Introduction
I have been noticing how certain users like @abit have been concentrating on rewarding comments.
In the short time I have noticed it, it does seem to be having a positive effect in the comment threads.
I remember back in the early days of Steemit how comments frequently made rewards that were comparable to full posts.
It did seem that there was a lot more engagement and enthusiasm for commentary at the time.
Further since it is not really possible to make a good comment without reading a post I think we had much more people actually reading posts.
Since then, as the price of Steem has fallen, many of us have started rewarding comments at a lower rate than posts.
I for example do it at 1% most of the time because my assumption is that people prefer to be rewarded in their posts.
Recently I have tried to up-vote at least a few comments every day at 100% but the vast majority of my voting power still goes to posts.
Am I and others who do this making a mistake?
In my opinion posters and readers are equally important. It doesn't matter how good or bad the material you are posting is, if nobody reads it what is the point.
Concentrating On Posts - A Sub-Optimal Strategy?
It is possible that this a less than optimal strategy for a number of reasons:
Not everyone is a writer or wants to write posts, this removes a potential avenue for them to make money.
Engagement from my (albeit limited understanding) is a key component of social media success.
There is less connection between posters and readers which results in poorer social cohesion.
Remember That Comments Reward Parent Posts
There may be a more optimal way of doing things that benefits the whole community.
I realise the white-paper is out of date, but I believe the following (from pg 21) still applies when it comes to comments:
"Good discussion requires back and forth posting. When you reply to someone else, they get 50% of any payout you receive in that thread. This rule applies up to 6 levels deep. Starting a big discussion greatly rewards the parent poster."
"This incentive structure motivates people to contribute in a way that motivates others to get involved. It encourages people to ask good questions so that others can provide valuable answers."
From my understanding that means that the original poster and commenter split the rewards.
To put it another way, up-voting the best comments on a post rewards both the poster and the commenters.
This would not solve all the problems we currently have in the community but it might help:
Currently Perceived Problems
If we consider some of the current problems that people are talking about:
- Lack of Engagement and Reading of Posts.
- Potential "bandwagon" effect with whale voting.
- Bad feeling when people get down-voted/flagged for readjustment of rewards.
- General lack of communication between people.
- Low Steem price.
I am wondering if these things could be potentially improved by all of us voting more on comments?
The original post will still get some of the rewards but there would be a greater distribution than simply up-voting the post itself.
Perhaps one method of doing this might be to up-vote the post by 50% and then up-vote the best comment by 50% .
Also would it be better if whales ONLY voted on comments?
I don't know - those who are more mathematically minded than me can probably suggest or model the most optimal strategy.
Conclusion
Anyway this is merely an attempt to start the discussion on this topic.
It is entirely possible I am missing some key point or issue that might make this problematic.
I will apologise in advance for that!
As always I welcome the rest of you to correct this and/or add your own perspectives.
I understand it will not solve our problems but it might at least be of some help (assuming I have this right).
We are all stronger as a community and part of that is having a good dialogue:)
Thank you for reading
If you like my work please follow me on Steemit: @thecryptofiend & on Twitter : Soul_Eater_43.
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