I'm going to share with you a recent exchange I had and dissect why I think the user has a very bad approach. Hopefully this will help to keep the Steemit community friendly and open, which is the goal I have in mind in posting this.
For the sake of the other user, I'm not going to tag them because, honestly, I don't want anyone getting bad press from me. It's not my intention to judge or pull down anyone here, which is the point of this post.
Here's the exchange
Point number 1
Don't criticize the way other people manage who they follow -- that's just rude... dang.
Like, you can if you really want to, but I wouldn't recommend it because it's just plain inconsiderate -- It's really not a good way to make friends.
I mean, c'mon -- it's nobody else's business to criticize who I follow and for what reason. Not everybody uses social media in the same way. Just because someone doesn't do things they way you do isn't a reason to call them out on it. That's just... weird, and a little bit solipsistic.
Never have I ever thought to judge why someone was or wasn't following me. It is everyone's free choice to follow whoever they like, and if you like the content I produce, or if you think that upvoting my posts will get you decent curation rewards, then I'm happy. If you don't like my content and don't want to follow or upvote my posts -- I'm also happy. You are your own person and I respect your choices.
I wouldn't dare to criticize why someone doesn't follow me. Partially because I respect everyone's right to follow whoever they want, and partly because I'm not desperate for followers and never have been, even when I didn't have any.
There are many great ways to build an authentic audience, and this isn't one of them.
Point number 2
The people I follow are either:
- Content creators with whom I like to stay updated
- People with whom I've established a good relationship
If you are someone who replies to my posts regularly, or I reply to yours regularly, and we have established a relationship in some way, I'm probably going to follow you at some point. Also, if you are a content creator who's work I like, I'll follow you to stay current with your work. Or if you're a personal friend of mine.
That's it.
I don't follow for follow. I don't beg for followers. I don't ask people to follow me. And I certainly wouldn't chastise anyone if they didn't follow me back -- that's pathetic.
Point number 3
Trying to guilt or bully people into following you is about as low class as it gets.
If you are the sort of person that would do something like that, please go ahead and unfollow me and mute me right now -- I don't want you upvoting my stuff or commenting on my posts.
The kind of people I want following me are the 99% of you that get it: it's you guys, who are thoughtful and engaged, who leave great comments and start interesting debates, who make us laugh or think about things differently.
I love you guys!
But if you're trying to guilt people into following you, I want nothing to do with you. Yuck...
What do you guys think?
I'd really like your views on this one.
Personally, this is just something that really bugs me. It hasn't happened often here on Steemit, but I guess with more people joining the platform, you're going to get more good but also more bad.
I really want to see a community on Steemit that is authentic and supportive, not critical of each other about stupid stuff.
So let me know in the comments below :D