Steemit Etiquette and Good Manners: For Your Own Benefit, Follow up When People Comment on your Posts!
Greetings Steemians, newcomers and oldcomers alike!
Spent a little time on a rainy afternoon, looking at posts and reading comments; responding to the good people who took the time to read my ramblings and rantings... and leaving me occasional "love notes" for my efforts.
Engagement and Interaction!
It seems like there has been a distinct decline in interaction over the past few months. Let's say, since November. What's UP with that?
The road ahead...?
Just wanted to throw out a couple of quick thoughts concerning social media "etiquette" and just general good manners online.
Now I'm an old fart, and maybe that has something to do with it. Old people are always talking about "manners" and stuff like that. But that's a sidetrack...
A large part of what makes SOCIAL MEDIA (of which Steemit happens to be part) "social" is that it revolves around interaction.
Even back in the days before God invented dirt and we were on all text message board systems, it was a pretty "commonly accepted" thing that if you made an original post and someone took the time to reply... you acknowledged them. Even just with a few words.
Not doing so is kinda like an unanswered "high five." Think about that, for moment? Awkward, right?
Translated to Steemit
When someone takes the time to write a decent response to one of your posts, take a moment to stimulate interaction and dialogue on your own post by giving people a short thanks... and an upvote or two.
Smooth sailing ahead!
Sometimes people will find themselves inspired to respond with an entire essay on the topic you brought up.
Give them a decent upvote for their efforts!
That's how we build a community.
Now I'm not talking about rewarding those annoying bots (except maybe "cute" stuff like @cuddlekitten ) or people who spam comment sections with copy-pasta. Just the real "human" comments.
But here's the thing that's perhaps most important: If you "curate" the comments on your own posts with replies and upvotes, that's how you build "followers" that ACTUALLY FOLLOW YOU, as opposed to 3500 "followers" who really don't give a rodent's rear end whether you're dead or alive!
As an additional bonus, when you upvote the comments on your own top level posts, you also earn pretty decent curation rewards.
And I think that's what we're all trying to do here, because... this is SOCIAL MEDIA!
Thank you for your attention!
How about YOU? Are you pretty good about "interacting" in your own comment section? Do you upvote and comment back, when people interact with your content? If not, why not? Do you enjoy the interaction here? Would you like to see more of it? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
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Created at 180313 16:56 PDT
I've got this weird ritual I do on my posts but it takes bloody ages - every comment I upvote it and reply with a picture.
The cool thing is, I think the comments are the best part of most of my posts and the best fun!
www.frot.co.nz
There are quite a few people on Steemit who not only are far more successful as commenters than as original posters, but who also make more from curating than posting.
There's some old truism (which I will now proceeed to misquote) that something like "Some people get to play the music, and some people get to listen." Which I think is as it should be.
That’s the way to gooooo
Steemit is a lot of work because we are all content creators and need to be treated as such. That means we need to spend more time and energy on our audience if we want to respect them. It can get a little hectic sometimes and there is just way too much content. I post too much, we all too much, but thats what happens when we write something we think is awesome and it gets fewer views and smaller upvotes than we hoped, we either post less or we post a lot more.
Sometimes I don't have energy for any of it, sometimes I have just barely enough and want to spend it on my own post and put off the comments for a few days until I really need to catch up and I miss a few.
I love to catch up with you though, aside from being enjoyable, it reminds me I have allies with higher rep than myself :-D
Always nice to "see" you!
Your comment reminds me of something a social media veteran once told me: "Doing social media is EASY; doing social media WELL is HARD."
If you're an active content creator and you interact with and curate your own content.... yeah, it can be a lot of work. Especially if you actually engage people. Over the past couple of days I've left about 75 comments at an average length of about 80 words per comment. 80 words is more than 3/4 of the posts on Steemit. But hey, that's my choice of how I do things.
And some days? I have no energy for it, either. Thanks for the kind words!
I love the interaction with people, however I have more opportunity to do so when I visit other posts, there are few decent comments I receive in my post.
Even so, I always respond, I am very grateful in that aspect.
