RE: Make meaningful comments! Engage people in discussion!
I was thinking about this just yesterday. I actually think that the monetary aspect is part of the problem. Now, I'm a newbie, so I might not be getting the full picture, but most of the comments I get are from spammers trying to get up-votes.
"Good post...
I will resteem...
Carry on.."
This gives me an uneasy feeling even when people are legitimately adding to the conversation (asking a question for example). Are they just posting for the same reason, but in clearer English? Usually it's clear that they didn't even read the post, but rather, the skimmed it for guessed at it's content.
Sometimes it is a good question, but I don't have any voting power, so I respond.. then feel guilty that I didn't even give them the 0.01. Or if they did get their 0.01, then I feel like they're responding just to get another.
It's not that I'm overly suspicious of peoples motives.. it's that if there is any incentive at all, it effects how people behave. I worry that we'll all end up like the spammers, worried to say the wrong thing and incur a flag.
The pessimist in me says it's because they're idiots.
Even someone with poor english could reply better than the majority of them. Of course, even people with good english skills might occasionally reply with something like "Awesome post!", but the platform quickly teaches us that there's further incentive to elaborate, and at least say why we thought it was a good post. If you don't learn that quickly, I question your intelligence.
Yeah, the platform creates a motivation to make better comments, and engage people more, but I don't think that's necessarily bad. There was always that motivation, it's just now it's monetary, so it's obvious.
That incentive can push us to try harder to make connections. Maybe there are some that will just make a ton of fake friends, but there are others that will just be pushed a little, and make real ones.
The whole fear of flagging already effects people on here, in being too nice. I flat out reject that behaviour and am probably a bit more uncensored as a result sometimes.