STEEM SCHOOL EP 1 - HOW TO WRITE GREATS COMMENTS TO GAIN FOLLOWERS & UPVOTES!
Today I show you how to write awesome comments that will probably get you upvotes and followers!
About "Steem School": This is something I am doing to spread the knowledge that I gathered here after publishing 2 posts per day for 100 days in a row and studying Steem for 10-20 minutes per day.
I always say to share what you have learned with other people to repay the support they have given you to climb the ranks.
Special thanks to these supporters & friends: @Hopehuggs, @Humanearl, @DawnSheRee, @Eonwarped, @HeimInDanger & @Snook. Without you guys, I wouldn't be where I am today!
Also: I would like to hear feedback from you guys to improve Steem School! Let's get started with today's topic!
How to Write Epic Comments!
Writings good comments that have a high chance of getting upvoted is easy but it takes sometimes!
First of all, you have to read the whole article & only then you should start writing your comment.
You have to relate to the post, nobody likes to read generalized comments on his posts! Do that by taking some sentences of the post and answer them for example!
Or share your opinion about the post (don't disagree with the author, almost nobody gives you upvotes for that!).
Write about 3-4 lines and use markdown aka use bold on certain highlights of your post! Add pictures, videos or gifs to your comment to make it stand out even more!
Now you have written a comment related to the post that is not short, you highlighted important words or sentences and you added videos, gifs or pictures to your content.
You also didn't disagree with the author and you didn't write anything offensive. Such a comment will probably gain you some followers and upvotes!
In a Nutshell:
1. At least 3-4 lines
2. Relate to the post
3. Use Markdown
4. Add pictures, gifs or videos related to the article & combine it with an epic comment
5. Don't disagree with the author and do not be offensive
What is Markdown? -> Click HERE to read a Markdown guide.
Don't Do This!
Don't copy & paste comments, don't comment on the articles of drama-mongers and gossipers and in general don't comment on controversial topics.
Don't write generalized comments, don't insult or bully people and don't upvote yourself (the majority here on Steem thinks that is rude as you push your own comment to the top with that, lowering everyone else's comment on the list).
Don't answer rude people and don't downvote them either. Downvoting people leads to flag wars and that means you lose money.
The best option to deal with rude people is to mute them.
In a nutshell:
-Don't copy & paste comments
-Avoid drama-mongers and gossipers
-Avoid controversial topics
-Don't write generalized comments
-Don't insult or bully people
-Don't upvote yourself
-Mute rude people
-Don't downvote people as that causes drama.
You will have to walk on eggshells, most people can not handle real talk, that is just the current state of our society.
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A great post.
It will probably be very helpful for newcomers like me.
Don't agree with the "don't disagree with the author" part though. I think that our opinions are more important than the upvotes / followers, and that an honest comment is not a bad comment. Quite the opposite, really..
Sure, being honest doesn't mean being rude. I believe you can say whatever you want, as long as you do that in a nice and pleasant way.
@valorforfreedom
Your post is a curators fortune! It seems to me as a hatching minnow in these steemie waters, that this post says it all.
I am learning markdown, not to tech savvy as of yet but learning.
Truly thank you for mostly confirming what my gut was telling me about commenting, and learning more from you this happy morning, (crypto-fire sale is making me smile as I am buying more steem!)
I love dancing on egg shells!
And not a one has been broken! You have just improved my dance!
Jumping in feet first!
Much appreciation!
Lynn
Up with you.
@Valorforfreedom
Wow...I am grateful for your
Gift! I am joyfully following, waiting for episode 2!
Yay!
Lynn
Tomorrow's episode is about perfectly formatting your Steem posts.
That will help a lot of people!
Very good cognitive post! Especially useful for beginners..
This gif is just mesmerizing. I sweear I could just stare at that for a minute or three. "its a vibe"
such a missed op to write in an eggshell lol. Such a good honest post. Our society is 100% not ready for people to be honest but it 100% loves being passive aggressive which I think is horrible!!!!! That’s another story hahaha.
Great stuff will use what I can and thanks :-)
100% agree Cryptokenny and you did obviously read the post.
You earned the upvote.
@valorforfreedom Very sorry, but I have to break one of your rules “Never disagree with the author”. Just don’t upvote me - that’s fine to prove the point.
So I disagree with one of your ideas: you wrote:
This is a very annoying practice -especially if the picture has nothing in particular to do with the blog. When this happens in my blogs, I find it irritating, and certainly won’t vote the poster. I might ask him to remove the picture (assuming that it has nothing to do with the subject).
I would like to thank you for all this good advice to newbies. Please keep publishing newbie guides and don’t hesitate to direct people who need help to it.
Upvoted for excellence, despite my disagreement on one small point.
I agree with your disagreement (well played) , it should be combined with an epic comment and related to the topic otherwise it looks like spam.
I edited that point in the post.
Ya, now i got one example that do not disagree the author..becuase i am standing with you in this point so i got little angry to see valorforfreedom post..so you are right we should avoid or stand away from unliked post..Thank you guru ji...(teacher)
I believe that it should be totally fine to disagree with the author, as long as it is expressed in a polite way.
