~Why~ We Hate "Follow for Follow" and "Vote for Vote"
"Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name..."
- Cheers Theme Song -
Have you ever seen these comments?:
"follow me bro :D"
"upvoted and followed you if you like hal please follow me"
"amazing follow me @hain"
"Excente! Te invito a visitar mis artículos! UN CAMBIO DE CORAZÓN"
That was a rhetorical question...
If you've been on Steemit for more than five minutes, of course you've seen comments like those!
Please Leave a Comment
Image courtesy of Kelly Sikkema and http://unsplash.com
Why do we hate them?
Generally speaking, I love comments.
I appreciate it when people notice my writing and engage with me. In fact, I will vote for most comments as an indication of my respect and appreciation.
But when I see comments that are meaningless, I want to ignore them. I feel disgusted. I think "go away."
Once in a while, if I'm feeling charitable, or if there is even a glimmer of engagement, I'll respond and encourage the commenter to change their ways... Sometimes I've had good responses to my appeals, but other times not so much.
But why do we hate those comments?
I think it is because we want to be valued.
When we look at a comment like "hey, bro, follow me," it is so blatantly obvious that the person who wrote it is just a leech. They do not value us. They just want to suck the life out of us, use us. They really could care less about what we wrote.
Sometimes these comments appear only seconds after we hit the "Post" button.
Could they have even read our post?
Unless they are a world-champion speed reader, uh-uh, no way.
It takes time, thought, and energy to interact with others, whether here on Steemit or anywhere in life. We all have limited time. We all have to allocate our minutes, our hours, our days wisely.
Comments like these are revealing.
They shout "I just heard about Steemit, and I'm here for everything I can get."
A lot of newcomers just want to game the system. Unfortunately, some of the incentives and algorithms make that possible to a greater or lesser extent. These are things that will hopefully become better adjusted over time.
But meanwhile, let's be mindful.
At times we tend to think of the Golden Rule as "all for the other guy." It is actually for our own good. If we stop and give some thought to how the other guy is feeling, then "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" begins to make more sense. We begin to have a little empathy. We begin to imagine what it feels like to be in someone else's shoes.
Next time you leave a comment, think about this:
We don't want simple rubber stamps.
We don't want to be used.
Thoughtless, insincere "cheers" are hollow.
We don't want to "trade votes," or follows.
What do we really want as writers?
We want people to value us.
We want to be appreciated.
We want people to read what we write.
We want others to care about our ideas.
We want to be liked for who we are.
We want to hear what others think about our writing.
We'd like you to get to know us.
We want to get to know you.
~FIN~
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You are why I'm here on Steemit!
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a timely post. My i-phone rings even when I'm posting sometimes, and it makes me feel wanted. I hate being so needy, but if I didn't get those notifications I wouldn't get any calls at all....well, maybe from my Ring doorbell advising me of motion at my front door, or my D-Link cam, my main floor motion sensor (thank you, Muse Cat), my eight outdoor cams....Uh, yeah, I think I'm good. I'll be okay now.
Hahahahahaha...
eDependent much, are we?
Hey bro, I like you post. follow me.
Naw... that leaves a sour taste. My fingers totally did not want to type that. LOL Hey, babe, I'm back! What have you been up to and where'd everyone go???
Hi @merej99, how are you? Everyone are still here, although what we have been seeing lately are the lovely newbies who came in droves ;)
Hope you're well?
Hi, Sweetie! Welcome back! Where you been??? :O
Hahahahahaha!
I've been so busy my usual ten post per day quota has been severely missed... ;)
I'm trying to get my http://SILVERengines.com website "adjusted" so that it will show up in the search engines? Fellow Steemian friend @jannell has been helping me a lot!
I sometimes just don’t know if I should laugh or feel sorry for those who go around spamming follow4follow and who choose to follow everyone.
I centrally can’t keep up with a very large group of people and the types of follows those people get back as well are in the same boat. There feed is so filled with spam of resteeems and a bunch of other things. How can they ever expect there blog to get more then 1 or 2 views if they spend all their time creating spam; instead of, conversation.
I totally agree with this! I dont have time for that nonsense and in the long run it can't be great for steemit either.
This is the main one for me. I don't mind it that much when something I've written goes unnoticed and if I did, I would have stopped already (not that I'm super active anyway), but these type of hollow automated interaction that just wants to leech on us and mislead us into giving them some reward or attention is quite annoying.
Annoying, for sure!
Thanks for stopping in and sharing your two cents! ;)
As always, my pleasure!
