Rewarding someone for their time
I stumbled upon this video today which I found explained really well about a certain scenario in the dating world. This might be something that refers to American culture more than European, but I'm sure its not completely excluded. A person in the audience asks the speaker at what point in time during dating should the woman start paying for her part of dinner. The way she phrased the question and the timeline she had in mind made me as baffled as the speaker, but I really liked his response and it reminded me of an aspect here on Steem as well that I wanted to talk about.
Here is the video, taken from the speakers youtube channel, Matthew Hussey.
My time is worth more than yours so you should pay for it. I wonder what paradigm that sets up?
I'm sure this is something that many of you have been familiar with at some point in your life. There is often a sense of entitlement that grows from one side of the relationship and they get used to having the other pay and take it for granted.
I'm not really the dating expert myself and I believe the speaker nailed it pretty well, but there is one thing I've noticed on the platform that bugs me from time to time that I wanted to discuss.
When I write posts, I often try my best to read through most of the comments. I see this as people taking time out of their day and browsing experience to go ahead and comment on a post of mine, share their thoughts, raise interactivity and discussion and most importantly prove to me that they have read the post. Not only does this filter them from the users trying to spam in hopes for rewards, but it also sets an example to many other commentators that this is how things should be and that they should adapt if they want to possibly earn rewards, else they will have just wasted their own time and that of the person who has written the post who has to read the comment that is completely unrelated to it.
Similar to in the video, if you're Steem Power isn't that high or your voting power is depleted. It doesn't matter if you aren't able to reward all comments as much as you'd like, its the gesture that's most important. Replying to comments and continuing the discussion leads to a healthy post, platform and userbase in my opinion. Not only is it in your own interest that the post gets a lot of interactivity since there might be an algorithm that determines it being "hot" or "trending" on some platforms due to it (not sure if that has any effect on Steemit yet) but it also shows that you aren't just taking your followers and commentators for granted. There are many authors I stumble on daily who come in, write their post and just leave for the day never to return to the countless of people commentating on it. It shows that they either don't care, only care about the rewards or really don't bother cause they think much higher of themselves than the users commentating.
Of course there is a difference from author to author, many might be posting content on many different sites at the same time or really are that busy that they can't reply to all the comments. Reading doesn't take as much time though, and the gesture of even rewarding someone with 0.01 $D goes a much longer way than completely ignoring most. Especially on this revolutionary platform that makes it possible to reward your followers and commentators with monetary value. Showing them that you've read and appreciated their input is very important, not only for their Steemit experience but also for your own since it won't discourage them from posting on content in the future again.
There are of course exceptions, if you write a killer post that gets hundreds of lengthy comments on it, no one will be get annoyed at you not being able to get to all of them. If its something that continuously remains the same way though, you as a commentator should not encourage that kind of behavior and move on cause that author might not appreciate it in the same way as others do and especially on a social media platform it shouldn't be accepted.
Thanks for reading, as always I really appreciate your discussions and comments to my posts, even if interaction might not interfere with trending algorithms here yet. :)
Your gesture in this post was spot on. This is how I live my life and what I look for in others. I'm hopeful that others who respect your platform and contributions can learn from this. This is the exact type of material I wish some in the upper ranks could be reminded of because a good portion of Steemians below seem to inherently behave this way (teammates), so let's have this mindset continue to surge upward. It doesn't feel great to be publicly mocked for a small upvote not being worth their time, but what else can we do??
Thank you. Take my full contribution!
Hello @acidyo
Hows it going? I really like the video you posted, can totally relate to it. In fact I haven't dated in four years. Partly due to some of the stuff talked about in the video.
That being said, I hole heartly agree with your assessment on steemit so far. One of the main reasons I became so interested in the platform was because of the idea that followers could be rewarded for being an active and thoughtful participant. Coming from YouTube and other platforms, you don't get that opportunity. One thing I miss most about YouTube was the community aspect, sure its still there, but it used to be more open and now its more exclusive. Steemit is amazing and I hope it continues to grow in a positive way.
