Hello Steemit peeps! I thought I would take a moment and give my “2 cents” on a topic – commenting.
When I make a post on my Steemit blog, I am very excited to get comments on my posts, hoping to get some insight into what my followers think of my content. The more followers I get, the more comments I have been getting on my posts – which is (mostly) good! But not all comments are equal. I thought I would break down the different types of comments to give you an idea of what I am talking about.
The “Copycat” Comment:
This comment usually is a plagiarized comment – usually copying the highest voted comment on the post (but not always.) Some of these comments are simply copy/pasted, while others cleverly attempt to disguise their comment by changing out a few words. Either way, they are always unoriginal, and do not get my upvote.
The “Highschool Essay” Comment
This comment gets its name from the mindset used to create it. These comments try to camouflage the fact that the commenter didn’t actually read the post by either using the information in either the title, tags, or last sentence of the post to create the body of the comment. For instance: A post titled “The Silence” could get a response such as “Yes, quiet time is very important I totally agree.” (Even though it is a short story about embracing life’s noise). These type of comments always make me stop and go “Hugh?” before not leaving an upvote.
The "WTF" Comment
This type of comment has absolutely nothing to do with the content in the post. You have to wonder what dimension they rolled in from before writing this one. While these are almost worth an upvote purely due to the shocking humor factor, they are still best to not upvote.
The “Basic” Comment – Also known as the “One-Size-Fits-All” Comment
These comments usually are, well.. basic. Examples of these types are:
“Good Post!”
“Awesome!”
“Upvoted, followed, & resteemed”
“Very interesting!”
“Nice!”
“Great one!”
“Really Good!”
“Thanks for sharing!”
“I learned a lot”
“Wow!”
“Amazing post!”
…and the list goes on and on. These comments can sometimes come from good commenters who use these only on occasion, but much of the time are used by those hoping to get a nice upvote for each of the 65 comments they left on different posts in the last 2 minutes. It is often good to check these commenters' profiles to see how many comments they make in a short amount of time (and how many are the same comment). If they are simply basic, no upvote needed!
The “Ulterior Motive” Comment
These are usually “Basic” comments with the addition of “Check out my post” or “Follow Me” attached to the end. These hopeful comments usually are never genuine as their only purpose is to attract others to their own blog. These comments never get my upvote.
The “Broken Record” Comments
Played on repeat, these comments simply repeat again and again and again and again and again on each one of your posts. Like a broken record, after hearing (or reading) the same thing over and over again, they start to lose their sincerity and don’t get my upvote.
The “Personalized” Comment
For no reason at all, these comments will tag the poster in an attempt to personalize the comment and hopefully make their comment stand out above the rest. These comments are not always bad, but sometimes are used as a tactic just to get attention. It is pretty easy to tell the use of the tag, and if it is just attention seeking, no upvote is given.
The “Visual” Comment
These comments usually consist of memes or gifs. Sometimes they fit the post and deserve a nice upvote, but many times are used as a distraction from the fact that they did not actually read the post. If they aren't related to the topic at hand, they do not get an upvote.
The “Genuine” Comment
These comments tell me that the commenter read the post. Usually these comments are longer than three words – most often a sentence or two! They have no ulterior motives and don’t use really any of the sly tactics above to earn an upvote. They are genuine comments showing genuine interest in the post, and because of this, they deserve a nice upvote.
I know I am not covering all types of comments, but this list should get you thinking - what type of comments do you give? For the post creators out there: do you upvote every comment? Or do you look for some clue that each comment was placed by the commenter for a reason larger than gaining upvotes/followers. I think it is important to tell the difference between these comments to discourage the excessive amount of fake comments, and to reward the genuine ones. Let’s reward the real comments that add value to our posts! 😊
Thanks so much to those of you that read my post! :)
