How Not to Comment on Steemit - 7 Things You Should Stop Doing to A...

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!

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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.

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

1. Stupid Comments

2. Commenting Without Reading a Post

3. Asking for Upvotes

4. Offering Follow for Follow in Comments

5. Copy Pasting Generic Comments on Multiple Posts

6. Self Voting Stupid Comments

7. Publishing Irrelevant Comments

Resources to Consult

Conclusion

Newbie Guides

Steem Guides

Steemit Tips & Advice

Advanced Understanding of Steemit

Steem Ecosystem Guides (Services Empowering Steemians)