So this post will be a little brief but I believe it needs to be said, yesterday (and many other days) I have had my post(s) targeted by a few 'spammers' / 'bots' / 'other' who use the commenting sections of your posts in order to try and promote their own content or gain 'followers'. This post will serve as a "WHAT NOT TO DO" and will Put you (especially Minnows) in the mindset of a dolphin / reader in what we look for in terms of content and how to avoid "Getting b**** slapped by a dolphin/whale"
Most of us original Steemians know (and if you read a quick 5 minute starter guide to Steem you will to) that this kind of behavior is incredibly shunned upon and usually gets these posts 'flagged' as such behavior is just intolerable and disrespectful, If you don't know this by now, basically DON'T DO THIS.
TLDR Note: The comments section of posts should ONLY be used to discuss the post itself and NEVER to promote your own content or profile.
Nevertheless the person in question goes by the name of @ivylifestyle and you can check out @kid4life 's post on a few other details Here, but the feud with Ivy all started with me, and I will post my images of my 'war' with this spammer, that has basically left his account in ruins. So take note new Steemians, if you ignore the basic premise of how Steem works and you do not look up a guide on fair use and posting then this could happen to you. (Although for me personally, I try to give as many changes as possible).
1.) So It all started here:
This comment was on my post titled "What is Quantum Weirdness?" about Quantum mechanics, I thought "damn not another one", as he had made no effort to even reply with a relevant response, so as I usually do I think:
"Hmm, if he's done it to me, I'm sure he's done it to others and if so then he needs to learn his lesson and have the advertised content flagged (as the content advertised should not be worthy of earning payout)."
2.) So Next I checked through his comments to find:
Lo and behold, he's done it many, many times, excessively, so as I do I flag all comments and any posts that he's advertised. You can't see from the image, but he started off with 21 Reputation and by the time I was done flagging his posts he was down to 10, and today he's down to 9 from additional spamming posts.
3.) Nevertheless as I always do, I make an effort to try and 'Convert' the departed and try and change their ways by explaining where they went wrong:
In fact I went to considerable effort with this guy, I think in total I've written about 10-15 comments discussing the issues and explaining, where all he wanted to do was throw mud and to call the system a "Scam" and a "Pyramid Scheme" (The top was self-upvoted because he downvoted)
And there we go, eventually a few people joined suit like @paradoxofchoice, @kid4life, @thatsweeneyguy and quite a few others, trying to explain how the community works but nevertheless he kept going, moving from comment spam into post spam, I mean look at this pile of shit:
It's very important to monitor Steemit for this kind of abuse and flag it. It's our duty as Steemians!
Agreed. But it is also our duty to focus on rewarding the better posts, too. We can concentrate and focus our priorities on content we like and upvote and comment and promote them. Better content rises to the top while the rest sinks like Titanic. We can flag if we want sometimes. I did not flag on Steemit. I do not want to flag. Yes, flagging can help. You have the freedom to flag. I'm choosing to focus on promoting the best of the best instead. The worse of the worse can be ignored. The bad stuff will continue to fall and fail. Keep up the good work. I'm Oatmeal.
Good. Agreed. A post is like an opening paragraph or poster (OP). It is a start of a conversation. We become discouraged when people jump into conversations with disconnected dialog. Basically, some things might be, subjectively speaking, considered to be too irrelevant to the overall purpose of the thread, of the conversation.
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For example, if a MATH teacher interrupted a HISTORY class to talk about math in the history class without invitation, randomly, out of nowhere, out of the blue, without relevance, without connection, without anything like that or whatever the case may be, then that will probably not be so good and the history teacher may flag the math teacher or slap him or her or yell at him or try to get the teacher fired or punished or something. Words like SPAM and ads and everything can be maybe too subjective. We can always try to debate these things and everything and that is good to have philosophy and to think and to reconsider our views on everything and to grow and everything.......
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But at the same time, we should realize that our actions can have consequences..... and going off topic from the main thread is normally not likable enough to be worth doing.... if you are doing something that people do not like, then people will probably flag you, hit you, yell at you, ignore you, not be your friend, not add you, not follow you, not upvote you, and so on. That is how things work basically.
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Thanks for sharing this post concerning what not to do.
2017-07-23 Sunday 1 PM MD NH Q1 HCM VN JOEYARNOLDVN
Joey Arnold
@ivylifestyle, please read my comment above this one.
Relevance is fundamental.
