Weekend Reflection: On Posting and Commenting "Well" and Personal Values
One of the beautiful things about Steemit — at least to my mind — is that this is truly a global community. In the course of reading posts on any given day, I come across contributors from all over the world.
Sure, same can be said about Facebook, but people there tend to group rather tightly by geography, interest or family affiliation.
The Joy of Leaving Comments
I like to comment on people's articles — especially when I find something interesting, or thought provoking, or compelling... or I learn something new.
The cheerful daffodils of spring
Because I am also an old cynic and have just had too many experiences of typing something and then "mysteriously" losing the words into thin when I click "post," I always temporarily copy the text to a separate document — "just in case."
A couple of weeks back, I decided to just let the "comments" backup document build up with each new comment I wrote, rather than just saving each current comment and copying the next comment on top of it, and so forth.
By the end of the day, I found that I had left 38 comments on a mixture of other people's posts and replies to comments on my own posts. When I looked back over them, I realized that over half of my comments — 21, to be precise — exceeded 100 words in length, with six going over 250 words in length.
For a moment I reflected on this and thought to myself "Wow... you are 'wasting' so much time and effort here. You could 'get by' doing so much LESS, and you could create far more top level posts!"
My Dad, Personal Values and Doing What's Right
Then I thought about "personal values" and the importance of staying true to yourself and who you are.
Orange spring flowers
Not just for me, but for everyone. I have never cared about "minimum requirements" in my writing and my life (except maybe when it comes to putting money in a parking meter!)... I've only ever thought about "doing what's right" and "putting in the amount of effort that makes something a GOOD job."
I'm not suggesting that the answer to a good life is being incredibly verbose and — indeed — there are times when "less is more."
But deliberately and continuously choosing to do "less" for no reason other than "you can get away with it" has never suited me well... perhaps because I have never been able to feel "right" about doing a substandard job.
When I thought a bit more about it, I realized it's a personal "guiding value" I learned from my dad. He always said "If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing WELL. If it isn't worth doing WELL, it's not worth doing at ALL-- so don't even start it." Or something long those lines — I'm paraphrasing; he passed away when I was 18.
Being True to What we CARE About
My Dad also taught me that it doesn't matter "what other people think," as long as you are working within your personal value system AND what you are doing exceeds the majority's "standards." In other words, if others are pressuring you to do a "half-assed job" or to take shortcuts you KNOW will result in a poor outcome... stick to your guns and do your thing, even when everyone else wants to "blow it off." In the long run, you'll be grateful you did... and-- most likely-- so will the other people affected by the work.
There is no spring without the inevitable dandelion!
When I was a little kid and filled with youthful impetuousness and impatience, I found his insistence that I always "do a GOOD job" annoying and frustrating.
I just wanted to get on with it (the stuff of life!), so I could go play. As an adult, I find myself being grateful that he taught me personal values that allow me to consistently feel good about what I've done, whenever I finish something... as simple as mowing the lawn or writing an article-- OR as complicated as renovating the kitchen.
So on this weekend, I am grateful to my Dad, for teaching me the value that "Quality Work Matters." It is standing me in good stead, as I move along with Steemit.
How about YOU? Do you have personal values you follow, at ALL times? Do they sometimes make you feel like things "matter more" to you, than to most other people? Did you learn your values from you parents or family? Or are they more the result of your personal life experience? Do you sometimes feel pressured to abandon your values because others want to do thing a different — quicker — way? Do you ever feel like you care too much about doing things properly? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
Animated banner created by @zord189
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 180428 23:47 PDT
One of the personal values I have that seems to matter much more to me than to many other people:
To be on time (or even early) for scheduled meetings, appointments, gatherings, get togethers etc.
I guess that I consider it a lack of respect for my time if someone shows up late, and it would be disrespectful of others' time were I to do so.
That particular "issue" is a two-parter for me.
I do work very hard at being on-time, while also considering that I should not be "too early" because people might not be quite ready... that's mostly for personal gatherings, though.
Part two is that it really annoys me — in spite of my best efforts to Zen with it — when someone is obviously late to something like a doctor's appointment, and then start bellyaching because they have to wait for another ten minutes because the person with an appointment after them was allowed to go ahead. You don't get to both be late AND then complain about promptness.
For me, that's as close to waving a red flag in front of a bull as you get with me. And I'm a very calm person....
Comments are always a great way to meet new people and engage with different communities here on steemit. I think it is always smart to try and put your best foot forward when interacting with someone new here.
Case in point I left some decently sized comments the other day on someone’s blog and then on another blog that was show casting it along with a few others about how much I enjoyed reading it. Like many of us, the author was dealing with spam commenters and really if that is what you get it’s just nice to have a real comment happen once in a while on content you pour your heart and soul into.
There are also things like the Engagement League which is taking this week off. I’ve started to notice communities are starting to form around wanting to promote certain types of behaviors on steemit. Each week it gets far more completive than the last week. I’m just happy every week when I’m in the top 20%. When you are competing with people for fun that can leave 600-800 comments in a single week it can be quite interesting using the quality over the quality method that I go within my longer comments.
