Flori aptly suggested a new topic for the contest because just yesterday, one author in the Ukrainian community put forward their own pseudoscientific theory, claiming that those who comment the most on Steemit become favorites of the Steemit Egregor and receive additional energy from it, while the others have their energy drained by the egregor, which is why they feel weak! :-D

Natalia and I had a good laugh about this, and I created a meme-post with mandalas for the Steemit Egregor, as well as a series of meme-like images with monks (perhaps the joke isn’t entirely clear to readers from other countries. In the writer Gogol's story "Viy," a monk had to "perform a rite" over a dead Ukrainian witch at night, and he was attacked by an evil force. He drew a protective circle around himself with consecrated chalk).

Despite the comedy of the meme, agree that sometimes we really have to defend ourselves from certain commenters on social media, our haters, almost with holy water and incense. But I believe that even haters are a great resource for a blogger. So, I’ll start the first point with this.

Commentators can write different things, but much depends on the author’s reaction

I’ll give a vivid example. On my first YouTube channel, I was doing voiceovers for audiobooks with my own voice. Once, a man wrote in the comments: "You could fall asleep to this monotonous voice!!!" I was in a good mood and replied humorously: "Great. Then listen to it before bed." That man disappeared for a while, and late in the evening, I received a notification... that he had subscribed to my channel! :-D

So, we should try to respond friendly even to criticism. If you manage to do this, eventually those who criticized you might become your best followers, and you won’t need to draw protective circles around yourself with chalk.

The best comments are those that usefully complement the material (with things the author didn’t mention)

We all love comments that praise us: "Great post!" or "You’re the best author I’ve read this week!" Such comments flatter our ego and motivate us to keep working even better. However, I value the comments that complement and expand the material on its topic the most.

For example, if I said that water can exist in gaseous and liquid states, and someone adds in the comments that water can also exist in a solid state (ice) — that’s a useful comment because it will be helpful to the readers of the post, not just the author’s ego.

There are different ways to write such an addition. It can be done rudely, or it can be done politely and correctly. Any normal author will take it well if they’re corrected politely and without offense.

Good comments encourage further dialogue

Such comments leave room for discussion, not for argument, but for unfolding and expanding the topic.

With the best commentators, you can feel a true emotional connection and even a positive energy exchange. It’s like walking down the street, and a beautiful woman smiles at you, and you smile back. It charges you positively! In the end, we all value not just dry intellectuality but the presence of this emotional component. So even if at that very moment you don’t have anything “super smart” to say on the topic, try at least to make your comment emotionally positive. We might forget exactly what people wrote in the comments, but we’ll remember the emotions they evoked in us.

Off-topic. Continuing yesterday's joke about the negative superstitions of some authors: a mandala for attracting more friendly commentators to your blog. Meditate for 30 seconds, staring at this mandala, and imagine people coming to you first in tens, then in hundreds, commenting, commenting, commenting.

✍ Bogdan Karasіov, Ukraine, January 12, 2025.

• Beneficiary 10% for @teamvenezuela

Topicstarter: @inspiration Concurso: ¿Te gusta comentar?.

I invite:

• @diodao
• @oksanavidma
• @darina14

P.s. В першому коменті мій оригінал цього поста українською.

P.s.2 Неповторна diodao, якщо ти візьмеш участь у конкурсі, хочеш я вгадаю з одного разу, кого ти в свою чергу запросиш?