How Not to Comment on Steemit - 7 Things You Should Stop Doing to Avoid Being Flagged!

ilyastarar (64) in steemiteducation • 7 years ago (edited)

It is very sad to see people not realizing what an opportunity they have with Steemit and what they can accomplish with little more effort. I believe in bringing positive change through education and majority of my content is an evidence to that effect. However, it makes me feel sorry to see so much stupidity still surviving despite all the educational efforts by the likes of @jerrybanfield, @teamsteem, @donkeypong, @dragosroua, @inquiringtimes and many more people. You should follow these people if you don't already!

Image designed via Canva.com and background image is free to use from the inbuilt gallery.

When you do stupid things, you invite trouble. Being flagged is the ultimate trouble. If you don't know, a flag is a downvote. Just like an upvote gives you reward and reputation, a downvote takes both of them away from you. Do you want that? I am listing, from my continuous observation and experience on Steemit, the seven things which lead to you being flagged. You should stop doing these things immediately!

Note:- I apologize for use of screenshots containing bad comments. This post is educational work and does not mean to ridicule anyone.

1. Stupid Comments

You can call them bad comments, spam or whatever. But I choose to call them stupid comments because at the end of the day, they accomplish nothing for their authors. In fact, the sight of a stupid comment make me move the cursor to that tiny flag and make it red. Here are some examples of stupid comments.

Nice post.
I like you post.
Good job.
Excellent work.

The problem with this type of comments is that they do not add any value to the discussion. The author of the post cannot really judge if you have read the post or not. I can write nice post on 500 posts per day. But I won't do that because I know I will be flagged for at least 200 times.

This is a stupid comment on my post celebrating 3000 followers.

2. Commenting Without Reading a Post

This is criminal in my opinion. If it's a vlog post, commenting without watching it would be equally criminal. Do not, I repeat, do not comment without reading a post. I almost immediately recognize comments which have been done without reading the post and I happily flag them. Upon further inspection, I find series of violations listed in this post and ultimately report to Steem Cleaners.

One of the easiest ways to find out if a comment has been done without reading the post is to see the time difference between post and that comment. Most of the stupid comments are done right after a post is published. The one I shared in above screenshot was one such comment.

3. Asking for Upvotes

If you have voted for someone, by all means let the person know that you have given your upvote. But never ask them to vote you back. Vote for vote is a stupid idea. You don't really need to ask for votes in the comments. You just need to write a great comment with or without the mention of your upvote. It will be read you will most probably get a vote on that comment.

I'm not sure if she understood that she was flagged.

But when your total concern is to ask for an upvote, you do a stupid comment without reading the post; just like the account shown above. It makes one comment culprit of three violations. Do not do that. You will almost certainly be flagged.

4. Offering Follow for Follow in Comments

I have shared in detail why follow for follow sucks. You need to understand Steemit properly. May be go through the very basic FAQ I created for absolute beginners. If you are just beginning on Steemit, you do not have anything to offer except value through your content. If you ask me or any established Steemian to follow you, what do you think we will gain from following you?

Do not be stupid. Learn and accept the fact that you need to improve a lot before people may start following you. I have 3000 followers but I never asked anyone to follow for follow. Learn the recipe of how to gain a good following which I shared in my celebration post yesterday.

5. Copy Pasting Generic Comments on Multiple Posts

If you think that people with a lot of Steemit experience are stupid enough not to see what you are doing, you are mistaken. On countless occasions, people posting a generic looking comment on multiple popular posts have been caught and flagged.

You should not try to bluff anyone. Copy pasting comments invite flags from Steem Cleaners and Cheetah bot. You may get blacklisted and downvoted on every post and comment forever if you do not learn your lessons.

6. Self Voting Stupid Comments

On my guide on 9 ways to choose a niche, one guy wrote hmmm and it got a big vote. I checked who had voted it and it was another account. Then I checked the comments tab on the voted account and found a similar pattern. Here is what happened.

The rewards were cancelled out with flags and the sponsoring account was reported. I am very much dedicated to keep Steemit clean with my educational efforts (such as this post) but I will not be shy to use my voting power to flag what deserves to be flagged. Self voting stupid comments is inviting trouble. Do not do that!

7. Publishing Irrelevant Comments

Just to be clear, all the cases discussed before result in irrelevant comments as well. If you do not read a post, do not try to understand what it delivers and do not take the time to write a beautiful comment, all you can do is to post irrelevant comments.

If the post is about cryptocurrency, you should not comment about variety of apples. Simply, read the post and write what you think about it. Give feedback. Ask questions about it. If an author finds your comment irrelevant, he or she will ignore it or, even worse, flag it.

