Recently, I have come a cross a number of comment discussions suggesting that it is "rude" (or something like it) to leave a comment on a post, but not to upvote it.
Maybe the immediate answer seems like it should be an obvious "YES!" but maybe it's not really as simple as that... so I'm going to take a few moments "off" from writing about art to have a look at the possibilities.
Are You Lying? For Sure, That's Rude!
Experimenting with the macro setting on the camera-- geranium in the pot by our front door
I would say it's DEFINITELY rude if you're outright lying about it. You know, if you leave a comment along the lines of "great post, upvoted and resteemed" and then it turns out you actually neither upvoted nor resteemed... your comment was actually pure "click bait" to get someone to check your profile.
Shame on you!
Even more shame on you if you then follow up your meaningless comment by upvoting yourself.
Reporting Spam? Plagiarism? Not so much
Of course, the question "is it rude to not upvote, when you comment" pretty much becomes moot if your comment is written to point out that someone is a plagiarizer or spammer, and you're mostly trying to either get the attention of one of the spam/plagiarism bots... OR you're politely telling the original poster they'd be better off using a different approach.
There you pretty much have a "get out of jail free" card. Don't upvote Spam or Plagiarism!
The Enthusiastic and Ambitious Minnow (Redfish)
When we first get on Steemit, it works out that we get about 10 "full power" upvotes before our voting power is pretty much depleted.
Experimenting with the macro setting on the camera-- wild Aster at the side of the road
Now, if you're an ambitious sort who wants to (sincerely-- not through endless copy-paste garbage) build a following as quickly as possible... you might easily want to leave 50, 75, even 100 engaging comments on interesting posts... per day, simply to "get your name out there."
In a broader sense, that's a valid social media approach to quickly building a name for yourself. But if you were to try to leave 100 upvotes per day, your voting power would be perpetually stuck at around 2% or less.
Whereas it's a little subjective... I wouldn't automatically call it rude to not upvote everything you leave a comment on.
So... there's a bit of an exception.
As Far As Everyone Else Goes...
As I understand it, Steemians automatically get a voting "power slider" once we reach about 500 Steem Power to our name. At that point, you can adjust your voting weight from always being "100%" by default, to being say 25%, or 20% or something else.
The point here being that you can then vote for (let's say) 50 posts a day and not have it drain your voting power completely. For example, with this account I try to not let my voting power not fall too far below 70% by the time I sign out for the day, since only 20% replenishes per 24-hour period.
Experimenting with the macro setting on the camera-- an interesting weed at the side of the road
Now, is it "rude" to not upvote a post you comment on, if you DO have the voting power slider?
I suppose it's a bit subjective, on a case to case basis. I suppose it depends somewhat on a person's voting patterns. I like to check the Steemreports outgoing votes feature... which lets you see how someone votes. If they mostly vote for themselves... that tends to be a point of annoyance for me.
Some Final Thoughts About 0% Upvotes
Yes, I know there is no such thing as "0% upvotes," but I used to get annoyed when I'd see microscopic upvotes on some of my posts.
I'd see that someone had upvoted a post at "0.03%" and would ask myself what the point even was... and wonder why these people were (just MY perception) "adding dust to the blockchain."
Of course, the truth is that these tend to be bot votes, not votes cast by an actual person, so getting mad at them is a bit of a waste of energy. Typically, such votes are part of things like the Minnow Support Project, or some kind of voting guild... and they are "spreading the wealth" among SO many people that each individual vote ends up being tiny.
I think I will conclude this "sidetrack here," and open it up to discussion. What's your opinion on "commenting but not upvoting?" Do special situations apply? Should we ALWAYS upvote posts we care enough about to comment on? What do you think about "microscopic" upvotes like the "0.03%" (yes, that was a real thing!) I mentioned above? Leave a comment and share your opinion!
The Red Dragonfly is an independent alternative art gallery located in Port Townsend, WA; showcasing edgy and unique contemporary art & handmade crafts by local and worldwide artists. All images are our own, unless otherwise credited. Where applicable, artist images used with permission.