I just finished watching a wonderful video by @meno who is one of my favorite authors here on Steem blockchain. Before continuing with my post, please check his video out here. My post will make a lot more sense after watching, as it's a follow-up to his video.

Quality is a subjective word and concept. You'll see it used a lot here on Steem though. You'll also see opposing words used to describe what's considered content lacking quality. And it doesn't feel great when someone disregards your feedback, or worse, downvotes you.

I'm apprehensive when teaching, although I'm quite talented at it (in person). I'm just bad at writing so it's something I've tried to invest in learning myself. I'm letting you know in advance, I don't consider myself your authority figure nor do I believe there are rules on the Steem blockchain. I'm also not an authority on this subject. I personally go as far as to reject the Etiquette Guide which I feel is outdated. Hey, call me a rebel.

So here I'm going to speak on what I've experienced and observed is rewarding commentary. I think the focus is best rewarding commentary because otherwise, we're wasting our time, alotted bandwidth, and possibly the vote we've given a piece of content. This on top of wasting the authors time as well.

Finding Content To Comment On

I've ignored the regular advice about commenting on top posts, hot posts, and big accounts. It's not bad advice. Sure, you could get some upvotes. But my first suggestion is COMMENT ON YOUR FRIEND'S POSTS. Some will find this to be circle jerky, but so what. There's a method to the madness. Your friends will engage you and probably upvote you. And if you don't have any friends, go out there and make some. It starts with following people you like, and just being present for them. Show up — a lot. Over time they will realize they cannot avoid your familiar face (or avatar in this case.)

Some users are great at ignoring people who comment. Whenever you're looking for people to follow, take a look at their blog and comments. Do they respond to other people? Do they upvote their commentators? Or is it a lot of one-sided conversation? If they post and run, save your time. Your relationship on Steem with them will be unrequited.

A quality Steem relationship starts with starting a real relationship in the first place. If the user you want to comment on doesn't seem to understand that relationships go both ways, you're going to have a hard time getting or keeping their attention.

If they have very few comments to begin with, there's nothing wrong with testing the waters. Maybe the reason they don't respond much is they have little to respond to and have just gotten used to not expecting comments. It can't hurt to try to jump-start dialog.

If you've established they're an engaging author then note their tone in their comments. Are they defensive in every response, or generally easy going? There's little point in offering your opinion to someone who will not VALUE your feedback (even if your feedback is a disagreement.) People WILL disagree with you, and you will disagree with them. Debate is a healthy thing. However, you will always win more attention when you agree with others, so choose your battles wisely.

Keep in mind, I'm not advising that you just go around agreeing with things that you don't agree with. Rather, find things you genuinely agree with if you decide to go this route. A quick start is using the search feature and sorting the results by most recent. Another helpful source is using the tag feature.

It's a smart idea to follow authors that consistently put out content you like. That way you don't have to hunt for new content every day. It will show up in your feed. I like to use @ginabot to follow authors I vote on regularly. And I keep my followers on Steemit a broad group (3x my followees) of Steemians in a variety of categories: from Bots to Witnesses to Authors.

Finding content that personally resonates with you is KEY to solid commentary. If you have found something that really moves you, speaking about it will come so easy that you'll have to worry if your comment is in fact too long — lol — not too short.

For example, @meno's video moved me to write this post. I've not yet commented on it though, because I have too much to say. So I'm saying it here, and I will comment on his post afterward.

The All Important Upvote

When you're new (like me) you have a limited number of upvotes you can share every day. So you will find that you can't upvote everything. That's okay. That doesn't mean you need to wait to leave a comment. Some will find it rude if you don't, because that's the paradigm of the original Steemit.com. But Steem blockchain is evolving with many new apps being built on it. And things are changing. It's okay to grow with it and not conform. Yes, I say so. Others will likely disagree with me. But I reckon those who will have never upvoted me anyway and you can't make everyone happy. Make yourself happy.

Upvote when you want to. If a piece of content deserves more money, upvote it.

Upvote when you have the power to. If you don't, leave your comment and return to upvote later.

@remind.bot is a wonderful tool that will remind you to come back and upvote a post when you've recharged.

When you are NEW, you can only do what you can. Do NOT feel too guilty. I OFTEN feel apprehensive due to my low voting power but I battle that apprehension and it works out better. Test this and see if it works for you too.