Excelnte work dear friend @denmarkguy of very topicality
I wish you a great day
Hello @jlufer, I always enjoy your visits because you're a great example of someone who-- in spite of having been here "since the beginning" and leaving thousands of comments-- still take the time to read posts and leave relevant comments.
I really believe that is an example of what we should all strive for here on Steemit.
thank you very much dear friend @denmarkguy for your kind words
have a great night
Thanks you @jlufer, you as well!
I like to comment, I comment a lot, and even though I do not do a whole lot of posting, I try to comment on all the comments I recieve or at least leave a vote on the real comments. I was hard for awhile until I learned about a manual vote slider, and then a couple of nice individual delegated me alittle SP to bet me over the bump to having the slider.
I am also spending the majority of my time lately helping out new people. I visit and I comment and I vote on their post. Sometimes I am the only vote and only real comment, but people do like knowing that their work was seen. I don't mind if people do not upvote my comments, like I said I most hit up the new users lately, and they often do not have a lot of Vote Power, so I do not take offense.
I think for some there is a fear of commenting on higher rep post. Fear of being downvoted fear of being ridiculed. I have seen theses type comments on some higher reputation post - "What good enough for a comment but no vote?" "You should vote for a post if you are going to comment", "pretty short comment, what did you find interesting", "learn to type english", that last one really ticks me off, if I had a higher reputation than that person I would have told them learn to right click and translate.
Engagement may be going down on some of the higher reputation post, but it is a two way street. I have been to some 70+ Rep post where the author has a lot of comments, and a lot of votes, and has given only one or two votes back.
But me, yeah I like to comment 4934th comment/post.
Well, let me use this 10,842nd post to thank you, and respond to your thoughtful comment!
I think it's awesome that you're helping out newcomers; I try to spend at least one day a week looking at the #introduceyourself tag, just to get a sense of who's coming onboard-- and I have "met" some real gems in the process; and it's nice to help kick start a few with a re-steem or two.
Maybe the atmosphere on Steemit has changed a bit since I started; as I recall, one of the ways I got to a 50+ rep pretty fast was to comment extensively (and sometimes aggressively) on "high profile" posts. On the other hand, I know sometimes some of the high rep folks don't comment and vote back... I few I "know" fairly well, and I know they use auto votes to give small upvotes to hundreds of accounts so they are always pretty tapped out.
Currently, the average runs about 2.4 comments per post sitewide, so I guess with 60+ comments already, this one is ahead of the engagement curve.
I am working my way to 10,000 comments, congratulation on your level of engagement. I understand about the vote trails and such, so people on those or who rent out to curation trails, may not always have control over where their vote goes, so do not have much left for their own blogs, I am actually fine with that, I am a very very firm believer in your vote your choice. Hopefully people will see that yes comments do make a difference.
Well, I know comments make a difference to me, in the sense that I am far more likely to find a "new favorite person to follow" as a result of an active comment exchange than as a result of randomly browsing Steemit.
If I couldn't find any more comments among my articles that I can answer and tell me what's on their minds about my article, I'd stop writing.
Of course, it's a lot of "work" and takes time to answer all the comments, some of them even 3 or 4 times, but it's still more fun than work. And as you say, yes, the reason why we meet here.
Sometimes I don't even have enough comments. I would like to know what people think and feel when they read about me and give them an answer.
If I comment on another articles and then read "Thank you for your kind words" in response, I will not comment on any article from that person. Why should I? They doesn't care what I write.
I think it's a good thing you're raising the issue.
And btw, this has nothing to do with age... 😉
Greetings from Germany, Monja
Hello Monja,
I think we have pretty similar approaches-- and it gets back to the basic that this is (in my belief, anyway) a SOCIAL site, and social means interacting with other people.
For me, the original appeal of the Internet and then blogging was that there would be instant "feedback and exchange of ideas." I don't really need people to tell me "nice post," because I made good marks in English class... I want their thoughts about the content within the words.
These exchanges are what I enjoy about being here.
