All of us are familiar with replies along these lines: “Great post! I upvote you, pls upvote back” or “Hello dear friend, I followed you, follow me back!”
Oblivious Spammers?
Clearly we are dealing with spammers here. At first I wasn't so sure. They could just be Steemians from non-English speaking countries trying to connect to te rest of the world using the only English they know. But then, as I started checking out these peoples' comment pages I found out they did indeed send the exact same comment to about 15 tot 25 people every day. So: spammers, maybe obliviously, but still: spammers!
Great post! I upvote you, pls upvote back!
I don't like spam, I don't want it, don't need it, pisses me off. I mean, everyone is new at one point and needs to learn a lot. But some lessons seem to need to be brought to those people. They're not going to search for it themselves. So I decided to go against my own principles.
Standard Reply
Although I am against standardised messages I have been using the exact same reply lately because I noticed I kept trying to rephrase the same message over and over and over again, for no reason because the message I tried to get across was the same every time.
What I did was I created a ready-to-go reply in which I offer these spammers a chance to better their ways. Because maybe a lot of these noobs (most of these spammers have just arrived on the Steemit blockchain) are just copying their followers and peers and aren't aware of their annoying behavior.
Naive or Not
Sure, you might say that that is very naive of me but nevertheless I still like giving people another option. At least I do my best to help out newbies instead of ignoring them or getting angry at them (I tell myself ;-)).
Free To Use
Here is the standard message I use. Feel free to copy it into a document so you can use and adjust it to your own means.
Hello 
I see you are new on Steemit. I also see you have commented on many posts with the exact same text. That makes me put you in the category 'spammer', so you will not get a follow or an upvote from me.
I suspect it is because you are new here and you are a bit clueless. So, let me help you!
Here are some posts for newbies with helpful information on how to make money on Steemit, connect to people, et cetera. Maybe they can help you get on your way. They sure helped me!
What Not To Do On Steemit
Thumb Rules For Newbies
60 Steem Video Tutorials For Beginners
Steem On and Have fun!