I used to include an image in my signature and every blog post hit would register a view on the image hosting service, but then that stopped working.
Yep, leaving some tiny transparent and almost invisible images scattered through your posts and especially at the end of your posts was one of the dirty tricks that "The Omniscient Feature" used to track if your content had been unfolded fully. And through an external image storage service, the counter added one more view into the statistics only if the ip address that caused it was different. Not that it was perfect. Since not everyone would include images or sigs at the end of their articles. But I did use it only as a proof of concept.
The best indication is genuine engagement. Can't get that without first bringing in eyes.
I agree. But it's been too many years, even long before steemit and the existence of social networks on the blockchain. That I know that there are way more people who consume my content without daring to say a single word than those who actually do that but also comment and engage. Hahahaha
Hey man I'm sure my stuff is a guilty pleasure for some as well. It never bothered me though. Most of my stuff over the years has been arts and entertainment based. I've no problem with someone just coming into my shop to browse, maybe see a few things they like, then leave. No problem with that at all. Comes with the territory.
But I do and have been pushing for more focus placed on the consumption aspect, putting that before the content aspect. Trying to show folks that it's okay to earn a bit from a comment, rather than posting nonstop for nothing and no audience, then giving up. Can't fail as a content consumer. That role needs to be propped up and embraced. And another thing, what we're doing right now, talking; this is that microblogging stuff people keep saying we don't have here and need here. The comment section. That's where most folks talk on social media. But here it seems folks show up to post and want the big bucks; a comment that pays way more than anywhere else, is nothing, yet people love doing it for free, everywhere, all day, nonstop. It's so weird.
Yeah, what mainly motivates me to create content online usually is to create debate about what I have published. Too often seeking no one agrees with what I've exposed and give me the opportunity to learn something new.
I guess it's just a hobby of mine to try to create or gain consciousness. This is what I really find fun in social networks and what is really worth extracting from them. LoL
But I am afraid that when there is easy money to make, short time available and greed is involved in the human interaction, knowledge, awareness and learning takes a backseat and makes my hobby a bit too much of no use.
In practice I see it working fine. See all those folks having fun in my comment section? That's not because of money.
Yeah! in practice, I admit that part of that appreciation may be true since your native tongue is English and your posts are neither as provocative nor controversial as mine.
However I reckon that in your case, there will still be some peeps out there who keep the hope that an upvote from you at 100% of your VP on their comments can make their day with $3.26 instead of only $0.08 from an instigator cranky gandalf. LoL
I don't upvote comments at full power. Wouldn't have enough voting power if I did that.
Yep, I know that. But that doesn't scare them away from the hope and illusion that you could do it even by mistake. };)