I couldn't have said it better! 😃
All the best! Mo*
Yes, this! I make it a point to spend my VP every day, at least into the 80s, and respond to posts and comments. My "replies" tab, which I check all the time, is much quieter than my outgoing comments. I realize not all of my comments require a response, like, if I just said something like, woah, that's a really cool photo! ...you might say, "thanks," but it's not super conversational to begin with. But if I'm responding to a more text-post by being wordy, yeah, it's often an unanswered comment. I get that people who are really popular get ten million comments and so they can't stay on top of it, but I see newbies do it too who are busy leaving trash comments everywhere, and I'm just like ...y'all ...you might get those follows you are asking for if you stopped asking and instead responded to the people actually trying to ENGAGE with you!
My ambition is to end the day somewhere between 80-85. I generally don't have time to, unless I have a couple of consecutive days off, which is about as common as a snowstorm in the Sahara.
I know you're a frequent enough visitor to probably have noticed that my posts always end with a series of questions... which is basically an invitation to engage (or an attempt to create engagement); that's part of my "mission" on Steemit; get people involved; perhaps get people to think about stuff they wouldn't otherwise. Sometimes I just piss people off, and that's OK, too... it's still a form of getting people OUT of the routine of mindlessly clicking on upvote buttons.
The flipside, of course, is that I DO get a lot of engagement, and when posts routinely end up wioth 30-50 comments, I end up with not much time left over to explore other people's content. But at least I try to make visits here somewhat worthwhile.
awww... thanks for encouraging bot-cuddling.
but more generally... wise words all over - building community.
steem has given us the magnificent power to show our appreciation towards another with something as mundane as crypto money... an appreciation currency.
What's not to appreciate when someone takes their time to read your content, and they will appreciate your appreciation... that's how it goes and that's how it grows, we reap what we sow.
P.S.: unknown kitten facts: they check the self-voting behaviour and vote diversity of their cuddle buddies and adjust their sympathy accordingly ;)
@victoria-kelly made an interesting observation on a different post of mine, namely that Steemit seems to operate within two "circles," one of which is content creators and community builders, and the other is money seekers.
It's not that we have different objectives-- because who doesn't like getting a reward? -- but our motivating factors are different: Either "the content leads" or "the money leads."
Steemit, for me, picks up where I "lost" something back around 2005-ish when I was very involved in "social blogging," which was basically a more "human story intensive" type of social media. Then came Facebook and MySpace and pretty much removed the "needing to put thought and effort into it" part; loads of people flocked to this format of just collecting "thumbs up" and "number of friends." Actual content became an afterthought.
But it was actually a huge niche market; Xanga hosted 33 million bloggers in 2005-06. If Steemit could come even close to snagging all those (mostly) displaced users, this could become one of the greatest repositories of human stories ever built... the blockchain is ideal for that, to boot.
I love the kitten bots, by the way. Not only are they cute as hell, but they are excellent "training wheels;" if you upvote the kitten, you "get" something-- an endearing little graphic. Which beats the snot out of generic "Upaid4itbot upvoted you by 0.17%. Have a nice life!" message.
Those two "circles" are certainly a reality but neither is exclusive to the other really. I think the much more divisive factor is the attitude towards "entitlement". I think I'd personally make a threefold division in that respect, builders, takers and fakers... but again, neither is exclusive to the other.
The socio-economics of this platform sure make for a really intense cultural experiment.
And the kittens fall right into that experiment, I guess they sort of do exactly that community building type of reciprocal voting you describe in the OP (I guess we could also call it clique-voting to highlight the negative aspect of it?!) albeit they are bots.
Yes, that's another valid perspective... without doubt, this is a fascinating social experiment.
I'm taking a break here from writing a piece about the nature of social media... because sometimes it feels like people forget that (a) Steemit IS "social media" and (b) all other social media platforms have everything from garbage to genius, as well. Why would we be exempt here?
The kittens remind me a little of a current-day variation of the old "tit-for-tat" algorithm (sometimes known as the "Prisoner's Dilemma."), in that you support the kittens, the kittens support you.
Clique voting? Well, yes... but isn't social media inherently cliqueish? If you're into chess, you trail around behind your favorite chess people and pretty much ignore "Spanish cooking." We become cliqueish and tribal around our hobbies and interests... and our support of them can even be seen as "self-serving" in that if I encourage (let's say) the kittens, YOU are more likely to keep running something I experience as valuable. It becomes a win-win, in a self-interest sort of way.
