McFollows.
Most of us have a few of them. They come in many forms, but let's give a proper shout out to some of the more obvious ones.
(1.)Steemers who throw a superficial three word comment at one of your posts then declare that they are following you now, and you should follow them too.
(2.)Steemers seem to simply follow thousands of people and never really post anything.
(3.)Steemers who auto upvote you and have never ever engaged with you, not even once.
These three in particular bothered me way too much until...
Until I gave it few minutes thought.
I WON'T PRETEND TO BE A MIND READER, BECAUSE IT IS FAIRLY DIFFICULT, IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW SOMEBODY'S INTENT, HEART, OR REASONING, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO OFFER UP SOME THOUGHTS ON THIS.
(1.) Follow me I'll follow you: Slightly annoying. This is basically a show me your's and I'll show you mine maneuver. Yeah it's really that low grade in my view. I think many who play in this fashion look at steemit as a get rich quick scheme, and once they find out that it isn't they'll either leave or change. Can't knock a guy/girl for trying, but a little ostracism goes along way if they become pushy about it.
●I'll follow you if I decide your content is good enough to hold my interest and not a moment sooner. Thanks.
(2.) Follows thousands (including you), but posts basically nothing.
Not real sure of the reasoning behind this, but it really does me and the platform little to no harm. At least as far as I can see.
(3.) Auto upvotes who never engage you
I found this particulary strange unil I understood curation rewards a little better. (Also the concept of throwing the minnows a few coins to encourage them thus helping in the long term the over all value of the platform, while earning a few coins worth of curation rewards.)
Like it or not most everyone wants some form of affirmation.
●It was strangely some of these very Mcfollows that encouraged me to continue to post content on steemit. (Especially before I understood even the most basic facts about how it works.)
●Quite honestly I have no idea the impact that my content has on my followers.
As an anecdote: When I was on Facebook I had dozens of "scanners" who later confided in me that they Loved my posts, however they never commented liked any of them. So maybe I was some sort of encouragement to them. Maybe I lit some kind of spark in them? Who knows?
●We all have a long way to go. Just because somebody is a _____ today doesn't mean they will remain that way. I'm not equal to who and what I was just a week ago, and I expect there are many others who that applies to.
The best we can do is lead by example and when some of us get too unhinged with bad and odd behavior let them know about it.
However as we do this, we should be humble enough to realize that we were once most likely not as good as we are now and are not as good as we can be in the future.
As much as I prefer an engaging and challenging conversation each and every follow I have is in some sense a brick in the blockchain that has kept me here.
Just a few of my thoughts on this topic. As always I look forward to any input or insights that you might have.
~Photo credit: *Methdonalds" meme found on the interwebs.
Upvote if you liked it, follow if you want to see more and, resteem if you think others will like it.
Selah.