I kind of disagree.
Not all posts have anything to do with 'debate'. Like kitty videos or taco videos, result more in an 'awwwww' or a 'what $25k??' responses.
Upvotes only are super anonymous. Upvotes only leads to less community, less conversation (You never would have written an response, I never would have replied to you.).
No comment = no name recognition, no community building, no personal connection to the author one avoids sharing a comment with.
It's a tough line determining what short comments are 'spam' and what are the equivalent of a 'hi, that's neat'. Multiple similar comments across posts may not be amazing or add anything in particular, but forcing people to stay silent doesn't add anything either.
'I upvoted and resteemed you' is something I would get a smile out of seeing on something I've posted. Having said that....
Granted, depending, it can also be/be seen as disguised 'upvote me too! follow me!'. (like taniya3d's comment down below)
Maybe if it's more than 20ish duplicate comments across posts (because then they're unlikely to actually be upvoting the articles), then that certainly gives credence to what you're saying/the argument you're making.
@haveyouvisited. You make some good points, and I certainly take them on board.
Before I make a warning like that I usually check the users other comments and posts to assess wheteher he is a spammer or just a genuine well-wisher who can’t write many words of English.
However this guy (@insiders )made more than 50 - maybe more than 100, (I gave up scrolling back), comments all saying virtually the same thing “upvote & resteem”. There was not one comment by him in at least the last 50 comments which remotely referred to the subject matter of the blog.
Based on my checks, I am fairly convinced he is just making the same comments on every post in the hot and trending sections, as opposed to newbies with no followers, so he is not helping beginners along.
As for languages, he has been commenting on posts in English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Cantonese and Spanish. I doubt he reads all of those languages.
I think I was too generous in giving him the benefit of the doubt. But I did. If he does not change, I will flag him, as will others.
I know writers need to be encouraged, and if I can change his behaviour, writers will be encouaged more, and he will earn more.
That sounds like it was a good call then. I appreciate the effort you put into the investigation etc, and that you commented instead of downvoted.
I tend to not like downvotes. I don't see how mass adoption can happen with the present system where there's no protection or recourse for 'bad' downvoting against one's account by someone(s) with more clout (know a great author with $100+ articles and 65ish rep whose account got wiped out by one guy with a ton of SP).
Why don't you reach out to these people you feel are acting in this way via a private Steemit Chat first to help them in a more private setting?
I, as a relatively new member have no clue how to even find Steemit chat.I think @swissclive is on to something here. Sure, he could go to Steemit Chat, but,
I also know that many do this, I've seen it in hundreds of posts. Many don't read tutorials, faqs and etiquette type posts. They don't realize that asking for upvotes and follows is against etiquette.
I think that @swissclive was very diplomatic in his post and not only did he let this specific offender know he let many others know in the process.
Hi @steematt, thanks very much for the idea. It’s an idea worth exploring. It will be interesting to see if he actually notices the private chat message. Have you some experience of this kind of situation and how it worked?
As you can see in my comment I did not flag him or downvote, but rather encouraged him to write something worthy of upvotes.
It’s difficult to strike the right balance in these kinds of situations as anything one says could be misunderstood, so I try to be as helpful as possible.
I do realise that for many they are writing in a foreign language, which means it is difficult to write long comments. I try to take that into account when assessing the situation.
Some of the people I commented changed their behaviour and started to earn more money by writing interesting and thoughtful comments.
I would be interested to learn of any experiences you have had with suspected spammers, and what worked and what didn’t.
Hi @swissclive. I made a mistake early on in my first week on steemit trying to call someone out for selling their steem while they were blogging to promote people buying it. I was so sure I saw their conflicting actions in their wallet that I called them out for it on their post. The poster got extremely defensive and sort of reprimanded me for not addressing my thoughts in that sense within a private chat. It was a misunderstanding on my part per their defense. Since then, I've sort of agreed to that in my mind and occasionally speak up to help everyone involved avoid any potential public shame.
Understood. Public shame can be very distressing for the recipient. That's why when doing it in a public forum I try to be very gentle to start with "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you were genuinely trying to encourage the poster". The problem is that steemitchat is foreign to many users here, so I am not sure it would work with someone who hasn't even understood steemit etiquette yet.