It seems like there is a growing amount of spam out there. Not just on Steemit, but life in general. People who say words that have no value. People who want something for nothing. It's not about connection. It's not about relationship. It's about taking.
I like being in relationship with people who give. I'm a giving person and I can only give so long until I feel used. So when I'm friends with a giving person, we just give back and forth. It's great!
On Steemit, I look for people who are engage. I like following people who will comment on my stuff as well. Even if they're a newly-minted Red Fish and have 0 SP, I still want to hear their thoughts, even if they don't have an upvote to give. I want to build that relationship.
Thanks for encouraging positive engagement. It can be hard to produce good content sometimes, but positive engagement can be easy as soon as you decide to do so.
The spam is just a part of the territory. However I don't even entertain spam and if it starts to become a bigger issue for me then I may consider flagging. I have only flagged someone once.
One of my main focuses is to connect the content creator with the content consumer in order to create a relationship where both contribute to one another. That why I talk about giving and contributing so much because it is key to the success of everyone and not just the content creators.