Yesterday, I cast my first downvote and it made me feel a little dirty as I have an aversion to 'being a dick' (most of the time). But, after some deep reflection on the 'Don't be a dick' philosophy, I have come to the conclusion that the 'Dick that is being' is on the part of the Spam commenter.
I have therefore decided that it is not good enough for me to attend SPAMfest 2017 feat. f4f and Nice Post without at least pulling some of the weight to attempt to curb such behaviour. After all, I want this platform and community to grow into a healthy ecosystem where we can all benefit and these accounts are slowly destroying the chance.
Firstly however, before downvoting I checked the account and their comments tab. This message had been cut and pasted over and over:
Hello and welcome, I am also new on tihs site like you, follow me _______ and vote together we can succeed Good luck
The worst thing? The typo which has also been cut and pasted over and over. I went back to my post and commented:
Buddy, before cut and pasting your comment here for the hundredth time, do a little research first.
Firstly, you may notice that next to the name there is a little number. That is the reputation and comes from upvotes on content and builds over time. For example, next to your name is a 31, next to mine is 67. What can be loosely inferred by this is the age of the membership.
Also, try reading the article you are going to comment on itself. It will also hint at whether the cut and paste comment you have chosen is suitable.
Lastly, a reputation can be increased by upvotes or decreased by downvotes. If you were to downvote me, not much happens. If I were to downvote you, that is a different story. I have never downvoted anyone yet but these cut and paste comments are getting tiresome.
Yes, we can succeed together but not if you continue to approach the platform the way you are currently.
Now, I wasn't expecting this to help at all which it didn't but, I felt better about the downvote. When downvoting, I will always try to comment why although with the sheer number of nonsense comments, it likely won't be a long comment. Perhaps I should create some cut and paste responses? The irony.
I will also try to do my due diligence and check the accounts comments section to see if this really is spam or someone saying 'Good post' because they are really busy and their kid is hungry and crying but felt they should leave a read receipt. Generally, those that do this are already known to me as regular readers though.
Downvoting costs to cast which is obviously a good thing until there is more time and SP being spent on downvoting than upvoting but, it seems that it has to be done as the spamming is in plague proportions. So, I will play my part reluctantly and start downvoting these people who are trying to get a user base to support them in perhaps the most ineffective way possible.
It has been a long time since I signed up but perhaps when people first get approved they should read:
Welcome to Steemit and
DON'T SPAM!
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]