STOP
FOLLOW
BEGGING.
If you are new to Steemit and you are going into the comment section of other people's blogs posting things like this:
Nice Post! I followed you, you should follow me back!
Stop it now!
You are on borrowed time -- literally!
As a new member of our community, you have probably wondered about what I'm going to show you:
.png)
(Screenshot of @clevercreator wallet because her article brought this to my attention)
That number is a "loan" from Steemit that allows you to have a larger influence than you would normally have for your first 30 days.
If, by the end of those 30 days, you are unable to get your Steem Power above 50, you will be unable to use your account until that balance goes above 50. Which, at that point, can be done either by another account transferring the SP or by purchasing Steem Power directly.
What does this have to do with follow begging?
This is my comments section when I get a bunch of follow beggars.
It's all about your reputation.
When you follow beg, you risk being flagged as a spammer, because when you copy & paste follow begging replies in the comments sections of dozens of blogs, that's what you are -- a spammer.
Stop doing this. Now.
Follow begging will get you flagged for SPAM
You cannot afford to have this happen.
When you are flagged, your reputation decreases, which means your payouts go bye-bye.
Is that what you want?
I thought you were trying to increase your SP, not make it impossible to get.
So why would you do ANYTHING that would risk you being seen as someone that the Steemit community doesn't want?
Steemit is an anarchic system
Not anarchy in the destructive sense, but in the Amish sense, meaning: SHUNNING
Flagging is a way for the community to decide who they think is a contributing member and what they think is edifying content, and for the users and content that are considered abusive to Steemit by the flagging system, well... those things slowly disappear.
And you don't want to disappear from Steemit, right?
No, you want to be a member who is embraced by the community, so you can play a part in this wonderful experiment.
Begging for followers is a fatal flaw
If you're doing it, stop doing it right now.
Instead, listen to what I say here:
If you follow the EXTREMELY SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE TIPS I lay out here, you will easily have hundreds of followers and more than enough SP in your first 30 days, all without begging for a single upvote or follow.
SO DO THAT!
Tell me what you think
So, how about this whole Steemit "loan" thing?
Are you follow begging? Now that you know how dangerous it is, do you PROMISE to stop???
I like to add, that it also destroys your fun here if your newsfeed is full of posts you are not interested in. Also you have no relationship with your followers and it is likely they are not really interested in your content. Meaning you dont give upvotes and you dont recieve upvotes.
A genuine connection with your followers and the people you follow will be way more benfical in the long run.
Relationships with followers are very important. I think you've just inspired a new post :D
looking forward to read it.
Great article but your comment was definitely missing so thanks for adding that! :]
thx a lot
Absolutely!
Totally agree with you 👍👍👍
Very informative post. Saved.
First I'd heard about the loan thing.
I agree about 'follow-beg'
It annoys me.
I try to avoid that which annoys me.
or stamp it out.
Agree everittdmickey ! I'm turned off by any kind of e-begging.
some is in good taste.
if you like what I am doing you might consider a donation
in a tasteful manner.
but none of the
IN YOUR FACE
stuff.
no whining.
Well I agreed (for awhile). Now it seems a lot channels spend more time asking for follow this, follow that, support me here, support me there, than the main video. Some just put it in the description, which is cool.
understated is the name of the game.
get in my face and it's strike three and you're OUT.
Exactly. Steemit is a social media with consequences. A lot of people are risking their reputation by not being authentic.
Being Interesting is important.
...some of the people I follow annoy the hell out of me.
we fight like cats and dogs.
but they are interesting.
To be interesting is to be unconventional, which is fertile ground for conflict!
But whoever said conflict was a bad thing?!
I don't think it is.
I'm still going around sharing your other article with newer steemians as they keep doing this, perhaps because Puss 'n Boots is just so compelling I hope he helps better get the message across! lol
Link: Steemit Tips: How NOT To Behave On Steemit -- Follow-Begging
As for thoughts on the "loan" thing, it may be easier to refer you to @timcliff's post, and our comment thread therein on the subject that starts with this:
Link: New Accounts Don't Have Enough SP to Fully Interact with the Blockchain. Should witnesses update the Max Block Size? (Discussion)
I appreciate your dedication in helping to relieve Steemit of the abhorrent practice of follow begging!
:D
it's really one of those things that (I believe like for you, and others as well), just really gets under my skin! lol
Even as a little minnow I dislike the few comments I get that are follow begging. I can't imagine being someone that gets 100's of comments and 20 to 30 of them are people follow or ypvote begging. I feel like my 120 followers (which I am so proud of, thank you all!) is evidence that you don't need to beg for followers. Really, all I have done is comment and post what I feel is quality content. That's all it really takes, that and patience :)
The appreciation you show towards your followers is the thing that will make you succeed!!!
