Types of Steemit Upvotes
As an manual curator, I have been trying to analyze why I upvote things. Was it a catchy title? A well written article? A good picture? I've been curious what attracts other people to vote on my posts too. I decided to put together a list of "types" of upvotes.
- The Impressed Vote: It was an amazing article; plain and simple.
- The Friend Vote: I like this person - upvote.
- The Business Decision: This post is going to get a lot more upvotes. I want my curation reward.
- The Dumb Bot Vote: Someone decided that everything this person posts is gold.
- The AI Bot Vote: Some program that is smarter than me decided this was a good post.
- The Pity Vote: This person really needs some upvotes.
- The Contribution Vote: This adds a lot of value to the platform.
- The Good Enough Vote: It wasn't amazing; but it wasn't bad either. "A" for effort.
- The They Earned It Vote: The person obviously did a good job and put a lot of effort into their article.
- The Entertainment Vote: The post was funny, creative, original, etc. It somehow made my day.
What do you think? What makes you press the upvote button?
I wish we had a vote like "You know what, I appreciate this post and the arguments you made, but I don't agree, so I'm choosing this option" vote, since sometimes I read stuff that I think are well argued, but I still don't agree, so I don't vote, because I don't want people to think that I agree.
But I can appreciate the writer's side of the story, still.
I knew it! I wasn't the only one that does that! LOL
I will admit - I have done the same :)
I think most of your points can be lumped into #7, because they all work to improve the community. I try to vote for posts which improve the community, which adds to the value of a steem token.
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What about the:
;)
Hehe, good ones :)
You forgot the "I like it but don't want my name associated with it" vote
the.masses vote
lol. I can relate to this one too.
This needs to exist!
@timcliff I think it's fair to say I curate alot and it's how I discovered your material. I suppose I have always made decisions based upon vote type #1 the impressed vote - Even when I was doing my own Hidden Gems Series.
The friends I have made here on Steemit seem to push out impressive content on a regular basis, so the friend vote doesn't even need to be a consideration. I have also been good about referring posts I think should have some more reward than I can give to places like Robinhood Whale and Curie because they can do more than I can for STEEM rewards.
Just from a personal level, I have never been a fan of voting bots simply because they overlook so many good posts which don't meet their programmed criteria.
Thanks @lpfaust. I still consider you one of the great Steemit curators! I enjoy hearing your thoughts on how you pick your gems :)
@timcliff, I appreciate the kind words.
I do have my punch list of things I look for, or more specifically, what I avoid or what I refuse to upvote under most circumstances.
For instance, in almost every case, I will not go near self-help posts. After sifting through so many of them, my impression is most self help posts have no unique viewpoint or unique insight which has not been covered in a previous article.
I have a host of other things in my punch list which comes from both my moderate success here as a writer and as a curator, but I think there is a "flow" to something that's written well. It generally doesn't matter what the topic is about. I was talking to @luzcypher about that a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned the same thing holds true in songwriting as well.
The good news is there are many more curators with a whole lot more STEEM power than I have who curate differently and it makes for a great ecosystem when it works properly.
And with thoughtful comments like this, I go to check you out...and wonder why I haven't followed you until this very moment. Now that that's been remedied, I agree. Most of the people I've followed regularly are putting out a significant amount of quality work - subjective, I know - but good enough for my voting standards. I curate between 30-50 posts a day usually leaving comments - and I rarely upvote "just because" they're in my feed. When it comes to music or art, my rule of thumb is... If I took your art or video away, am I still being entertained? If the answer is yes, they get an upvote.
@merej99 Thanks for the follow. I appreciate it.
I think curation is a subjective thing. From my side, I see each vote as reinforcing the direction of where I think the ecosystem should go with its content. Realistically, Steemit cannot be everything to everyone - it needs a niche. Others have a different viewpoint and may think I am being too serious about how I use my vote considering it's only worth a few cents relative to a whale who could, with one upvote or downvote, make me irrelevant. I think as time goes on and power distributes more, eventually things change.
What I think is an incredible positive for the ecosystem is the increasing number of smaller guilds and voting interests (such as @Better, @VoteInterestGuild, @Steemplus, @Steemprentice, etc.) and which are looking at undervalued posts to fill in the gaps where larger guilds like Steem Guild, Curie and Robinhood Whale cannot. The determination of undervalue is generally based upon rewards and nummber of votes, so my votes would make a difference in that equation.
Every once in a while I wonder what kind of difference a few manual/organic curators could do if we got together for a scavenger hunt searching for undervalued posts, newbies, and general quality posts - kind of make a game out of it and make it fun.
There are days when curating feels like a burden. I know I'm still only a minnow but I feel like I've adopted a sense of responsibility in voting for quality and mentoring newcomers. Sometimes a day of fun and challenging one another sounds like the right kind of medicine.
@the.masses likes it's STEEM powered... it works better powered ;)
I usually upvote the people I follow! You got my upvote! And my reasons for upvoteing re all of the above! LOL! STEEM ON!♨ 👍♨
Thanks @karenmckersie!
When I'm hungry, I upvote food pics.
I don't do numbers 4 or 5. But all the rest? Yep, that describes me. Steemsports is an easy one for number 3. What gets you to upvote comments? When I first came into Steemit, comments were worth something. Now, not so much. Do you curate comments at all?
A little bit, although not very much. If it is an interesting community discussion post (like the recent economy changes) I usually read through all the comments there and upvote. I also always curate comments of my own posts of course. For a lot of posts though, I often stop after reading the post.
That's interesting. I think I spend too much time in the comments, I guess. I figure comments create the connections between people and build community. And that's what keeps people on a social platform.
Comments are definitely important :) Posting and hanging out in Steemit chat groups are good ways too. As far as actually earning SP, I think writing your own posts is the best way to quickly accumulate.
I better get busy!