Either way far too many people sit in their own bubble and become frustrated that there work never gets people leaving amazing comments or no one notices there work. So as such, I’ve always been a big behavior in leaving a comment and spending a little too much time on them.
There will always be those that want take the short cuts and do just the minimum. Those people do not tend to last over the long run. They somehow get this mindset there stuff should be valued 100x higher than others and they only care about the financial rewards. I like to think in 5- 10 years I’ll still be leaving comments on steemit. It will be such a different platform by than one can only wonder what the future holds!
I really do like Asher's "Engagement Leagues" and I'm working towards becoming a more active participant in some of the more "organized" groups.
I'm very grateful for the level of interaction on my posts... and grateful for the fact that I (touch wood!) seem to attract relatively few "shallow" commenters, compared to most people. I never perceived that Steemit would be a serious "income stream" and never took the attitude of many that I was here to earn. I see this more as a very intelligent Facebook substitute... I just hope Steemit lives long and thrives, although I am sure competitors will spring up along the way.
For now it seems people just want use and be active on multiple platforms. With Ono coming up only time will tell as that is only one that so far looks like only relative competitor. There coins will be used to buy advertisement that authors than can choose to run or not on their blogs. They are going be extremely aggressive and want reach 8 million users by Q1 of 2019. They plan to migrate off ETH and onto EOS when that is an option for them. Many plan to at least be using it while trying to still be active here.
I intend for now to be here since I enjoy comments and steemit ecosystem is more set up for that kind of thing.
I also love commenting on peoples posts. And if you are interested it shows. it also shows if you basically skimmed through.
And in life, I agree that if we put 100% effort in what we do, it brings forth great results. Have a great week.
Yes, I think what you say is very true of life... and in general, we tend to get back about as much energy (or response!) as we are willing to put out. Which is why I am glad to see some of the community's really hard workers do well for themselves.
I like to comment on people's articles — especially when I find something interesting, or thought provoking, or compelling...or I learn something new.
I too like this thing about this platform, you interpret things in your own way, leave a comment on the comment box, thus you can share your thoughts with people you don't even know.
I just enjoy interacting authentically with people... doing the whole "nice post" commentary on lots of posts is just annoying, and it feels insincere in that "I'm only here for the money" way.
You're right, but sometimes I don't have time for commenting and after a few hours I just forget it :)
Sometimes it can be hard to find the time, indeed! Like it has taken me four days to come back to this post an follow up... but I do try my best.
I love it. You said it so well. Your posts are always written and explained so well.
I like it because I am that kind of person that I have to do everything 200% and if I don't it really bugs me.
I like what you dad said that if you are going to do something then do it right and if it's not worth doing it, then don't bother or start.
This is how I always felt and still do till this day.
When I start something, I have to finish it, or it will bug me till I finish it.
Your dad was a wise man, no wonder I always enjoy your posts.
Hahaha, no wonder we both are the kings of TL|DR comments around. The most feared 'thought provoking' commenters within the steemit world. LoL
However, I think you have been much smarter than me writing you own articles. Because no doubt I still suffer from the same TL|DR ailment when I write my own posts. I dunno if it's because english is not my native tongue and I have to recur to a helluva wordy stuff to pass clearly my message across.
But slowly and little by little I'm learning from the masters. And now I allow others speak for me in a more eloquently way through my posts and be them the ones that carry the greatest burden of my weird & long tirades.
I am doing this now as another on going experiment. But I'm afraid my style and picked topics are still too bizarre as to be successful attracting comments and true interaction in my posts as to become a very followed, commented and popular author as you yet. :)
I get conflicted by some of the same thoughts. People say go on discord and join a group, they'll help you write, they have upvote groups who vote each others work automatically. My question comes back to if someone else perfects my work is that really me?...if someone else upvotes me just because I am in a group did I really deserve it?....I know that if I set myself up to automatically vote on people's post what about if they write something I don't agree with? So I guess I will just muddle along with all my conflict-ions.
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvote this reply.
I agree totally with you regarding the comparison with Facebook and Steemit. There are two different worlds. I had Facebook for about 7 years until last August when I deactivated it. The way I interact in here with people all over the world is unique and is much better than my interactions with close friends from Facebook. Probably because in here you don't see only pictures, videos or shared news from the internet. Being a blogging platform you get to read some amateur philosophy, crypto news or enjoy some good quality photos also. Regarding your father's advice I wish I've read it years ago when I accepted some jobs that weren't at the same level of my standards and life's values. But it's never too late. I'm always constantly searching to improve myself and in some kind of competition with myself as I wrote in my recent post so there's always room for changes and higher standards. Without putting to many words in this comment I will end it by saying that the 5 minutes read that I spent on your post were 100% worth and a great way to spend some of my Sunday time on Steemit. Have a great day!