That, and following tips from vets like you ;)
@shayne :) I upvoted and Re-steemed
your Resteem is how I saw this :)
Yay Happy it is working :)
Appreciate you and the affect of your account to bring me another view in @topnetworkeral
I am happy to help :)
If you have a bunch of things in your blog that you are not interested in, then 9 times out 10 your followers are not interested in them either. You will loose followers and steem. A no win situation.
Great post! I am however going to follow you, and you can't stop me...also I am going to up vote this thing because that is my steemit given right! And now that I have done that I will continue to point out the obvious. Because thats what captains do!
Too true I do not follow anyone who asks for it, I only follow people that genuinely have interested me. And that's what everyone should do!
Indeed. If people want me to follow them, then they should be active on my blog and the blogs of the people I follow. If they are interesting and/or helpful, I will eventually check out their blogs and probably end up following when I'm inclined to do so. It's pretty simple. Nobody needs to ask, and asking will actually make it certain that it WON'T happen lol
Oh God do I hate the ones that ask! That's an immediate no from me!
Shayne, thank you for this post. I learned something new here. I was not aware if I did not have over 50 steem after 30 days I could not use my account. That is something most people probably have no idea about.
I think I will be ok luckily from some great whales helping with some of my posts.
I'm learning as I go along, realizing that I don't completely know what's going on with this platform either. If anything, posts like this will start a conversation where the truth can come to light.
Awesome! There are some great whales on Steemit.
I have a question about those numbers, too. I've been on Steemit for over 30 days, only have ~13 SP at the moment, and still am at +145?
Thank you for the info. That sure help I just started on Steemit a few days back.
Keep up with great info...
I totally agree! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
You send everything in one phrase... Steemit is an anarchic system. So ,that's not good for beggers
Follow begging is pretty lame.
How could I agree more? Oh -- I can't!
I have stopped flagging for this kind of spam for the moment - I just wasn't getting answers back when i told folks it was a bad move
Huh... probably bots, right?
most likely; I gave em the I flagged this post for spamming, give me a reason to remove the flag spiel, but never any response or editing
Generally not a fan of any kind of begging, unless it's for an extremely good cause.
I can't think of a witty reply to that right now lol
What? come on man, give me some wit.
Quote: Follow me @shayne
Et tu, Brute?
wink
hovers mouse over the mute button
Lol
I think this article is very well written. I have noticed many commentors asking for a follow and or upvote. Kinda crazy but it happens!!!
It happens all the time. They're just following the patterns they learned form other social medias, which are only going to hurt you on an authentic platform like Steemit.
word!
Yeaa ... so many people do this . Or i upvote you upvote me back .....
Seriously, it needs to stop lol
......... what to say i will actualy follow and upvote blogs i like so ...
Excellent post, thank you. I've been seeing quite a few follow beggers lately and I usually refer them to this.
You're getting a lot, too? Man, it's been pretty bad lately. Especially on my trending posts -- but even on my lesser-exposed posts I've been getting them.
I had one guy unironically follow begging on a post about not follow begging... I explained to him what was going on and he pushed back so I just muted him. No time for that sort of stuff lol
Hahah... that's hilarious. Can't do much about stupid. I've also noticed some interesting cultural clashes as well. Things I think are completely ridiculous are normal to others and vice versa.
Good article, thank you for the provided information - especially the 50 SP needed for being able to actively contribute to the community were an information I was looking for. Not everything is to be found in the FAQ :-D cheers and don't flag me please,
Flagger ;-)
I think it's mentioned in an email you get when you sign up, but most people don't read those sorts of things :/
thanks shayne. I am definitely guilty of this in my first 2 weeks; although my steem power is only 30 I still have the loan?!
Correction the loan is gone and aim below 50.. what happens now?!?
I stopped doing that, and found i received followers just by making thoughtful comments on other people's posts.
Hey man. Just went through and upvoted about 20 of your posts and resteemed your 300 followers celebration post. Hope that helps.
thank you so much. I THINK by next week i'll be at 50 SP. Did I miss the intro that says USE this 30 days wisely or else?!? Your post should be a staple for new users!!
I don't know much more about the 30 day deadline than I posted. I hope everything works out for you. :)
it's cool. I even referenced your post and mentioned you. I'm sure you might have gotten some N00b followers :)
There are two types of people - those who build and those who take (aaaand may be 386425465 other types in between).
I've seen follow-beg a lot here, though some may consider it as a friendly approach, I believe most are quick-start-to-buck chasers. Also, relationship matters. On my other social media I rarely accept request based on... just-cause. I research them and usually talk to them before accepting.