After all, most of us is here for meaningful discussions and learning something new. Personally, I appreciate a constructive criticism much more than flattering. Flattering can make me feel good, but a constructive disagreement can provide me with new insights and improve my way of thinking.
Of course, there will always be people who are convinced that they know everything best; those people might get offended by a disagreement no matter how politely it is expressed, but that's really not our fault.
Cheers! : )
This an example comment...
This manual looks pretty promising to me...
Please upvote it so we can proof that the above guide worked :)
Sure!
Just dont write something like "good post" guys.
Try to ask the author questions.
But not stupid questions..... I often get questions where the answer is already in the blog or in one of the other comments. When this happens, I read someone who is lazy and just trying to attract attention.
Wowww! Great content dear. Very informative too. Really love how you put this;-
Great work Dearie and your invaluable advice I have taken to heart. Steem on Dear friend.
Thank you Efelexy.
My pleasure dear! Wowww. Really love your content. Cheers.
Awesome Tips @valorforfreedom !! Especially for noobies ! Im looking forward to your post on perfectly formatting ! Great job for only being here 5 months , your going to do awesome on Steemit ! Keep up the great work ! Upped Followed and resteemed for others to learn !!👍👍👍🌞🌈😀
Thank you Karen.
Up with you!
Awesome thanks ! Your very welcome!!👊👍😀
That's a very concise and clear article.
It does indeed make sense to avoid controversial topics, drama, fighting, flag wars, insults and bullying.
However it makes me wonder:
if all community members avoid contradicting or challenging the ideas in a post, isn't it going to make the discourse a kind of vanilla conversation, where bloggers would rarely receive constructive criticism, even when their content is untrue or erroneous.
Would following the rules you suggest take away some of the essence of online communities, where people learn and develop by challenging ideas expressed by others, as opposed to constantly agreeing with the ideas presented in posts?
What do you think?
You are correct Yannay, the truth is that if you offend the wrong person here that they will downvote your ass into bankruptcy.
Steem is promoted as decentralized but it isn't. The guys with the biggest wallet rule here and they can take your money without any regulations.
So it is better to fit in, sad but true.
If you want to talk without filters you join the Berserkers server, there you don't need to be afraid to be downvoted.
I think we should all speak our mind - as long as our mind is reasonable rational and well thought out. That does not always work. I once analyzed an ICO that someone was proting on steemit in his blog. I read the white-paper, he did not. My analysis contained a list of red-flags, like “most of the advisors they claim are connected to the company, do not bother to mention it on their linked-in page”. The blogger flew into a violent and abusive rage, and downvoted all of my blogs. (I never downvoted him). I called in the help of @lukestokes who had a lot of steempower at the time (I had almost none). The blogger then started swearing and abusing Luke for coming to my rescue verbally. That was the bloggers mistake.
That’s when I realised I should buy some steempower.
It's unfortunate how immature some people are. They have very tragic expressions of their unmet needs. Having Steem Power and using voting strength to downvote abusive communication is, so far, one of the only ways to deal with some people.
Exactly @lukestokes. If you are serious about steemit and you don’t want to be the victim of some troll, then you need to have a lot of steempower.
I would like to thank you very much for your help on that case, which happened at a time when I was too SP poor (and too new), to know how best to handle the nutter.
Sometimes it's fine just to ignore them and go your way. It's not much for these crazies when they flag people and don't get the emotional outburst they thrive on. It's just a downvote. That's all. Ignore and move on.
They need to rework the Flagging System, maybe get 5 people to confirm the flag or something to make it harder to abuse it.
And by the way: Thank you for the upvotes gentlemen.
Many see the problem right now as not enough downvotes. It costs people voting power they could use to gain curation rewards. Instead they get flag wars. There are many posts about scammers taking from the rewards pool without providing any value, so making it harder for downvotes to happen would only make that problem worse.
Every proposed solution has unintended consequences which should be considered in great detail. Some are thinking about a possible flag rewards pool or even a separate bank of voting power for downvotes to prevent abuse. It's some tricky stuff and may not be figured out until we have SMTs to play with different approaches.
Turns out I still don't know enough about Steem.
You are welcome to comment here Luke, your comments are additional knowledge for me.
I agree, @lukestokes, any new solution to flagging may have unexpected consequences. I guess the topic of downvotes often gets debated on steemit (I have seen quite a few).
Right now I am doing my own thing with downvotes - mainly for spam commenting, more rarely for plagiarism.
My preferred approach is warning first. Then if the spammer does not heed it, I use a small 10% flag to get his attention, with a promise to remove the flag if he learned the lesson. 10% can go to 20% - and so on if the behaviour does not improve.
On a bad-day, I am not beyond giving an immediate 10% or 20% flag for the most blatant cases of spam (with an explanation of course).
It rarely happens that someone flags me back. Mostly I get apologies, and then I remove the small flag. Even if they flag me back, I tend not to bother with retaliation. My high steempower means they can’t harm me. I just try to focus on changing their bad habits.
Sometimes I realise I am dealing with robots. (Robots can post plagiarised internet articles, changing just enough words to fool @originalcontent and similar plagiarism detection bots). There’s not a lot of point in giving warnings to robots.