Comments are such an important part of the Steemit community. In fact, comments are where our community takes place. Because we see Steemit in this way, @geke and @jimitations are initiating a project to encourage and upvote quality comments. We're calling it CommentWealth.
Please note, at the outset, what CommentWealth is not:
- This account is not a bot (though it may evolve into one)
- This account does not follow anyone
- This account does not upvote posts
Instead, CommentWealth will post comments and occasional project updates, upvote the quality comments of others, and occasionally flag comments that spam, bully, or pander. (As CommentWealth and its voting power grows, you can request its help in flagging or discouraging comment spam by contacting @geke on Discord.)
This project started in response to our own comment challenges. How could we encourage thoughtful comments and discourage spam on our posts? In our @geke and @jimitations accounts, we started double-upvoting every quality comment our posts received. This was back before we delegated some of our Steem Power out to @minnowsupport, and we were able to give our readers a total of about 1 SBD just for making an engaging comment. We did this for several reasons. First and foremost, we wanted to reward the interactions of our readers and followers. Second, we wanted our readers and followers to realize that interacting with us was a profitable endeavor for them. This would encourage them to come back and read / watch our content in the future. Third, we wanted to move the comments of our truly-engaged readers and followers to the top of our comment threads, pushing bot / spam / pandering comments down to the bottom. But ultimately, we wanted to encourage community and get to know other people on Steemit, and we figured rewarding good comments was a great way to do that.
In fact, rewarding good comments is one of the best ways to encourage community and get to know your readers.
There's been a push recently on Steemit to find ways to reduce and disincentivize comment spam. We're hoping that CommentWealth can play a part in that!
In addition to pushing spam comments to the bottom of any thread, the first line of direct defense is to politely ask spammers to stop. This is what we intend for the CommentWealth account to do whenever we encounter spam. When necessary, this account will also flag, and we hope the Steemit community will help us accomplish this by upvoting CommentWealth updates so our reputation number can withstand any backlash spammer flagging. The real benefit of CommentWealth in discouraging spam, though, will come as the account grows and we're able to help minnows who don't yet have enough voting power to discourage spam comments on their own. Plus, if CommentWealth flags a spammer, it can take the burden off minnows to be the "heavy" when they receive spam. Similarly, CommentWealth can help minnows reward their readers with more steem-powered upvotes than a minnow would typically possess. Ultimately, we hope CommentWealth will encourage minnows to engage with their readers, which is the best way to grow a presence and succeed on Steemit.
We're not entirely sure how CommentWealth will evolve. It might eventually work better as a bot, or possibly as a collaboration of humans, much like @OCD works. But we'll figure out the most productive way forward as we start experimenting with the project, finding out what methods work best.
For now, this is a strictly human and very subjective endeavor. We're looking for comments we deem to be helpful, thoughtful, and community-encouraging. But these are subjective judgments, so please bear with us. We're more likely to use CommentWealth to upvote comments in which the post-creators are trying to reward interaction with their own readers through both upvotes and replies. Tip: to get the attention of CommentWealth and to encourage our upvotes on your work, get to know us in our own comments section and engage with our update posts!
Excellent mission statement, I agree with this 100%. Comment spam has become a menace.
Thanks muxxy, and also for your tech help (as always)!
This is great. I always upvote people who comment on my posts, with a larger % based on the contribution I feel they're making to the discussion, and to some extent the community. Like you I've since delegated quite a lot of my SP to some @minnowsupport bots, but it was great to really reward people actually contributing to the community (I still do, albeit with slightly lower value rewards)
At the same time, I've been flagging spammy posts and tagging @steemcleaners - is this something you want us to do? Actually tag @commentwealth in replies when we feel someone's comment should be upvoted or flagged?
That's a good question... since we're not a bot, I'm not sure that would work, but we might be able to rig something up. In the meantime, you can contact @geke on Discord with spam alerts. I'm assuming you're on there since you're working with MSP! :)
Yes indeed - and I will do. :)
This is a great idea. I think comments often go under-rewarded even more than posts do, but since they are more prone to spam, it's tough to take a broad approach.
I would be interested in delegating some SP to help with this project once it is up and running.
Thanks for the offer @lexiconical! We've received SP delegation from three Steemians so far, and we'd love to attract more to get things kicked off. 😀
I delegated 100 SP your way. Good luck with the project!