Resources to Consult

Here some good resources that you can read on the art and spirit of commenting. You can find my guide to commenting in the list of guides below.

Conclusion

Learn. Educate yourself. You need to deliver some value to receive some. Nobody cares about what you need; an upvote or a follow. What people care about is what you think about their content and what it brings to you. Help them know how good their content is or what improvement it needs and they will happily upvote your comments. Do the stupid things listed in this post and you will be flagged. Here are the seven things you should take away from this post.

Do not do stupid comments!
Do not comment without reading the posts!
Do not ask for upvotes in the comments!
Do not ask for follow!
Do not copy paste comments!
Do not self vote stupid comments!
Do not post irrelevant comments!

Supporting this post with your resteems and upvotes will help the education spread as well as encourage me to keep doing such efforts. You can use this very post to apply the knowledge contained in this post effectively. I am waiting for your beautiful comments!

Divider Image Credits: @kristyglas. More in this post.

As a standard feature of all my posts, I am listing all my previous work to help people find the required information or guidance. As I write more and update the previous work to add more value, the list will keep evolving. Feel free to share with people who need it; especially new members.

Newbie Guides

Steem Guides

Steemit Tips & Advice

Advanced Understanding of Steemit

Steem Ecosystem Guides (Services Empowering Steemians)

Steem on!

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7 years ago by ilyastarar (64)

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cryptokraze (72) · 7 years ago

This is one more step by you to guide new steemians to be on proper way. I am also seeing many new users just posting without sense. They might be mis guided about steemit.

I am sharing this guide to my students and it will literally help them a lot.

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4 votes

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eurogee (65) · 7 years ago

Teachers teacher @ilyastarar sir,

I have been an ardent instructor of objective commenting since my early days on Steemit, and have read a good number of informative articles on various aspects of Steemit social capital program but I must admit that in all; "this piece is most exceptional!. You captured A to Z of what people must do if they hope to make any headway on Steemit in this awesome article. And I myself, really learnt a lot here.

I think Everyone must be availed the opportunity of reading this, and future informative articles from you. Hence, I am not gonna only RESTEEM this, I will also FOLLOW you.

Thanks for sharing this awesome piece.

@eurogee of @euronation community & The Host, Show Us Your Witnesses Weekly Contest

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2 votes

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biyanoor (50) · 7 years ago

Thank you so much ilyastarar for this good shoot.. Being a pakistani i am proud of you as you are doing good here specially for newbies.. Actually i joined steemit after reading your post and guide you posted in our group on facebook.. That time i read your posts and that are really helpful for people like me.. Few days ago i withdrw as an experiment by reading your post and it was quite easy.. Thanx for this support
You are quite right.. Its so annoying when i saw someone saying its nice or awsome after my hard work of 5 or 6 hours.. And also feel bad when they asked for an upvote.. In start i read an article in which some steemian was trying to teach commenting to others in a way of begging at least i feel it like begging.. I neva do it never and without it i am doing good.. And i am doing pretty good here as i am sharing my own original work and thanx to allah almighty that He is removing all hurdels..
But another issue i faced.. Once i downvoted and it was really bad experience.. When i joined i saw haejin post in trending so i start following him but i neva comment him.. Few days ago i saw his post in my feed i read it and it was infrmative i made a comment good comment.. After some time i saw many ppl downvoted all comments on haejin post.. 5 or 6 ppl downvoted my commment and then i come to know that there was some issue with haejin posts..
I removed the comment but it really dishearted me as i never did any wrong thing here.. And being a newbie i was unaware any issue or matter with haejin posts and downvoters..
Thanx god they only downvoted my comment..
But i thought many times that there should be a system where newbies should be informed about such things so they wont be discourage here.. Anyways you again did goid work for bewbies as your post ll teach them that how can they protect themselves from flagging

$0.21

4 votes

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ilyastarar (64) · 7 years ago

I appreciate your efforts to be original. I am also happy that my initial guide helped you. I am also happy that you left bad advice and started doing the right things. Also, I need to talk to you. Please reach me on discord, or facebook.

Haejin posts became flag-war zones. I stayed away from the whole mess despite having a strong opinion against some people involved. It's none of our business because of the low SP we have. It's better to communicate with people who are not controversial.

Please keep doing the good work. If you need any help, you can reach me via comments, doscord or facebook. I do not hesitate in helping people who are willing to work hard.

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biyanoor (50) · 7 years ago

Thank you.. I know your fb id.. I add you there..

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