Dolphinschool students! Some extra tips for you, and other new Steemians.
I’ve been looking on the #dolphinschool tag and seeing you working on your assignments. I haven’t managed to get to all of you yet, but I’ve checked out some posts and seen some awesome work.
@markrmorrisjr has been giving you some great information, working really hard helping you along, and giving you some new ways to look at things. But there are lots of different perspectives on how to do things on Steemit, and I’d like to throw some slightly different ones into the mix. They might be things he hasn’t talked to you about yet, or they might be things where I have a different way of doing things.
Don’t post too often, or too little
Although there is nothing to stop you posting as much as you want to, people are not going to want to follow someone who posts too often, and clutters up their feed. An established Steemian might be able to get away with a little more, but when you’re starting out, once a day is usually enough. If you haven’t got time to post every day, try and post at least three times a week, so you don’t get forgotten.
Be careful with your resteeming
Mark is resteeming a lot at the moment, for the good of his students, so that is a special case. But in general, resteeming should be done sparingly. People are following you for YOUR content. Ask yourself questions like:
• Is this something I could have written this myself?
• Is this compatible with my content?
• Is this vital information that everybody needs to know?
• How many resteems have I got, compared to my own posts? (I used to hardly ever Resteem. I’ve loosened up a bit but even now, I don’t Resteem more than I’ve posted.)
Never comment without upvoting
Mark has said to only upvote if you think it’s worth it, though he has cautioned you that people won’t support you if you don’t support them. That’s true, you’re not obliged to upvote everything you read.
But I want to add to that, if you don’t upvote, don’t comment. Established Steemians are getting very annoyed with people commenting without upvoting, and this could earn you a flagging.
If you have little bandwidth, think even harder about whether your comment is going to add value to the poster. While everybody likes comments, meaningful one are best, so spend your bandwidth wisely. If you really want to comment and can't upvote as well, for whatever reason, let the poster know why and come back and support them another day.
One liners are bad for your image
I think Mark has already covered this, but it bears repeating. A post with just a title, or just one line, will make you look bad, especially if there is no picture. I’m also not a fan of just posting a gif, a video or a photo with no discussion. (EDIT: The exception to that might be if it's your own original art, photo or video, with the appropriate tag.)
Posts that are too long will prevent people reading them, but they need to be “meaty” enough that people feel like they’ve learnt something or been entertained.
I talked to one of you today about how a very short anecdote could be made into a fuller post, with some background to the story and an extra picture.
Powering up your SBD
At the moment, while SBD are selling for more than $US1, it’s worth your while doing 50/50 posts, then converting your SBD to SP. Do you all know how to turn SBD into SP, which will help you grow? If you need some help in doing that, let me know below.
I have some guidelines for very new people at the bottom of every post, that some of you might find interesting, so just scroll on down.
I hope at least one of these extra little tips will help you out.
Thanks for reading
Images by myself, @sift666 or from Pixabay, unless otherwise stated.
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some of these comments are gold :)
I know! {clasps head in hands}
Friend information good, @kiwideb. Tips information I like much. Cardboard tunnels aren't just for cats anymore, this is true and you are welcome. I hope I graduate and become canned tuna someday. Very friendly, your friend, thank you.
Did you say cats???? Where? I like cats. Cats like tuna. This is good informations, friend, please to follow? (Meet me in Chat? SteemitChat, that is, not french for cat)
Cats? What? Oh crap! It looks like my brain had a malfunction at the junction again. Or maybe I was trying to blend in. Either way, I meant to say dogs, not cats.
Dogs? Dogs? You come here and talk to me about dogs? Do I look like a dog person? I'm a mad cat lady who also likes dolphins, mermaids, unicorns and rainbows.
[For any dolphin school students reading this thread and scratching their heads, if you're looking for humour there are three people you need to follow: @nonameslefttouse, @meesterboom and @sift666. Don't follow me, I'm not very funny. My sister, @andysantics48 is the funny one. But you probably already know that.]
You 2 are hilarious - me? I'm just mildly amusing occasionally ......very occasionally :D
You need to post more cat arse photos...
Your poems are much funnier than mine. Though that could be because I couldn't write a poem to save myself. Mind you, I have done the occasional haiku. Even then, I forget how many syllables go in each line, and probably end up writing something that's more of a hukai or kuhai.
Thanx kiwi.. Another helful post.. Specially buying steem power is really helpful.. If newbies dont buy power the bandwidth issue create alot of problem for them
Yes, I see that as a big problem for them, which we never had when we started. I don't really know what to suggest to them for that, as not everybody can afford to buy much Steem.
