Why @SumatraNate Upvotes A Post After Leaving A Comment
Authentic engagement is an important part of the Steemit platform and community. As we engage other members of our community we have the opportunity to support other people, their families, and their online businesses.
Two of the easiest ways to support someone is by writing authentic comments and giving upvotes. In this post, I will make an argument that the combination of comments and upvotes is one of the best ways for:
- Content consumers to support content creators
- Content creators to support their followers
Comments
Comments are a very important part of the Steemit community, and I am very thankful for the people who put in the time and effort to write engaging and added-value comments. To show my appreciation I try to reply to and upvote your comments.
In regards to writing comments on other peoples' posts, I am of the opinion that if you cannot leave an engaging comment or added-value comment, it is better not to write anything at all.
Writing comments seems like a simple concept, but not all comments are created equal.
Negative Comments
In a community like Steemit, we must realize that we will not always see eye-to-eye with other Steemians. Comments are a way for us to express our dislike or distrust for a Steemit post. Comments also allow other people to express their concerns about what we write.
Spam Comments
It is very disheartening but sometimes people write self-serving comments that have not relevance to the message of a post. Examples include ...
- follow for follow
- upvote for upvote
- "Great article! I really liked it."
- any other type of generic response that does not prove the post was read
Engaging Comments
An engaging comment proves that the reader actually read the post. This type of proof tends to be in the form of a ...
- a summary statement
- a reference to a specific line of the post
- answering a question in the post
- a followup question about something that was not understood
Added-Value Comments
Sometimes someone will leave a comment that adds extreme value to the original post. The writer of the comment is not trying to take over the post, but rather support the message of the content creator. This usually happens when a subject matter expert writes a comment. On the other hand, an added-value comment could be in opposition to the message of the original post. In this case, the writer of the comment is trying to give an alternative opinion or view of the topic being discussed.Upvotes
If comments are emotional support, then upvotes are financial support. But I like to think that a holistic approach is best.
Because of time restraints, I may upvote your post or comment without leaving a comment or reply.
There are people that I follow that always produce quality content, so I try to reward them even when I cannot leave an engaging comment. Do I want to leave a comment as well? YES! But I am not always able to do so, and I do not want my Voting Power to be wasted.
But if I write an engaging comment on your post, I know that you deserve my upvote as well.
Leaving a comment without an upvote is sometimes necessary, but in my opinion should be a rare occurrence. When we comment on someone's post but do not upvote, we are communicating with the content creator that we want to receive but we are not willing to give.
Final Thoughts
Engagement is so important in our community. Be sure that you are taking steps to honor both the people who you follow and the people who are following you. Make sure that you take the blessings you have received and find ways to bless other people as well.
I want to hear from you now.
- How do you feel when someone spams your post?
- How do you feel when someone writes a comment but did not upvote your post?
- Do you have a holistic comment and voting approach?
Thanks in advance. As always I will try to reply back to your comments.
@SumatraNate
Image Source: https://pixabay.com/en/personal-collective-hexagon-group-3285993/
I find the comment section on someone else’s article the best place to grow your reputation score when you are a minnow.
I have always appreciated how you honor the people who write comments on your posts. I am one of those beneficiaries. Your example has shaped my Steemit journey in so many ways.
Appreciate you!
Thank you @sumatranate, I love to read your articles. Your writing is excellent and your articles are always helpful and thoughtful. You increase the value of our blogging platform. I always giggle when someone tells me I've helped them, all I did was enjoy our conversation. I wish more people engaged me the way you do @samatranate, we always have fun! Most of the time all I get is "great post "and "I love your pictures," in my comment section....that's not a great way to increase one's rep level!
I am glad that you have enjoyed our conversations as much as I have. And thank you for the kind and encouraging words. Have a blessed day!
I ignore spam on my post. I do not like it when someone writes a comment without upvoting my post. It feels not good.
So I'm trying to upvote always when I leave a comment. Sometimes, when the post is not so good or I disagree with the content, than I'm commenting without upvoting.
Thanks for adding to the conversation. I usually ignore spam too. If I see that a new user spamming my post, I try to give some advice so that he or she will stop spamming.
I agree that sometimes we need to write and comment and not upvote. For me, this happens when I disagree with the topic of a post or when someone is acting bad towards another person.
I think this is generally a great method of operating for interactions on Steemit. I almost always practice the same strategy. I enjoyed this post, so I'll answer your questions.
There are several types of spam. First, there's the new user who has no idea what's going on. They may or may not speak English, so you'll end up with some "nice post" or "upvote pls" comments. Those are just annoying, but don't ever solicit a flag from me unless I see a malicious pattern. I try to comment back and guide them in the right direction, i.e. point them to posts like this one that show them what they should be doing. Then there are the scammer spammers. Take a look at my most recent blog post. I had someone drop a phishing link about a minute after the post was shared. Clearly not a real person, so I was a bit more angry about that one, which you'll see in my reply. That type of spam does get a flag from me.
As far as commenting without upvoting, I personally don't have an issue with it, especially if it's a new user, and most definitely if they've taken the time to thoughtfully comment. I can understand that many people don't have enough VP to spread around to all of the posts they want to vote on, and I encourage people to just go comment even if you can't vote, so I like to support that.
