Welcome back to Dolphin school where I share what I’ve learned, and occasionally ask a few questions I’d like to know more about on my way from tiny dolphin to whale status!
Comments put the “social” in social media. Here on Steemit, with a lack of newsfeeds, such as Twitter and Facebook profiles have, the comment threads are the best place to meet new people and establish friendships and alliances. They’re also a great place to share your opinions and engage in debate. It’s pretty simple, and you’ve likely figured it out all ready, but after I explain how the basic comments work, stick around, we’ll talk about the “replies” feature, including one thing you probably did not know!
Comments can be made on any post, or other comment
Early on, the comment nesting feature was limited, due to inherent limitations in the technology. Consequent changes have opened it up so that comment threads can go on forever, creating some great opportunities for active conversation, the best way to find new people to follow, and gain followers for your own posts and comments.
To comment, simply select the “reply” button under any title listed in the categories list, or directly below any post. This will open up a text box. Type in your comment and hit “post” to send your reply out into Steemit to continue the conversation.
Replying to comments
To really get the conversation going, you need a volley back and forth. To reply to a comment on ANY post in Steemit, made by any user, simply select the “reply” feature underneath the comment and add your reply. It’s as simple as that.
Why can’t I add a comment?
Once a post has reached its one week point and rewards have been paid out, it becomes an uneditable part of the blockchain and no further comments are possible. Sorry. Look for a newer conversation to join.
Mentioning another user
Recently, the ability to mention other users has been added. Simply use the @ symbol and type the name of the profile you want to mention, or add a link to their content and they will be informed, via notifications of your mention. This is another great way to start or continue a conversation. These mentions can be used in a comment, reply, or post.
Reading my replies
- At the top of your profile just under the header you’ll find a bar with four radio buttons. Blog, Comments,Replies,Rewards.
- The blog button takes you to your blog where you will see all stories you’ve posted, or resteemed.
- The Comments button takes you to your own comments on posts
- The Replies Button takes you to replies made to your posts and comments.
- The rewards button takes you to a synopsis of reward payouts to your account.
You can follow conversations by using the replies and comments buttons. If you want to see more of the thread a comment is from, look just below it for two options, one to see the direct “parent” or previous comment, one to see the entire comment thread.
These are really handy to me, since I don’t always see my notifications, and once you click on the red notifications button on your header, it goes back to default. This is how I conduct most conversations.
But, you can also spy on my comments, replies and pretty much everything else too!
Yep, many of you haven’t found this yet. But, if you click onto the avatar of another user and follow it to their profile, you have full access to everything they’ve ever done on Steemit.
All of it.
You can see their posts, comments, replies, rewards, transfers, who they sent steem to, every last bit. It feels a bit voyeuristic, honestly, but there’s a treasure trove of data in their!
Want to know how I got 150 new followers over the past 36 hours? You can follow my footsteps, in great detail! Just want to see my comments, come on in, I couldn’t hide them if I wanted to.
This type of radical transparency is one of the things that convinced me Steemit was not a scam. Where would that hide it?
This feature allows you to study the style and topics of any user. It also allows you to directly engage them in conversation, not just on their post, but anywhere they have commented, or replied! So if you are targeting some bigger voters, why not scroll through and find some places to chat with them? It can’t hurt.
Well, that’s about it for comments and replies, again, if you have any other tips, please add them!
Upvote me and resteem me if you enjoy my content. Love comments. I’ll try to reply to all of them.
this is a very useful post even for long time steemians who aren't growing but keep rehearsing the same things over and over and can't figure out why they're not getting ahead
Uh, yeah...change is hard :)
Anticipation is hard, fear of change is hard, change is always instantaneous, it happens when we stop trying and do.
Hopefully, this next hardfork will make rising to the middle of the pack and making a decent income from steem easier.
you're such a positive guy! lol But seriously, I hope so
Well, if what I'm reading is true, $5000 payouts will be very rare, while the smaller, $300 payouts should become more common, and achievable with minnow votes.
yeah, a more even playing field would make the site seem more credible to potential adopters - those large payments may entice the curious to try out steemit, but they quickly get discouraged, especially at the beginning, and leave feeling bitter. It's happpened with some of my friends - insulted over low rewards for quality posts and resentful at what earned large payouts
I'm not looking for equality, but a one to one ratio on vote power would be a huge improvement. Instead, whale votes are hopelessly weighted.
I totally agree - well put.
Great share! :) Loved your post. Can you advise me on Where would be a great place to comment? How can I comment effectively?
You're doing it right now. I'm giving this comment an upvote, because you are asking the right questions!
Wow, thank you. Now I am starting to understand a little bit.. :)
You're moving in the right direction. As long as your reputation score keeps growing (the number in the round bubble by your avatar) and you keep gaining followers, you'll get there.
Total transparency - incredibly beneficial and frightening at the same time!
Gotta love Steemit.
It is really only frightening if it's one sided, like with us, and the government.
No one likes a relationship where one side constantly gives and the other constantly takes. I totally see your point.
The transparency is awesome! Definitely something social media had been lacking up until this point. Thanks for the info!
Social media? Hell, I dream of a government with that kind of transparency.
Exactly! Or businesses at a minimum! Maybe some day......
yep, either would be great. but it has to go both ways, can't just be us being transparent to them, like it is now.
I agree!
is the 'avatar to another user' does that mean their profile pic? i am grateful for your post and really enjoyed learning a little in dolphin school -- will be watching out for more hints -- good value
That's what I was referring to, yes.
That's cool about what clicking on the avatar will do.
Right? all kinds of stuff you can find out.
this is great! This will help me to get started!