Wow this was much needed. I am not a dolphine however. Joined steemit half a month ago and loving it. I do have a bandwidth limit problem but i dont know how to solve it. I resteem alot but now i have understood the way it works. I need to post more of my content that i have been couple of days ago. Thank you for writing this. I dont know my comment has added "value" to the post here or not but the post was totally helpful. ☺☺
Yes, this was an appropriate comment. You showed that you had read the post, talked about how it would help you, and mentioned a problem you didn't know how to solve. So that opens a conversation.
The bandwidth is a new problem that we didn't have when we started. It will get better as you earn a little bit. If you can afford to buy a little bit of Steem, that would help, but I know most people can't.
Use your bandwidth to post your own content, upvote some other posts and occasionally comment. That's the best I have for you, sorry!
Thank you so much. God your advice saved me a lot of undirected effort. Thanks for taking time out to write this and why sorry? i will go with the flow and post my own stuff definitely. Now i know brandwidth in a better way.
I'v probably been guilty of commenting and then forgetting to upvote. Trying to remember to vote before I comment now so I don't forget, because it does sort of annoy me when people do that on my posts. lol
Yes, I have been guilty of that myself, and then later seen the post and thought "Huh, I'm sure I upvoted that." So I'm trying to be a bit more understanding and just remind people of the etiquette when I see it happen. But sometimes I fail to be polite...
I have resteemed it so I can find it again and refer newbies to it, This should help teach them the right way to behave here.
[is there a better/easier way of finding things/posts apart from resteeming them????]
I sometimes just bookmark posts so they're easy to find in my browser system. For my own posts, I keep a list in a Word file.
How do you bookmark posts? Trevor hasnt shown me yet.
Which ever is the easiest, maybe 1 every 3 or 4 weeks
well done Deb, now I can read the blue page.
I agree with your observations, especially comment without vote, and it is so easy to check on,
Keep going teacher.
Yes, boss, will do. Have you been away gallivanting?
The sister-in-law has just held her first Country Music Festival just out of Waitara [New Plymouth]
strangely I was ordered to attend and man the gate for the weekend.
The boss has held 12 similar festivals here in Marton, so she was very involved in her sisters first attempt.
It was a good weekend, but I had no access to the web, hence the silence.
Hard Luck, I'm Back.
While I'm glad it was you, how sad is it that this is the best paid post in the #dolphinschool tag after all the work those students put in? This is @markrmorrisjr by the way, under the new dolphinschool account.
Yes, it figured it was you. Is it the best paid? I thought I saw one by @bristowboy the other day at >$100. Maybe it's the best paid out of the trending right now. While it's disappointing that they didn't get better rewards, you must be very proud of the sterling work they've done.
Top of trending at the moment.
I'm happy to say that @magicalmoonlight has beaten me!
following you @kiwideb. These are the kind of package Im looking for. Oops! I've upvoted your post already so Im leaving a comment! Thank you! See you around my mentor!
Thanks for your enthusiastic greeting! I hope you're enjoying Steemit.
Hi and thank you for this post, it is very helpful!
I was indeed searching information about etiquette in commenting.
I have seen many people (some in my posts too) that keep commenting generic posts, like "Keep it Up!"
or .. "You are doing great, I love your content!!"
but NEVER EVER upvoting. (I am also sure they never actually read the content)
What should be done about it? Is this not allowed? Are they considered generic contents? Will it look bad if I tell them not to continue doing it?
Those kind of comments are considered spam, and people who have been around for a while hate them. As this is an open community, and nothing is "banned" as such, it's up to each person to decide what to do about it. I used to ignore it, but more recently I've been trying to educate people on how to behave better. You are welcome to use the picture of the blue box at the bottom of my post. Or have a look through the comments on this post and some of my other recent ones to see how I've been handling them lately. You won't look bad - they are the ones who look bad. Don't lose your temper though. When I have done that once or twice, I'm sorry to have been rude.
The other option is to flag them, but be aware that will deplete your voting power. I don't flag myself, but some of my friends do sometimes. One of them flagged the very bottom comment here.
I just wanted to let you know that I did use your photo today, with a mention to you and your post.
Thank you again for all the valuable info + for allowing me to reuse : )
Thank you very much for replying, I appreciate it :)
I actually was wondering about the picture referred to as the 'Five C's" and I will be happy to use it :) I will of course credit this post and your account for it.
I have not flagged any one yet, but it is something we should know and inform other new users.
Thank you again <3