Time To Comment!

1. Author is Engaging — check!
2. Upvoted (or not) — check!
3. Content is genuinely moving — check!

Time to leave your comment. If you don't know how to leave a comment, you would be well to login to the Steemit.com interface because it makes commenting easier. Busy.org is another comment friendly interface.

How To Use The Comment Feature on Steemit.com by @steempowerwhale is a great Tutorial on how to use the comment feature on Steemit.com

So you got this far? But what should you say?

How Not To Spam

I'm not a fan of the word should. I really try not to use that word because it's a bully word. We all slip up sometimes (me too.) I can't tell you what you should write. But I can give you a process to consider before writing.

While your comments may not be spam you are well to understand what others consider to be spam. This is because if they mistake your comments as spamming, you've wasted your time and bandwidth. And you could get flagged.

• If you don't know a person or they do not know you, and you've not had significant back-and-forth communication; then a 1 sentence comment could be viewed as spam.

• If you have pasted your comment or have written many similar comments previously, your comment could be viewed as spam.

• If your comment is mostly focused on yourself and getting them to do something (like follow, upvote, join your group, etc.), with few exceptions, this could be viewed as spam.

• If you drop your links without being invited to, or if it is not relevant to the conversation; this could be viewed as spam.

But wait. My English is horrible!

It is better to comment in your own language, at full length, than to leave a shorter — less meaningful — comment in English.

Responding

If you've read the whole article, watched the video, listened to the audio, view the photo, or otherwise absorb the content of the post, it's likely you already have a comment brewing inside of you. If your comment seems stuck, here are some questions you can ask yourself.

Can you relate to the content or empathize with it?

Can you offer sympathy, empathy, understanding, or support?

What do you appreciate most about the content and/or the author?

Do you agree or disagree with the content?

Do you like or dislike the content?

Can you add additional information to what is being conveyed in the content?

How does the content make you feel?

What stood out the most within the content?

How did you find the content?

Have you THANKED them for moving you with their content?

General Tips and Strategy

Here are some sentences prompts that may warm up your throat Chakra...

• I appreciate this because _______
• This post made me feel like _______
• Thanks for your post. However, I disagree about _______
• Wow. I found this amazing because _______
• I totally agree because _______
• My favorite thing about your post is _______
• I was just reading about this topic! I learned _______
• I feel _______ about this because _______
• This photograph is _______ to me because _______
• I really like the _______ in your music because _______

When you are stuck, add the word because or feel and let them lead you.

@researchgeek made an excellent contribution in the comments. Asking a question is also a way to start an engaging conversation.

Comment Length

1 sentence or less is okay when you have ongoing back-and-forth communication with someone.

2-3 sentences is a concise and thoughtful communication.

3+ sentences is generally considered meaningful.

These are just observations, not rules.

Validation

Validation is a sensitive topic because nobody wants to feel like they're being intentionally manipulated. However, it's important to understand that your actions and lack of actions prompt other people's behavior. And if you're validating or invalidating people incorrectly, you may not get the results you desire.

You will never know how someone will react or respond to you. Everyone has their own triggers and what may cause them to become up in arms. You can't possibly prepare for it. There are people who will always respond defensively. There are people who don't like compliments and people who do. There are people who don't like critique and those who want it. There are people who don't like contributions and those who do. So it's a good idea to try to get to know an author before commenting on their content. But even when you do, you will sometimes get surprised anyway. That's okay. Try not to take it personal in a negative way.

1. You know how awful it feels to be ignored. Therefore, if an author has upvoted your comment or responded to you, it's important not to ignore them. The only thing worse than being ignored is going out of your way to respond to a response and be ignored on your own page. That feels like you are just on a mission to comment and don't really mean what you said. Now of course, you can't keep the conversation going forever. And often there is not much more to say. But making a gestural upvote or leaving another comment below their response validates that you appreciate their acknowledgment of your comment. And it reinforces the likelihood they will give a damn about you next time you leave a comment. The longer you are here, the more you will discover it's just IMPOSSIBLE to keep up with all your commentary. It's well to just be mindful of doing your best to validate those authors that you are most interested in a relationship with.