Yeah, Everyone's Time is very important! If someone is writing a post in 15 minutes, maybe 30 or more. So obviously wants feedback from the readers and he wants to know how the readers think about what he has posted. And A good writer always gives value to his reader because they give their value able time to read and comment the post and he tries to create interaction between himself and the readers. And the money does not matter for this kind of writers, especially on steemit.
But unfortunately, Steemit has become money making platform most of the people are here to just earn money For example as you told people who have less steem power make spamming comments to earn easy money and the people with high steem power post, upvote himself and come back after two days they do not care about other they just care about money. So we just need to change this trend. And should give value to each other so that steemit can be better paltform every one
Thankfully the distribution of Steem is still ongoing and the better users can reward it among those they feel deserve it to change the platform for the better!
Thanks for your comment.
My Pleasure Sir!
So I just joined steemit yesterday and I spend the whole afternoon proudly writing my very first post. I expected my post would disappear into the many posts that are published every day. But I wake up today to people really engaging with my story, even people taking the time to tell their story in a comment, insane! And eventho I "only" made a dollar, I feel like it's my proudest earned dollar of my life! It just warms my heart people on this platform are honestly engaged.
So yes I totally agree with you: "its the gesture that's most important".
And of course they will be free-riders who are just in it for the money, they always are... But don't we have the power on this platform to identify these free-riders and make them worth nothing?
great post, great comparison!
Nice article. It runs parallel to something I've been doing as a newb on Stemit: using comments as a way to meet others and advance conversations. I've actually gotten more Steem rewards from my comments than my posts. LOL. Oh well, I gotta figure out more popular topics I guess.
@terenceplizga I am glad you are on STEEMIT and I know that your Content will get valuable feedback and UP Votes.
Hey @stokjockey, thanks for the encouragement! I really appreciate that. :)
This was the case for me too for a good few months. Don't worry you are doing it right and it's a promising sign!
Thanks, @abh12345. Very kind of you. :)
I don't know what kind of people just ignore people when they are tried to be reached on their posts, because whenever I get comments from from any, new or old friends, I always get excited. Sure, posting and just earning the rewards is a one way to go but doesn't that get a bit lonely after a while?
I always feel compelled when I've been read instead of me talking only to the wall on a block in the chain.
PS. giving a tip for a comment is an excellent way to show it has been read if one doesn't know how to/doesn't have time for an answer. I've done similar thing also; Letting the commenter know he has been noticed goes much further than leaving one in uncertainty.
Fully agree with the last point, although I still try to go back later and add a small comment too!
Sure, commenting is always the best!
The speaker totally nails it. I would never expect to pay for it all the time or even more than half!
The contents thing is something that has always bugged me slightly. You see that exact scenario, someone comes on, posts and leaves. They are just wanting the rewards. They forget about the engagement, the social aspect of it all and it does take their voters for granted. You can't visit the blogs of everyone who comments but you can respond to allow that you have read and appreciate their input.
Engagement is key , if people don't express their thoughts or views about your idea then what's really the point ? I see it happen here all the time , the posts in the trending page , the author barely replies to their comments
I've shamed authors for that recently, probably my biggest dislike is a total lack of a response to comments on a high payout post.
Its not gaming the system that hacks me off, it's disrespect and laziness!
@acidyo you just wrote a posting that is exactly the way I feel about people on STEEMIT that don't engage with their commenters. I feel BEST when I take the time to engage and reply and UP Vote those that take their time to comment. Consistency rewards those who engage..............
I agree with you sir. And I think everyone will agree on that statement.. this is also migjt be the reason that I upvoted this comment like robert did. :) jk
@janver06 and I Thank You for voting also for seeing how important that it is to be active with people that support your commentary......
I try to order each comment on my post by power of upvote.
It's almost like a game, until someone comes along and self-votes themselves to the top!
I completely agree with you. Be it 0.01 upvotes or a small comment it definitely counts. People that can realize that will build a solid foundation of followers. Being a huge Whale does not matter if there is no small fish keeping the ecosystem going that's why everyone on Steemit is important.