Well kudos to you then. Considering we have whales, orcas, dolphins, minnows and red fish in the vocabulary I think remora fits in with the theme well and the term is worth getting it out there.
I mean they are not what I would call bad actors, but its also not exactly the sort of parasitic behaviour that we really want to encourage either?
"I mean they are not what I would call bad actors, but its also not exactly the sort of parasitic behaviour that we really want to encourage either?"
I think if we really think about it, it just feels scummier than it actually is. The truth is, many of us are here only because of the rewards. Otherwise, we would be posting and commenting on the Reddit of some other cryptocurrency with other interesting features, like Monero.
These "remoras" are just users who chose to "filter" by, say, wallet size first when deciding who to follow. I used that as a reason to follow some people early on, though partly because I thought these users would also be "the big players to know".
If they are attempting to vote/comment and gain votes, we may as well let their efforts stand on their own merits rather than judge them on their intentions (which we have to interpret). If they leave bad comments, ignore them. If they are mediocre, give out token upvotes. Some will learn and contribute, others can be ignored and are still better than spam, bots, or a wall of silence in your comments.
Well the potential rewards are one reason to be here, but I also really like the idea of being on a platform which isn't owned by some corporate and is instead effectively community owned and managed. Maybe I am in the minority with that attitude though.
I always make a point of trying to reply and upvote to everyone who comments on my posts and sometimes it isn't obvious which ones are spam when complements can be so generic, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. But yes, I do wonder sometimes if people are attracted to my SP or if they genuinely like my material. It's one of the things I've always had an issue with in Real Life is avoiding gold diggers and thieves by dressing like a bum. I can't do that here though because there are no secrets on the steem blockchain.
"I also really like the idea of being on a platform which isn't owned by some corporate and is instead effectively community owned and managed. Maybe I am in the minority with that attitude though."
Not at all. I used to write more about all the cool advantages of Steemit, for example, the applications to future historical study.
However, the rewards are by far the most obvious and widely-appealing factor. The vast majority of people on Facebook legitimately do not care they are censored and tracked.
"I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt."
That's been working fine for me, too. You start to get good at picking out the fake bot comments, and the rest are obvious.
Sounds like I should have a dig through some of your older material. I'll add that to my TODO list for the week :)
Here is a link to my "Wow, Steem is awesome for history post".
Someday, it will make a great indie band name: "Babylonian Blockchain"
https://steemit.com/steemit/@lexiconical/mining-the-babylonian-blockchain
Also, a special thanks again to @thecryptofiend, who resteemed this one for me and really helped me out early on.