I do hope you know that I value your friendship first and foremost and secondly I value your insight and posts. I too have trouble with folks to do the follow for follow thing. Some folks are in your face about it while others can be more deceit. A few months ago I too wrote a blog on this same subject. I believe there are many of us out here to have grown weary of the newcomers who auto pilot the Steemit experience. Steemit is about developing relationships and learning. Earning is the icing on the cake rather than the cake itself. I feel we have a higher breed of people here on Steemit compared to Facebook. I want to keep it that way. I think the Follow for Follow is more of demand some folks place on this platform rather than a choice we make. I feel you develop the relationship and as the relationship progresses you can encourage folks to read your post MAYBE but you should learn what type of material interests each follower. It is not a one shoe fits all. Some folks like Christian post while others may appreciate sports, music, philosophy, art or photography. As you know you re welcome to check out any of my newer posts you have not seen but we have a developed friendship that I value. As always, thanks for a wonderful message that needed to be expressed on this platform. - Troy
Thanks, Troy, for all your thoughtful observations. I appreciate your visit and your time.
It's certainly better to be here than Facebook, IMHO...
I agree with 100%! I am also new here and I made directly this kind of experience. Steemit is a complex social network you have to get familiar with. Of course, it gives an incredible opportunity but for me, many minnows don't get the right perspective. We are here to create valuable content for others, to curate and to connect. We need to support each other but always this begging is in my opinion pure egoism.
Thank you for reading, and for your supportive comment.
Welcome to Steemit, and best wishes here! ;)
Thank you very much :)
You could not have put it better?, Thank You.
You're more than welcome; Thanks for noticing! :D
You make a very good point and may be on to something when you say that it is about being valued. Personally, I think that meaningful comments can be as valuable as votes. They create discussion and encourage authors to continue writing. Comments can push authors further into an idea and draw out more information. I like to think that authors themselves aren't just doing it for the money and so I do not vote for everything that I comment on. But i think that the comment still adds something even if there is no monetary value associated with it. I wonder if a post can become "trendy" if it receives a lot of comments - I mean even if there are no votes associated with the post?
Thanks for sharing your many insights in this comment!
I know that I surely need the encouragement that comments like yours bring. When I read good and relevant comments, I know that someone has actually taken the time to read and think about what I've written. I find that tremendously encouraging.
You're absolutely right; I'm not in this just for the money. I want to leave a legacy for my children and grandchildren to be able to access one day.
Unfortunately, on Steemit, it seems as if "trending" has everything to do with the monetary rewards. This favors the whales and their cliques...
It would be nice if the "trending" algorithms could take into account the number and time spent of actual article readers.
Yes I agree :)
I'm truly getting annoyed with it. I preach and preach about how steemit is a whole different ballgame from other social media platforms, for the simple fact that one is actually rewarded for being active.
People just learn that they can earn momey for posting and commenting, then come here from networks where shallow engagement rules all. Unfortunately, I believe Steemit is not for everyone. Only because some people can't seem to see past the "getting paid" part.
In the last couple months, the number of active daily posters has quintupled... Bringing droves of unsavory characters who were cheating the facebook system to get more likes, and they weren't even getting anything for it... Empty comments as a means of earning money makes one look pathetic.
I truly couldn't have said it better myself....
Yes, frustrating indeed!
It has me thinking about what a social network might be like that actually rewarded quality above all else. Perhaps something that would make a qualitative measure of engagement, perhaps by monitoring how long each member actually spent reading each post. The total picture; time spent reading, number and quality of comments, etc.
Or maybe an "author feedback loop." In which an author's votes for favorite comments under his articles would more highly reward the best commenters...?
Thanks for weighing in... ;)
It’s centrally an issue. I know it is easy to become tunnel vision on such things and start seeing it as a way people are trying to cheapen our own time and efforts put into here.
I know a part of it is trying to educate people on a better way. Like you I do try some times to engage the spam like behavior. In an effort to hope they see “oh I get it now.” Sadly I rarely ever see a light bulb go off. Sometimes it shatters with the vileness that pours of their words when they poison the waters they swim in.
These people end up going inactive. I would hate for any one of them to feel they were not given a fair chance. On the other hand, they should put more effort and treating there first comment on a blog like the first time you meet someone. First impressions can play into a lot here.
That is why I always try and put my best food forward. Sometimes I’m not so great at it. Other times things just don’t end up the way they were expected.
I just love to see people who spend the time on engaging here. Sure, writing blogs is part of the reason to be here. Commenting is another great way to go as well.
Thank you for your very thoughtful and engaging comment. You've really added to the conversation here!
I have seen the light bulb go off a few times, which encourages me to at least keep trying to redeem some borderline spammers... :D
That is great; perhaps I just need to identify better cases to spend my time on.
I tend to get replies back like “I’m so sorry” and then they keep doing it otherwise. Other times they get angry and run their mouth. Which is just sad because I am the kind of person who would spend time to try and help them to better understand if that is something they are struggling with on Steemit.
Yeah, I've been liking to fight spam with humour lately! Meet Spam Barnacle :)
Feel free to use this image >> h ttp://i.thinimg.com/img/16gb.png(Deleting the space after the h) And be sure to give @overkillcoin a bit of love too for his efforts!
Very cool barnacle! :D
Thanks for sharing, dear!
Glad he amused you :) hehehee