Probably most of those follow-me-up-one-day-hit-n-run will die out of the platform eventually, and will realize it's not gonna work. I don't see them as ever succeeding.. yeah - they will learn the hard way. Then that energy put from the beg-forget-me-not-ers would have been stupidly wasted into the nothingness, as most would move out for the next win-me-quick-bucks fields/platforms so on..
In the end I'm a quality over quantity person. And in a platform like Steemit I believe it matters.
It sounds like you should write a post about this. If you do, remind me of this conversation and I'll come check it out :)
I have seen a couple of those... And I do really hate them.
I have also seen articles in the new feed which do the same thing. While those are also annoying, I do not think they deserve a flag.
I do think that you can ask for a follow, by writing an article explaining why somebody would want to follow you. (Basically #introduceyourself)
I honestly wouldn't flag anybody's blog post, unless it was an abusive scam -- and even then, I'd have to be certain that it wasn't a scam.
I have the opinion that if I don't like something, but it's not abusive or hurting anyone physically or financially -- basically, if it's just someone expressing their opinion on their own blog -- I'll just ignore it.
However, if someone persists in copy/pasting the same follow begging post on my blog, I'll probably warn them and then flag it if they don't listen, and probably mute the user if they demonstrate that they aren't going to change.
I have so many people making authentic comments on my blog that it isn't fair to waste time on people who are abusing the community.
I actually also flag for the same reasons. I am very generous with muting people.... There are some that just make my blood boil, so I would rather mute them than having to endure their nonsense.
What the hell lol!!
it's an idea machine from my mind straight to your post
What a beautiful idea machine …
Okay, but was your mind...um... altered altered in any way when you did this animation?
no, and i didn't make the animation. i found it on giphy.
Make it sense! thanks for the tips.
well i understand but that sounds aggressive. not every request is a beg. I wanted to write about one post of mine but i am now afraid to be flagged.
What, specifically, sounds aggressive?
Oh, and a good rule of thumb would be to not ask someone to follow you unless you've established a relationship with them.
if you want to promote something you believe in, why injecting outside money is more valuable than asking people for a favour?
I'm sorry, but I don't understand the point you're trying to make.
I want to tell you you are genius my friend
Well thanks but I'm pretty sure my IQ is around 100 or so. :)
Followed you. Will you follow me?
hovers mouse over "mute"
lol
and what about those generic replies like "nice post!" and random gifs.
these people probably don't even read the post, they just put a comment hoping that someone would upvote it or follow them.
hahahahaha Nice reply! man
This post has been ranked within the top 50 most undervalued posts in the second half of Jun 12. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $42.17 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Jun 12 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
That's a great tip for biginners
Definitely agree with that.
Really helpful article. I just became active on Steemit and looking around, i was having a strong inclination to start following everybody i could and start requesting them to follow me back just for the numbers game, but that makes no sense at all. Quality is way way more important than quantity.......can't agree more!
Im new to the community, this was a big heads up. Thank you !
These are some wise words! Dont be so desperate.
Play it cool man.
Wow, thanks for cluing me in on what the (+xxx) was in the Steem Power section! Thank you for this article. It is both helpful, encouraging, and informative for me (and those like me) who is new to Steemit and trying to figure out how best to grow and promote my page. Thanks!
Thanks for this. As a very, very new SteemIt user (as of, 15 minutes ago), this is helpful to know. I have a lot to learn!
Good to know especially since i'm new. Thanks for the info.
First I've heard of this. I've never have begged. Glad I didn't start. Thanks for the post.
I'll have to start using this as my new " @shayne says" response to follow beggars.
Since I'm brave enough to ask the dumb questions;
Is there a way to bookmark or sticky posts that I find especially useful and timeless so I don't have to scroll all the way down through my blog or comments to find them?
My family is in process of getting accounts and i'd like to be able to send them to some of the great posts I've found (since they're not going to listen to my advice).
I didn't see anything about that in the FAQ.
@shayne Follow beg look desperate. I think ore people nee to sse this post. Re-steemed
I follow back my followers as an appreciation to them .
Is this a bad thing?
I don't mind people asking for me to follow them if they give me a reason why.
"Follow me and I'll follow you" isn't much use if you're posting about flying squirrels and your passion for exotic spiders, but I'm interested in food and cryptocurrencies.
Great article @shayne!
Did you seriously say, not anarchy in the destructive sense... Definition: a state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority or other controlling systems. Why is this hard to understand. :(
Not recognizing authority isn't destructive.
:)
I'm liking this advice... When people ask, it feels forced...let it be a natural progression... of course you are going to follow those who you have a connection with
Right! If people want followers on Steemit, just treat people like they're your friend. Novel concept lol
I'm brand-new to SteemIt, and I am enjoying the active and reactive nature of the community here. It feels much more intentional and thoughtful. It's nice seeing the self-policing for annoying comment trends, for SURE. Thanks for a great article to help me understand it better!
Done!