What the hell, he downvoted your comment too lmao. That guy is a dedicated spammer
@gaming-stuff, yea, he downvoted me, lol, like WTF... ha ha
too bad and sucks to be him.... moving on
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STOPI appreciate you for sharing this information. It helps to understand the best way to contribute to the community.
No worries man, absolutely all I want is the Steem community to be as valuable as it can possibly be and for the comments sections and posts to discuss relevant information, rather than being plagued by spam.
sdd
gfg
@ivylifestyle, his post is like his house. We can always argue about spam like we can argue about art. Many people have called me spam too. It is like the word "RACISM." Sometimes, words are diluted and raped from their original meanings.
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But his post could be like his house regardless of whether or not he is or is not spam or not or whatever. I think that he might maybe have the freedom to be spam or not to be spam or whatever depending on the definitions of spam and depending on who is defining what is or is not spam based on and through the details, the context, and everything.
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But when you comment on a thread, you are entering a new country or house. Please try to remember that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. And it might not be a good idea to break into people's houses without permission. And when you come into a house and try to become a knock knock joke, I mean an interrupting cow that says moo, then that can be a problem.
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I believe in objectivity, in right and wrong, but I also want to try to respect people maybe a little bit sometimes and I may not always want to try to sell myself to people too much or whatever inside their own houses or on their own posts when I am not invited to go off topic of and from the main thread and OP and post and everything...
Very insightful comment, I agree... in your post you can do anything you want (just don't do something extreme) but when you comment on others, it's not a good idea to not respect them (and most people see "commenting something adding no value to them" as disrespect).
@joeyarnoldvn I usually don't upvote comments (because I heard you have to make your daily upvotes close to "20" as possible) but your comment deserves an upvote!!
Big shout out to you bro!
Great post!
Hope more "slayers"will join us is the near future!
Thanks mate, you too! Absolutely I think it's great how everyone is banding together so far, we just need to keep it up :D
True that!
See you around;)
hut
I love Star Trek. Picard would not spam. He stayed on topic.
I spam ? or what are you trying to say?
Do not be my next troll :P
Do not be Q.
LMAO...
Glad to know that some people talk to poeple who SPAM and try to tell them where they went wrong instead of just flagging them... but well, it doesn't work everytime and I feel sad for all of you because you tried to set them right and failed.
I want to ask, if comments that don't add value are treated like this here. then what about comments that Do add a value but have a pitch to open their posts in them? How about those who do that undirectly.. or they have posts vaguely related to those they comment on?
I don't mind them but don't know about this community that's why I'm asking.
I think a general rule to follow (for comments) is that:
"If it seems the least bit bad or you hesitate even for a second, Don't post it."
Basically I think the ONLY appropriate way to allude to your own content is that if you have similar content (In which might have more/different information about the topic) and you write a comment discussing their post first and maybe at the end writing something along the lines of; "I actually wrote a post similar which gives [explain how your content is different]" However under rare (Basically never) circumstances should you actually link or provide the Name of the article, If people want to check you out they will, if not don't spam them and be annoying. It's better to be found Naturally for the value you provide than by the spam you write and the negative value (problems/disrespect) you cause.
Thanks for replying me, I figured that much too... I'll try to do that from now on.
Is it bad, that I was just happy you weren't writing about me?
Haha well you're definitely not spamming and writing unsolicited comments so I'm pretty sure you're in the clear :D
Deleted
Don't let this distract you from the fact that if you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be entitled to financial compensation
Oh wow!! There is a lesson here for us all maybe...There is for me. Great post!
gdfgfdfg
Thank you. Great post. I mean....it's understandable if you post a funny story about vacuums and then someone who happens to sell vacuums sends a link to their store. That'd be somewhat spammy but at least relevant to the post. Right?
dsdsfdfsdfs
I feel sad for you... But the way you write on steemit isn't suited to steemit community (the people who were in steem before you)... I can see why when someone goes to your comments page and see this and this they can get angry!! like you're doing nothing but filling steem with unnecessary comments!!
From reading @locikll post, what I understood is: He didn't Flag you because you said to him "Read my Post" but because you said that to 5 other people too without adding value in your comments to ANY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!! ... that way you seemed to him like the type of someone who brings Steem down..
If you're the only one doing that then it's ok, but people like you who use these 'cheap' ways to get visibility are many, they are like a disease to be cured.
So I feel sorry for you.... but 'spamming' posts at least the way you do, will only get you hate from the community.
@ivylifestyle, read my comment, here, above.