Comments - The under-appreciated goldmine of Steemit (Arr!)
Good with the shouting, less with the listening
Sometimes on Steemit it feels like everybody's posting and nobody's talking. You can refresh the new queue 10 times a minute and see new content most of the time, but with rare exceptions if you post a comment in a thread you'll see cobwebs before you hear a reply.
There be money in them thar posts!
The reason for this seems fairly obvious at first glance - everybody wants to spend their time writing posts, not comments. After all, why comment on someone else's post when you could be making that money yourself?
Arr, but there be money in them tharr comments too! Wait, when did I turn into a pirate?
Well, one obvious reason is that you do earn rewards for upvoted comments, and just as with posts, well thought out comments will tend to gain votes.
I got distracted by this pirate thing and now I want a tattoo! Arrr! Be I still writing a post matey? More grog!
The bigger, albeit slightly more abstract value in this, however, is that comment threads attract users. Users grow communities, and in the case of Steemit, a growing community means a growing economy. This is also an opportunity for all users to really contribute. I know the aquatic theme is popular here, whales, dolphins, minnows and so on. It doesn't matter what your account level is, the ability to contribute to a discussion is all you.
Seeds and stuff! Arr!
I like to think of it more as seeds growing into trees. That's how communities grow. Seeds form ideas, ideas are shared, and a community grows.
I love Steemit because you can upvote AS MUCH AS YOU WANT.
There's no limit, so I'm generally rather generous with my upvotes. Now, I don't upvote just anything! I upvote stuff that is well written, thoughtful, intelligent, or just fun to read. Whether or not I agree with the comment or post, has nothing to do with whether I choose to upvote it or not. I'm not about to get all political on a website filled with ideas. I've got an open mind!
I like that there's a self-regulating system in voting power. It's simple, elegant, and effective. There's nothing to stop you upvoting as much as you want, it's just the more votes you make each day the less each is worth monetarily. If you don't care about that it doesn't matter, and something Steemit needs more of is people who are invested in the community because it's awesome, and not just because of the money potential
The problem here is posting quality content that isn't upvoted or viewed. People are stingy with upvotes. I am not one of them. Why you say? Just like in the real world, its all about the money. And Yarggggghhhh because pirates are awesome!