 8 2018, all posts (including comments) were 245.025. Out of which 74.987 were the posts and the remaining 170.038 (69%) were comments on posts.

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Out of all the comments + posts, 31% of them were blog posts, while the remaining 69% (or 7 out of 10) were comments to posts.

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Comments are very important for people who participate in the platform. When you comment in a kind and/or thoughtful way, you can make new friends, people might get interested in checking your blog and they could follow you or you can get upvoted and be rewarded.

Comments, same as hashtags have their etiquette and guidelines.
Commenting (just like many other things) it has to do with good behavior and respect to the other part.

Please read below for my full analysis.

This post aims to:

• Educate (myself and) my friends regarding everything that has come to my attention regarding the Comments’ Etiquette
• Inform anyone that might be following and commenting me of how I deal with comments
• Gather any additional information readers of this post would like to share or comment

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A. Let’s see some frequently asked questions about comments.

All the below information are in the Steemit FAQs unless stated otherwise.

Q. What is considered spam or abuse?

• Asking for money, views, upvotes, follows, or resteems.
• Leaving nearly identical or materially similar comments on multiple posts.
• Comments that are unrelated to the topic of discussion.
• Sending unsolicited links or requests to users via wallet memos.
• Posts that require upvotes to enter or play in a contest or game.
• Sending users a link to your blog or a post if it is not relevant to the conversation.
• Posts or comments that include little or nothing more than an offer to trade follows or upvotes.
• Using tags that are unrelated to the post.
• Threatening users with any type of physical violence.
• Not citing sources when using someone else’s material.
• Posting ‘not safe for work’ content without using the “nsfw” tag.
• Selling or offering to buy votes/resteems/follows, or schemes that facilitate this.
• Scams or Fraudulent offers.

Q. Does it cost anything to post, comment, or vote?

No. It is free to post, comment, and vote on content on Steemit.com. You might even get paid for it!

Q.How often can I comment?

There is a 20 second wait time in between comments to limit spam.

Q. Where do I report a post or comment that contains plagiarism, spam, or abuse?

You can report any abusive content to the #steemitabuse channel on steemit.chat.
(Author’s Addition – please let me know if there is more to added: https://steemcleaners.org/abuse-report/ or Discord > https://discordapp.com/invite/7FkETjJ or Chat > https://steemit.chat/channel/steemcleaners-public

Q. Are there any accounts monitoring spam comments?

I have seen @spaminator and I recently found the @mack-bot flagging spammers who abuse commenting in any way. You can visit their accounts for more information and to check their reports.

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To Comment is to Add Value

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B. My personal approach: How I deal with comments on my posts.

The first thing I do every time I visit steemit is to check my replies.

I am very happy when someone has posted a reply to my posts (note: every post takes me an average of 3-4 hours so it is nice to see someone is reading)

I enjoy receiving feedback, in a funny or thoughtful way. I always upvote genuine comments.

I do not like random replies that are used in many other posts.

I do not like replies from people who just post the same (or similar) replies in other posts without bothering to read and/or upvote my post. It is clear that they are commenting to gain attention and they do not care about whatever I have posted.

If you comment think:

• Do I have something important to share (regarding the post)?
• Have I read my comment to make sure I have used correct grammar and wording?
• Have I upvoted the post?

Keep in mind that many (if not most) of the steemit users are monitoring who follows / upvotes / comments / resteems so please

• Do not lie about upvoting / resteeming. It is extremely easy to see if it is true and you might get downvoted.
• Do not post random content. It could get you flagged.
• Do not post so called ‘Hey, you are such a wonderful writer’ without bothering to read / upvote the post.
• Do not ask for upvotes.
• Do not post 2 minutes after the author posted a 2000 words post to say “Great work”! How more clear can it be that you did not even read the title?
• Do not upvote your comment. If it is an honest comment, it will be upvoted by the author and perhaps by other readers.
• Respect the author’s labor
• Respect the medium

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C. Further reading …

I found out one of the very helpful posts regarding steem-tips in tag #etiquette by @kiwideb who was kind enough to allow me to re-share this photo.

Keep in mind the five C’s

• Content – Produce quality content, consistently, cautiously
• Curate – Curate posts that interest you
• Comment – Do it in a genuine way
• Community – Read the first 3 Cs
• Chill – It does take time to build up. Keep trying, Keep enjoying!

Credits to @kiwideb. Thanks so much for allowing me to use!

If you are still reading, you might want to check out this post by @aggroed Aggroed's simple litmus test for self-voting: Does the content provide value to the platform?

If you'd like to see some bad examples of behavior just check out: https://steemit.com/payout_comments

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I hope you did take the time to read and I hope I will have your feedback in case you would like to correct / add / comment on my post!

Thank you so much for reading! Now let's see some comments regarding comments!

_{Image credit @tbouras. Shared with permission}