DONT BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU!

I was abused on Steemit yesterday, and I have to say, it wasn’t a very pleasant feeling. At first, I was shocked, and then I was offended. And then I calmed down. Let me tell you what happened, and then you can decide if my initial reactions were warranted.

Three or four days ago, I happened to see a photograph which really grabbed my attention. It was submitted by a fellow Steemian and one whom I had been following for a short time. He calls himself an amateur photographer, but in my opinion, he is a very skilled one. I can’t hope to achieve what he is achieving with his photography.

I know I had commented on earlier posts of his. I am very sure I admired them greatly………after all, that was why I was following him. Whether or not I had upvoted any of them, I can’t honestly say without taking the time to check, but frankly, I am not at all inclined to now, after what has just transpired. It is irrelevant to me, but quite clearly, it was not irrelevant to him.

You see, although I was very complimentary with my comment, he took offense. Why, you may ask? My crime was, that I did not upvote his blog as well. Now, if that was a legitimate crime here in Steemit the, ‘You’re not upvoting enough, Police’ would be throwing me into jail for a very long time. Obviously, I was low on votes and ………you know how it is…….we don’t have an endless supply.

This is a scenario that happens constantly with me. I was vote poor, but not comment poor. I thought about how I could best encourage this very talented photographer, wrote my comments, regretted that I could not give him an upvote (as always) and went on my merry way.

When I first joined Steemit, I was advised by at least two successful Steemians to comment, comment, comment. I found out early in the piece, that my votes were next to worthless but I’m the type of person who likes to show my appreciation, so I was always running out of them. I was also experiencing numerous bandwidth problems due to my enthusiasm.

So, I put my blogs together, and commented, commented and commented. And found that this was the most effective way to get to know people; to build a network and support and encourage other members. How does one build a network if they only comment on about 10 posts a day? I don’t think that is possible myself.

Prior to yesterday, I was having a lot of fun despite taking a while to take in all the information that is available on how to succeed in this platform. But then yesterday happened. And my fellow Steemian told me in no uncertain terms that he did not appreciate the fact that I omitted to upvote when I commented on the post in question. He suggested, in no uncertain terms that if I liked his image I need to back it up with an upvote and if I did not, he would Expose Me! What?????

I sought advice from my peers. I decided I would not dignify his rudeness and ungrateful attitude by replying and in the midst of preparing to unfollow this ‘gentleman,’ I found an even more offensive reply to someone else in another one of his blogs. To top that off another Steemian whom I had never met gives me his TWO CENTS worth. (It is insignificant little cents we are talking about here by the way.) My new Steemian intruder fully supported our mutual ‘friend’ in his stance to expose me for not upvoting and told me HE would be glad if I would provide an upvote. What?????

These two Steemian’s both have high ‘reputations’ and after receiving admonishment from this second complete stranger, I thought I would check him out. It didn’t take long to confirm my suspicions that, yes, he is very much against Comment Spammers. Fair enough! I’m not a fan of them either, in fact, I find them rather irksome, but is it really necessary to attack someone (me in this case) and assume I am a Comment Spammer without going to the effort of checking me out first?

It never occurred to me that there people out there who are so defensive about comment spammers that they spend countless hours writing about them, gathering supporters to give them a hard time and attempting to stamp out this annoying habit any way they can. When their anger reaches the point that they feel the need to tell a suspected Comment Spammer to, "F… Off," then I think it’s time they did some re-evaluation. Just my opinion…….I won’t be offended if you disagree.

And while I’m on a roll, I’m going to chuck in another unasked-for opinion. Comment Spammers’s ARE annoying. We all agree. But if they are thick skinned enough to ignore the rules they will kick themselves in the foot and will eventually use those bruised feet to hobble their way out of Steemit. Self-elimination works much better for those who don’t give a damn about doing the right thing because they simply won’t last. They make themselves so painfully obvious that it is extremely easy just to ignore them. That’s my strategy anyway.

We are all different creatures. We all have different tolerance levels. We all come from very different backgrounds. Some people are highly educated. Most of us have average intelligence and there will be others who haven’t had the advantage of a decent education.

Some find English very challenging. Some are not good with words. Some are shy and lack confidence. Is that any reason to ASSUME that because they have not left a suitably impressive comment in their effort to engage with people they want to build a relationship with, Comment Spammers?

Yes, each and every one of us are different from one another. But we all have one thing in common. Steemit! And I’d hazard a guess that all of us have similar goals with what we want to achieve here in Steemit but can we really afford to make assumptions about who isn't providing genuine comments?

Would it hurt to show a bit of gratitude when someone has shown appreciation for our work? So..........., we might thank a Comment Spammer by mistake! How terrible! Compare the time it takes to give a quick courteous reply as to a long abusive one to someone we suspect MAY be a Comment Spammer. What if they weren’t? That is my question. When in doubt, do yourself a favour. Reduce your heart rate and keep your blood pressure down and......... do nothing!

Many years ago, my father was a successful Real Estate agent. Life was good. He was earning good money. We lived comfortably.

It was his turn to greet new customers, show them what was available, take them to properties and hopefully make a sale or two. He happened to glance out the office window and he saw an old man with worn shoes, holes on the sleeves of his jacket and an overall unkempt appearance lean his very old bike against the window, and prepare to walk inside the office.

My father was not about to have his day interrupted by obvious time wasters and asked a fellow agent to attend to the old man. He returned to his office to take care of a mound of work piling up on his desk. A few hours later, he watched the agent and the old man get out of the agent’s car at the front of the office. They shook hands, the old man picked up his bike and rode off down the street.

The agent had a huge smile on his face. And of course my father wanted to know where the heck these two had been for most of the day and what they had been up to. It was the agents turn to shake my fathers hand because he wanted very much to thank him for handing the old ‘time waster’ over to him. It turned out that the old man was interested in buying property. It turned out that the old man had cash to spend on property. It even turned out that old man had the cash to buy not one, but four properties. And this is what he did.

No wonder the agent had a big smile on his face. My father beat himself up for days for missing out on the biggest deal he would ever likely make. He learned a big lesson that day.

Never assume that what you think you see is really what you assume........ And Don’t Bite The Hand That Feeds you!

What would have happened if, after I had admired my fellow Steemian’s photo so much that I decided to buy it? His indignation could have cost him not one but maybe a few sales if I really liked the first one. But he, in his false judgement, decided I was a Comment Spammer and was not interested in any comment I wanted to make unless I backed it up with an upvote.

I see he has toned down his comments considerably since yesterday. Leaving them as they were would surely turn people away and surely be counter-productive, because I have a feeling that if most people had read them (even if they loved his work as much as I do,) they’d question his motives and find other quality artwork to admire without the attitude to go with it.

Thankfully, I know attitudes like his are very much in the minority here in Steemit and thankfully we all have the right to choose who and who not to follow.

Am I being too harsh? Is it a waste of time leaving positive comments when you don’t have votes to back up those comments? What are your thoughts on this issue? I’d really love to hear them. Correction! I really need to hear them.