Here's something that really ticks me off to no end, when someone who is an active participant takes the time to comment on a post and receives no reply whatsoever. This, in my opinion, is NO way conducive to building community.
We are all aware of the thousands of people who misuse and abuse the ecosystem and platform by spamming posts, however, if another individual is taking time out to read your post in its entirety, takes the time to think about what you said and add his or her honest feedback, thoughts and ideas with you, the least you can do is comment back even if you don't upvote.
Instead of seeking rewards for posting your comment, try engaging with others so that they too may gain something from the exchange, creating a win-win situation instead of the interaction being more one sided, with YOU on the receiving end and the minnows receiving little and often times, not receiving anything for their efforts.
I want to see a more fair platform here at Steemit where everyone's efforts are rewarded, unless of course the individual is abusing the platform by copying and pasting other people's content, spamming, abusing the flag and downvote options, etcetera.
If newcomers are turned away by this seemingly selfish behavior by larger accounts, then what is the point in promoting Steemit?
And I HAVE promoted the hell out of Steemit for months now, by the way. I also go out of my way to promote great people on the site who are worthy of being rewarded and resteem great content so others may enjoy the same material as I have.
We need to work together to create a winning platform that will surpass all other social networking sites, and encourage people to create content instead of the infighting I've read about recently and abusing other active members.
I want to encourage active dialogue between users so that this site is genuinely a socially focused instead of being a place to post your content and watch others make a shit ton of currency off what they normally post on Facebook for free.
Otherwise, there's simply little reason for me to spend as much time here as most of what I do as a newcomer is comment to others who are rank higher in reputation in hopes to raise my own reputation score.
It's not so much about the money for me, but I am more concerned about increasing my reputation, and this is why I honestly take the time to post comments that are well thought out and considerate in hopes to generate conversation.
As a newcomer myself, I've read quite a ton of information in hopes of building up my account, am active nearly everyday, placing greater emphasis on commenting rather than posting as suggested. The whales know this and I think other people do also, and perhaps this is why they aren't actively engaging in the comment section with minnows? I don't know, but it's something that seriously takes away from the site when you have people saying things like, "Oh, look they're commenting on a post in hopes to get a whale's attention." When did social media become about power and control instead of honest conversation? When did you being a whale become that you're better than someone else because you've more Steem Power, and have been on the site longer than someone who just began engaging? I think not, I think it's high time some of these people come off of their high horse and let others gain a little from the platform!
If you feel the same, please feel free to comment and if you disagree, I'd like to hear your thoughts as well! Let's have an honest discussion!!