Thank you so much @lexiconical! We'll be updating weekly on how things progress.
This is a neat idea! I'm interested to see how it goes!
Thanks @uniwhisp - so are we! Maybe this will be a discussion topic on Esteemed Broccoli next week!
Yes!!! <3
That's a good plan. I do the same thing on my posts when people comment... is that spam? No? Is it a bot? No, good, up you go.
Considered using Streemian (when it works, I wish it worked...) to upvote and downvote comments?
Many options are being considered... that's another good one. Thanks @andrewgenaille!
wow amazing project yeah spam should be stopped in anyways we cant downvote because of low power i am sure i will contact @geke for help of downvote to spammer :) thanks :) and best of luck and yeah glad that you are supporting good contents :) and commentators :)
Thanks for your support and encouragement @hassanabid!
thanku so much you both :) for upvoting my comment :) thanks for the support of newbie @nikez452 @commentwealth :)
I think this is a great project in steemit development going forward. I'm sure, @commentwealth will help everyone in steemit to grow each other by providing quality comments on every post.
Resteemed and following for updates.
I have seen a lot of the spam reports that people have posted. As a minnow, it is impossible to even try to help take them out.
Anyone can report spam though! I love how you and the rest of the community is banding together to make this a much better place for all of us!
Insert clap emoji. :)
Aw... thanks for the encouraging words! We hope that what we're doing will help minnows, and the community as a whole. An entire market-full of people can regulate itself!
A good use of bots is to provide helpers for humans. Bots that speed up the rate of human decision making. For a comment bot, some filters that help ID spam and then an interface to help a human decide and act.
Fantastic initiative @geke and @jimitations. Will fully support it any way I can.
Thank you @jasonbu! We appreciate your support. 😀
I like this initiative. I've followed to see how this unfolds, and keep in touch with this mission. The evolving Steemit environment has lead to the need for these type of developments. I will resteem also, help spread the word.
Thanks for the resteem @naquoya! One thing we like about this project is that it takes the burden off minnows, especially, to be the "heavy" when they receive spam. Hoping it takes off and can be helpful!
Even after one year here I still don't like the thought of flagging, mainly because of that issue. I know it is sometimes needed, but getting caught up in a flag war doesn't interest me. So that is another good reason for this account. Hope it takes off also.
Steemit has so much potential to revolutionize the net and ironically return us to the good old days when the internet was about real people connecting and sharing not about apps from big corporations... using market forces. I hope your innovation is going to help this revolution happen.
This is similar, if a bit more altruistic, to the mission of my bots @gentlebot and @thing-2. Perhaps we can work together! Check out my intro post here.
I'd certainly be interested in working with you to help keep my bots from upvoting comment spam, which happens more than I'd like to admit. I could set it up so that accounts you flag are automatically added to my blacklist.
I'd also owe you a debt of gratitude if you dropped me a line now and then to tell me if the bots are misbehaving! I check up on them myself occasionally, but I'm always grateful when people point out that they're upvoting spam so I can do something about it.
Also, keep in mind that if you can afford to upvote comments after they're 30 minutes old rather than before, you'll earn quite a bit more in curation rewards. Cheers!
We would love the opportunity to work with you in whatever way works best. I'll check out your intro post tomorrow and leave you a comment! 😃
Cool. I look forward to hearing from you!
Really Great Idea .. @commentwealth
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STOPYou are like a Steemit superhero. I love it :)
I stumbled across your guide to curating comments, and came here next. I'm new to Steemit, so am still trying to figure all this out. Your articles are very helpful, and I'm going to make a point of reading every one, and will upvote and do what I can to help you become more visible with this great information. Thanks for helping Steemit be what it was meant to be.
check he is spamming @commentwealth @geke
Thank you for the heads up!
Really Great Idea
I really like the idea of this page. It makes me want to take the time to write better comments. My first comments in Steemit were short few word responses. Now I've realized you should actually think things through before you start posting.
As a new, and very tiny, fish in the steemit waters, there's a lot one needs to learn. This account is a great way to encourage us, newbies, in our efforts to find our own way in this community. I'm definitely following (and upvoting whenever I can) a helpful initiative like this one.
Well, sad to have missed the original rewards period on this, but still worth a thumbs up and thanks for doing this!
The longer you can keep this "non-bot," the better it would seem (at least from my perspective) and the more authentic the value @commentwealth could add to the community.