2. If you feel disrespected, ignore it. There are times that you will want to reassert your boundaries, argue, debate or feel provoked into a side conversation that has nothing to do with your original remark. This often happens due to a misunderstanding. Unless you're truly interested in ironing it out, just leave it alone and let it go. When you give attention to something, you give it value. So you may want to think twice about crusading, validating what you don't want, and giving things your energy that don't deserve it.

3. There is NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE (and many will disagree with this) if YOU ARE NOT SORRY. There is no use in patronizing apologies. And nobody is above you here where you have to pander to them no matter how big their account is. Nobody is on a pedestal here. In fact, if you crawl beneath others, you are positioning YOURSELF there. Your opinion has value to YOU and others, even if the author you respond to doesn't think so — someone else may. There is no need to feel intimidated to conform to them, even if it's their blog — it is a public forum. Apologies are a strong form of self-degrading validation. So when you apologize, make sure you are hurting yourself for a good reason — such as when you're genuinely imposing, wrong, or rude. Likewise, be careful to not expect apologies. Nobody owes you that.

4. When everything goes as intended, CELEBRATE! You love the content, promote it. Resteem it or comment at length. Upvote if you can. Praise it. Go link it on other social media. Shill shill shill. If you want more of something, validate validate validate. Post about it. Tell your friends. Carry a sign. Be a fan. Follow. Heart it. Bot it. Fan the fire. Because the way to really get more of what you want is to LET PEOPLE KNOW WHAT YOU WANT — not by TELLING people, "I want more of this." (Although that works too!) But by PRAISING, CELEBRATING, and ENGAGING with what you love. THAT is how you make an impact.

When you validate what you want more of, and ignore what you want less of, change happens.

When you fight what you don't want, while ignoring what you do want, you will always be fighting.

Sincerity Score

If you are using the @steem-plus extension for your browser, you may notice it will label some accounts Human, Bot, or Spammer. These are not Steem rankings. These are rankings of a third party service called Steem Sincerity geared toward helping with the identity of spammers and phishers. As annoying sometimes as bots and scores can be (trust me, I engage with these services often to offer them feedback) please consider that Steem blockchain is constantly being attacked by malicious accounts trying to put viruses and spyware on people's devices.

When you have a free and open network like a blockchain, sometimes destructive code gets unleashed thereon. To protect the users of the platforms (some uneducated about viruses and spyware); bots and services (@abusereports, @transparencybot, @pleasestop, @grammarnazi, and more) are scanning the blockchain looking for accounts and behavior that look strange or sketchy.

It can be VERY annoying to be the target of these automated services and misunderstood by them. But remember, they're robots not people. Sometimes when you're catching crabs, a fish ends up in the trap. If this ever happens to you, try giving some valuable feedback instead of downvoting them. Look at it as an opportunity to practice your commenting skills! :)

If you are using the @steem-plus plugin, it's literally 1 click to mark your commentators as human if they are human. Please do your part. Likewise, if you are a commentator, it take 1 click to mark someone else human. This will help services in the future be less annoying to humans. And it will help them catch more viruses and malicious code.

Final Words

This may be an unwelcomed revelation, but the Steem blockchain has NO RULES. So, technically, you can spam all you want. You can leave terrible comments. And nobody can stop you. And frankly, if that's what you want to do — I sure as hell won't stop you. My interpretation of the blockchain is, if you're human; whatever text you drop on the blochain is your prerogative.

But — and this is a big butt but — automated phishing and malicious code is not human. It's rouge. And it has no natural rights. So I also feel that anti-spam crusades sort of have a right to try to get rid of harmful code on the blockchain. And unfortunately, attackers usually pretend to be people while building up a powerful account to launch their attack. That's where mistaking you as a spammer or bot might be detrimental.

That means it would be in YOUR favor to let everyone know you're a real PERSON. That doesn't mean you have to show your face here, but especially in the absence thereof, it is very helpful to YOU to show yourself to be trust worthy. In time, you may be whitelisted by services. And you can always do your part by leaving great comments and by validating great comments and content overall.

Practice Makes Perfect

If you found this article valuable, practice your commentary by leaving a comment below.

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Additional Tags: #bescouted #steemiteducation #how-to #steem-promo #steemers #minnowsunite #promo-steem #help #redfish #minnowsupportproject #minnow-support #education @smg @helpie @schoolofminnows

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Are you online every day? Do you use all of your Steem Power?

If you can spare to loan 1 SP while I build up my own,
it will keep this little Minnow swimming.
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