HF19 Minnow Advice: Stop Voting for Everything

We used to be able to just blast away upvotes for everything. Several Steemians noted that this made it worthwhile to upvote posts that we hadn't read, just because they looked likely to gain support and offer us curation rewards. The frequency of that (I'm guilty, too) was, let's face it, pretty high.

Now that has to stop.

Oh, sure, we can use our ten full-power votes however we like. We can blast away like always. But if we're trying to grow our own power and we're trying to help others that are adding good content to the community, we're going to have to be more selective about those votes. That also means that there are two other badly underutilized tools we have to begin using more.

Resteeming

If I don't have much power to give with my upvote, I can still amplify the reach of a good post with a resteem, which costs nothing and gives good work a much wider potential audience. I resteem very rarely--or I did--but that's going to want to change here. Resteeming is a way to reward good work when my bag of Steem is getting low (and it always seems to be that way).

Commenting

Not nearly as valuable in terms of money, commenting is nonetheless a great way to encourage someone to keep going. I don't know if I'm unusual here, but the first thing I check when I log on is my replies. I want to engage with people that are reading and thinking about what I write. Those comments are gold--to me, worth as much as an upvote (though I'd like both, of course). Back before HF19, I commented a lot, because I had only a penny to give with an upvote. I wanted to do something more for good work, and comments was the best way to do that.

Following

People that post good stuff once will do it again. Following is curation, only it's curation of good Steemians, not just good posts. I publish a daily Best of Steemit, and today's edition is composed entirely of posts by people I follow. I don't even have to get off my own feed (though of course I do) to find more than enough great reading material for a day. It also means that I can support my friends with views, and those great posts are more likely to get one of my ten full-power votes.

Just some suggestions. HF19 has changed the way I interact with the site in dramatic ways, ways that are still evolving. It's meant that I have to work harder to do the things that grow the community, but I think it's made those things more effective, and the growth stronger in important ways. What's it done for you?

~Cristof

---

^{MINNOWS GOTTA SCHOOL}