And I have a sneaking suspicion that that was more or less what @dan (and his dad, I'm sure) originally were counting on, in creating Steemit as a viable concept.
Well, social media certainly is as cliquish in nature as humans are tribal... 100%
Seeing the kittens as a sort of inverse prisoner's dilemma is actually an interesting point of view... I should explore that more deeply.
Hahaha, I thought I was the only one secretly surveying the steeming style of Steemians. I don't feel quite so sneaky now.
haha, nah... i find other peoples dirty laundry quite intriguing some times :P
P.S.: here's my favourite evaluation tool: http://steemreports.com/outgoing-votes-diversity/gini-simpson/?account=deirdyweirdy&days=30
P.P.S.: Grade A steemian... I should try to be more like you :D
Such a great tool; use it frequently. Hadn't checked myself recently; I'm evidently quite supportive of your kitten projects...
hahaha... wow... well I knew from the frequent brain scans cuddlekitten has to undergo that you are her top supporter... what I didn't know until just now... is that she's actually your top "supportee".
I guess her cuteness does the trick after all :D
Rest assured, aside of the fair share to the artist, all rewards are used exclusively to make her even cuddlier over time. Though in all honesty, you might want to tune it down a little, hehe... I guess the likes of @steemkitten and @cuddlekitten are the least terrible rise of the machines... but let's put humans first for the time being ;)
The kittens should have fond memories about you for a while anyway.
OK, I'll confess that the kittens are benefiting inadvertently from my own OCD-ishness, meaning I try to curate my comment section by quality and merit.
When they post to my comment section, I often use them as "markers."
In many cases, I'll upvote a kitten and after that, comments I vote to "above the kitten" are what I treat as more serious and conversational, and comments "below the kitten" tend to be one-time, quick reply things, or outright spam/vote begging that gets no vote at all.
Doesn't always work out that way... and it's not a hard and fast rule, I accidentally discovered it was kind of handy when wading 40-50 or more comments.
Probably more than you wanted to know... ;-)
so you're using the kitten as a "marker"?!?
I don't know, does that qualify as animal-abuse?
krkrkr
Cheers. I already use steemreports to separate the needy from the greedy.
Yes, agreed. But not simply if
I judge the comment. Sometimes I don't really have anything to say, and thanks for a comment seems a bit pointless... I just give an upvote as a thanks lol.
I have 7000 fake followers with only less than 100 real ones :/
And hence, a form of "curation," right? If we are here for content and engagement... well at least, I apply this to most of my own posts... we can use votes to "organize" responses to where the best and most relevant/insightful end up near the top, and the one-worders near the bottom.
I get that... of course, the reverse of that equation is that — unless you're on here day and night — keeping up with more than 100 full-time/regular bloggers is a shitload of work. I pretty much burned out on the whole "followers" thing on twitter... twit spam: "We can get you 10,000 followers for just $99.99!" Followers, my arse... more like 10,000 dummy accounts.
The web is full of wannabe journalists and writers; fewer than 1% actually create content interesting enough for people to follow and READ on a regular basis, simply because it's interesting.
Well it is a social platform after all so it is funny when folks seem to not get that part. I have had too many people try it here only to wither and die simply because the couldn't or wouldn't get out into the community and interact!
I was reading what you said, and this slightly funny realization ran through my head: We have all these "young genuises" inventing cutting edge stuff (like Steemit) and somehow it ends up being us old farts who understand how to "breathe life" into them.
Maybe it's not that complicated. Maybe it's just a "work ethic" thing.
“Old” and wise people just know about different manners we were taught in those days, when it was more important to nurture “relations”. I couldn’t earn my living without those proper manners :) I actually planned to write about this topic myself but couldn’t get in the mood yet.
It’s such a weird dynamic recently, indeed.
I am so tired now even though I would love to reply to your smashing and wonderful comment on my latest article. Mammasitta needs to catch some sleep first 😂 but I will be back with more politeness, replying in my usual style.
Get some rest @mammasitta; we'll all be fresh and rested tomorrow.
I'll say this, for now: Gratitude and politeness was — at least for me — something that was simply part of "right living" in life... it had little to do with "what was expected" of people. Or of me. And that remains... even if some find it rather "old fashioned."