Increasing number of users = increasing amount of bad behavior?
First of all I have to say that am happy that mass adoption of our beloved platform, Steemit, is taking place. No doubt Steemit is becoming more and more popular these days as for example @penguinpablo pointed out (whereby one should take into consideration that some users have more than one account as @freiheit50 hinted at).
Many new users are writing interesting stuff of very good quality. As one example amongst numerous I name @bikergirl's reports about her motorbike trips.
Increasing number of users = increasing amount of bad behavior?
Unfortunately where there is light, there is also shadow. I wonder if I am the only one who more and more often observes several kinds of bad behavior, which I think are really annoying? Some examples:
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Under my articles increasingly often I notice comments like "Vote for vote, follow for follow. If you follow me I will do the same." followed by a link to an article or blog. This is completely unrelated to the content of my article! I can only say upvote my article if you like it, otherwise just stay away (respectively in case you are interested in the topic, but disagree with my opinion, just let's discuss the content of the article in a friendly way).
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I even get more and more private messages (in steemit.chat) which ask me to upvote something first to get an upvote in return. Again: if you like my article, just upvote it ... I may upvote you in return (if I like what you write) but I won't sign any 'upvote-contract' with you. :-)
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By the way it seems that many newbies fear to lose anything if they upvote an article. They leave a comment like "Great pictures!" but don't 'find' the upvote button. Hey, you even get curation reward for upvoting articles ...! But please, don't complain that I "forgot" to upvote your comments if you 'forgot' to upvote my article. :)
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Recently I noticed a rather perky behaviour in the #postpromotion channel of Stemit Chat: one user claimed to upvote nearly everybody to get some 'upps' in return ... but it seems he didn't know there is https://steemdb.com/ ... he hadn't upvote anybody during the last few hours ...
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Well, there may be different opinions about general behavior and politeness but until now it never happened to me before that someone (a newbie as well) came to my 'wall' just to write a comment he didn't find my meme challenge entry funny (while the ones who had upvoted it were called "suck ups"). Of course there is no 'duty' to like my memes (it's a matter of taste as so many things) - but I myself would never make the effort to write negative comments under every article which isn't in accordance with my (subjective) expectations (not to upvote is enough) ...
- Last but not least the previously mentioned article of @penguinpablo had been copied, pasted and set up as 'own work' by a newbie ...
Don't get me wrong: Steemit still is by far the most pleasant place to meet friendly, polite, educated, creative and intelligent people online. Bad behavior like in the examples above is still not the rule but the exception. But I really hope it stays like that in future even if the number of users keeps growing.
And to all the newbies reading that: I really understand very well how urgent you are trying to get more attention for your articles. I agree that in many cases your rewards are much smaller than what you would deserve. If you go to the start of my blog you will see that most of my early texts stayed more or less unnoticed as well. It can be a long and sometimes frustrating way to finally get some reward for all the efforts. My advice is to patiently build your own follower base by ...
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... communicating with other users by commenting on their articles (in a friendly way). Best is not only to write "Nice post!", but to show real interest and discuss the content of the article. Also don't be too costive with your upvotes.
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... trying your best to write high quality articles. If for example I write about science I always list the sources at the end of the articles. If I show images of animals or plants I will deliver the scientific names (if possible). These are just two examples.
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... writing about things you are interested in (not about what you think people want to read). As an example I started to write about chess, even if I considered it to be a small niche. Amazingly my chess quizzes have been my most successful posts in the past.
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... investing some money to buy Steem if possible. You will not only benefit if the value of Steem increases but in addition your higher Steem power increases the influence of your votes and your curation reward. To invest into Steemit helps the platform to grow and the value of Steem to increase.
That's what I can tell you, but you may also ask members like @trafalgar, @timsaid or @sweetsssj, who are far more successful than me, for even better secret hints ... :-)
I wish you much success and all the best! But please abstain from the crude 'follow-me-then-I-will-follow-you' method. Believe me, there are better ways.
Very well said @jaki01. There are always two sides to a coin so this kind of behaviour is not unexpected. I believe steemit is a platform with a built in filter. I haven't been here long enough but I do see that these kind of Spammy posts and comments are effectively being ignored by genuine users. :)
You have nailed the behavior correctly, but I also believe that over a period of time they learn what the community is about and most of them change for the better.
Some people cannot be changed :D
Thanks for sharing and tips are very useful! Obviously I up-voted before commenting :)
I have noticed all of these in my posts.
The numerous amount of time people have begged for a "follow".
Not just here, but on Steem chat, spamming the rooms with "upvote, I upvoted you, you gotta upvote now!".
It's amazing that you wrote this!
I will post this link below "their" comments if I find something too inappropriate on my posts atleast!
Thanks a lot for the share @jaki01 <3
Upvoted!! :)
NOT only upvote: follow me then I will follow you, too - haha, just kidding! ;-)
you have a point!
some even say - if you like this post look at my post blah blah
on someone's post
pretty blatant these days
but don't worry I read an article about it
you know what they say - the evil will succeed but it would be short lived
I got a few of that follow me I'll follow you - which is very funny cause all of my posts have that post thecryptofiend authored about The Complete Steemit Etiquette Guide (Revision 2.0)
funny they commented on my post and never seen that?
Haha :P
Richtig guter Beitrag - Danke dir für die vielen Informationen :)
Of course people game the system if it is gameable - it is rational behaviour. All we can do - to keep updating the rules
Hm ... I get what you mean, but I am not convinced that this behavior is really rational. At a first glance it may be, but it damages reputation in the long term, so that the negative consequences, not only for the community as a whole (and thereby indirectly for every member), but also directly for these individuals, may outbalance the positive ones.
This is classic prisoner's dilemma from game theory - too often used though, as Godwin's law in political dicussions ;-) But it has solution - set of rules on protocol's level
You have written absolutely the right thing. Thanks for this post! I was faced with the same extortion of votes. It started recently(at least on my blog). It is very sad that the people in ways and methods are trying to move. The main thing - that this negative practice is not the beginning of its epidemic spread in large scale. Thank you and good luck @jaki01
I can only agree to what you say. Just collecting followers randomly is has no benefits anyway.
About the etiquette, I would say it could be much worse, concidering there is no real moderation carried out. May be that could become a issue when the site grows further. One problem I see in the flagging system. Or, rather in the lack of a system in it. Everybody can shot everybody else down at will (if I have understood this correctly), thats paradise for those who join cummunities only to piss people off. It may require some kind of "court" which decides if a flagging is justified, or was only a malicious act.
Yes, the flagging system is - to say the least - suboptimal. :)
I have been on STEEMIT for about 9 months. People (newbies) just have to be patient. Post quality content in both posts and comments, and wait it out just like everyone else who had to in the beginning. It's like a job you gotta start at the bottom rung. Steemit is not a get rich quick scam.
Thank you very much for this post. I have followed and upvoted, please do the same thing for me to help each other.
I call that 'sense of humour' ... :)
Hey, I just wanted to write the same. You stole my joke!
@jaki01 On a more serious note, you are absolutely right about this behaviour. I usually just ignore those comments...
I consider myself a newbie, but I also noticed that annoying behavior. The "funny" part is that if someone comes to my post and asks for following back/votes back and so on, it actually works the opposite way. I don't even look at the profile. I don't know when people will realize that it just doesn't work that way!
I also noticed some amount of stolen photographs without mentioning the source or author. First I didn't pay attention to it, as I thought people will not do that here. But no - there are users like that. And they have higher Reputation than me.
And lastly - I did enjoy your article but I am out of votes for now, so will not hit the button... just for now. Resteeming though to come back later :)