I nearly always vote on posts that I comment on. If someone has written a post that's comment-worthy from me, I feel like I owe them a vote. I'm fortunate that my SP can support many votes per day, so I always vote even if my voting power is low. It's good to know that you do the same. I like to give value to posts, and I also enjoy giving value to comments. I almost always upvote every engaging and thoughtful comment that is left on one of my blogs. I think it's a good practice that more people should embrace!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It's good to know how other Steemians approach these issues.
I do like methods and patterns, but it is important to stay open about outlining factors that we may not see at this moment.
Appreciate your thoughts!
Sometimes there will be spam but since people have started leaving really (and I mean really really) long and meaningful comments, I consider myself blessed. A lot of the comments under my posts are longer than some posts on steemit. :) This makes me incredibly happy and I definitely do not mind when someone comments without an upvote. It is not that I do not like money, I DO, and it does give great pleasure to see my post-payout good, the number of upvotes is a good thing too. For example, I have a post with 83 upvotes so far and 15 comments that are just incredible and even though the pay-out says only $2.21 my heart is in the right place.
We need both, emotional support, and the financial support that you mentioned, but since we are emotional beings, I just need to say that I do appreciate an upvote WITH a comment more than just an upvote :)
You bring up some good points.
Thanks for adding to the conversation. Congrats on the progress you have made and the community you are building.
Your guide that you have laid out here is pretty much the same as I follow for myself with regard to commenting and up voting comments.
Spamming of the posts gets me aggravated, but I have found that in a lot of cases it is people who are not proficient in English and have used a translation service to read the post, then reply with a short 3 word English comment to show approval. I have actually communicated back to them in their native language using google translation and ended up having quite a conversation.
This is the exception and not the norm, but a learning lesson none the less for both them and myself.
I really don't have an issue with comments being written without an up vote being given. I more interested in what people have to say than what they have to offer in terms of monetary rewards to my posts.
'have used a translation service to read the post, then reply with a short 3 word English comment to show approval'
I like your idea, I didn't think of that. I had some guy send me a Russian response a few days ago. It might have freaked him out if I had retorted in his own language!
I have used it with a couple people from Brasil and one from Poland. Sometime you have to work at what words you use, because not all words will translate, so it takes some time to get it proper.
I appreciate your perspective about non-English speaking Steemit users. I lived overseas for more than 10 years so I can understand how hard it is to communicate in another language.
It is great that you have taken the opportunity to communicate to others in the langauge that speaks to their heart. Thanks for showing that example.
I believe you've described the ideal way that most interactions should go on this website. :)
Should somebody find a post that they find comment worthy, they should comment upon it and upvote it. One hard part is finding posts to comment upon when you have limited time to search.
Unfortunately so many people don't understand how this exchange could help them, and instead put very little work into their comments.
Thank you for writing so eloquently about this.
I dislike spammers, have been lucky and only 1 has commented on my posts.
At this point my vote is worth so little that an upvote from me is almost nothing. So I understand if somebody small like me would want to comment but not upvote.
My Approach is to upvote and then post a comment. I always try to comment about something in the post that caught my fancy and why. Sometimes I don't have a lot of time and cant go into detail unfortunately.
I will admit that I will often read a post and enjoy it but when I choose to go to upvote on it, I see that it already has more value in that one post than my entire two months here have accrued for me. So I just don't bother. Instead I like to look for the interesting posts with almost no likes or views and reward those folks for their effort.
You bring up some great points:
Thanks for stopping by.
I like the descriptor Social Capital, that's exactly what we are all trying to build here. A place that values our comments and where we can receive worthwhile comments during our interactions
If someone writes a comment under my post and doesn't upvote it I feel a bit betrayed. I almost always upvote comments under my post and write a quick repley... To me it's like someone is trying to scam me! I then go to their profile and check how many comments they made under other posts. Some people leave "Good Post!, I like it!" comments under 100 posts a day...
I understand how you feel. It is good that we can investigate how other users behave. That way we know if someone is spamming or just a new user who does not know how to interact with the community.
Thanks for adding your input to the conversation.
@ sumatranate I can see you care about your post and all the comments. You have taken the time to respond to all but the latest.
I do get a little miffed if someone comments but doesn't up-vote the post, after all you have put in some work to create it.
We cant change peoples perspectives on this but we can pick and choose who we follow based on content first and behaviour second or more likely both.
Just my opinion. I have recently done an article similar to yours along the same lines. I guess we think the same.
I think that your perspective is a good one. Steemit is interesting because it allows us to reward good content and good interaction. For me, the sweet spot is when someone provides both well.
And my desire is to do the same. Glad to know that other people are on the same path as well. Thanks for stopping by.
This was a really great post. I wrote one a while ago about how to craft a good comment. Yours was much more in-depth here, but what I like is that you talked about engagement. One of the points I had made before was try to ask a question in your comment. It will start a conversation and build that relationship/connection. It also shows that you read the post. Thanks for writing this up, I am going to reference it when people ask how to comment well.
Hey @bozz, thanks for stopping by. I am excited to hear that other people are writing about and grappling with the idea of engaging comments. I believe that is good for our community.
Relationships are key. We have to keep focusing on building those relationships. Have a blessed day. See you around.