Don’t worry if your spam isn't upvoted. There is a reason for everything, and everything is there for a reason. Your spam being flagged and not attracting any upvotes probably also has a reason. In this exclusive Steem-tutorial, we will take a look at all your issues. Because spammers have a right to be heard, too.
If you’re new to this series, I suggest you start at the beginning. Experienced spammers are welcome to dive right into this sixth episode, of course.
Previous tutorials:
Part 1: The importance of staying motivated
Part 2: About the nature of spammy comments
Part 3: The importance of being positive
Part 4: Personal feedback on your spam
Part 5: Importance of being misunderstood
Why Philosophy?
Philosophy is a largely undervalued domain. Why would you want to bother about logical fallacies and things that have to do with the meaning of life, when all you want is TO MAKE MONEY FAST on Steem? Of course, this might seem far fetched. But philosophy is often taken as something alien and hugely difficult. Let me tell you – philosophy can be difficult. (Check out this philosophy post for instance, complete BS.) But philosophy is also lots of other things. For instance when you hear someone make a comment and you know exactly what they do not understand. But of course this is all still too complicated stuff when you just want to make a few bucks.
Let us look at something that philosophers master above all: asking the right question. Philosophers are annoying people, precisely because they ask so many questions. Asking questions, even when something seems so very clear—this is what we can call the ‘philosophical turn’. Please note that to keep things simple, we will not focus on asking the right question, simply on the art of asking questions itself.
Advantages of the Philosophical Turn
Let us just list some of the advantages of the philosophical turn, especially for spammers. They reduce the need for time investment, while at the same time giving your comments an appearance of mental investment. More for less, so to say.
But let’s look at some of those advantages: Please not that some have possible negative consequences for die-hard spammers.
- Questions hide the fact that you haven’t read the article you are responding to.
- A question has a simple grammatical structure. One of the keys to a good question is the so-called ‘question-mark’: “?”
- Questions can be short, but still make people think.
- Questions are inviting people to respond. PLEASE NOTE: When you do not respond to an answer given to you in a fruitful and engaging manner, your spamminess may still shine through. Be aware of this before you apply the Philosophical Turn.
- Questions can be completely honest, but of course you can also make them up on the spot.
- Any sentence from any article can be made into a question. Even copy-pasting a sentence from the article, and adding “What do you mean with this?” can be a great way to engage the author in a semi-spammy but totally acceptable manner.
- Asking questions requires no knowledge of the topic at hand.
All in all, with a little willingness to follow-up on possible answers given to you, the Philosophical Turn can lead to a happy spammer. And that is all we want, after all.
Steps to Follow for a Philosophical Turn
So let us take a look at how to actually go about the Philosophical Turn.
- Find an article you want to spam. I suggest to take articles with either average to high amount of words, or with some original pictures. Do not spend too much time on choosing the right article. Any article can be spammed, after all.
- Select a sentence, somewhere from the middle of the article. Copy that sentence into the comment section.
- Add some formatting and perhaps some words to form a question. There are a lot of options here, make sure you vary these along the way:
A) Add a question mark at the end of the sentence.
B) Put quotation-marks around the sentence. Then ask about the meaning of the quotation.
C) Start the sentence with a statement regarding your own state of confusion, which can be followed by the quoted part. (Don’t forget quotation marks!) - Hit that comment button.
- Move on to the next article and repeat from point 1.
I wish you the very best with the Philosophical Turn.
May all Spammers obtain philosophical depth!
Satire: The Power of Positivity and how you can stick it where the sun don't shine
Short story: Beginning of Life
I love this so much.
I thought writing a PhD thesis on Kripke's interpretation of a tiny de-contextualised chunk of Wittgenstein would prepare me for a lucrative life of Steemit spam, but I was wrong!
I can't even think of a relevant question. Is this why I have no lambo yet?
A PhD can only bring you so far...
LOL, seriously for a second, if there's one thing I've learned since graduating, it's that! Still, trying to get an philosophy article published in a peer-reviewed journal can somewhat resemble spam-like activities, so maybe there's hope for me yet.
Ha, I so much relate to that! Working on a resubmission AS WE SPEAK. And I hope there is hope for you, as that would mean there might be some hope left for me as well...
Thanks - good luck with the resubmission!
mmm lambo...
I'm perplexed,what is "Spam Tutorial Part 6: The Philosophical Turn (Advanced Spammers Only)" about?
Was that a rhetorical question?
Now that you've answered it, is it still a rhetorical question?
Technically no it's not but my question was meant to be rhetorical was yours?
I'm sure if you haven't reached the end of the post yet. It's explained a bit further from where you've stopped reading.
You are a cheeky minx! ;) Upvoted and resteemed.
I am confused by this "Let us look at something that philosophers master above all: asking the right question" How would a philosopher know the right question to ask?
By a life-time of studying, reading a lot and especially by thinking themselves.
Confusion is a great first step, though! Keep at it!
I ask myself all the time since I was a child, most of my questions are meaningless, this also makes me know which questions I'm more likely to respond to if the comment I'm writing was for me. That's the right question.
hahaha i bet manny regonice things they have done in these articles. (including myself)
And by how you describe a good spammer, Im not a good spammer, as ive now read all 6 sammer tutorial articles before I comment and I usually write longer comments to give actuar constructive feedback. But hey it may still be spam, or? (including Philosophical question)
And yes any sentance can be turned into a question and a good question can make anyone think, even though its pointless. Oh and im good at typos, is that a + or a minus? :P
A final input; It almost seems like to you; any comment is a spam comment.
Yes, I did recognize things, lol. But I'm new here so...cut me some slack, maybe? (Look, a question!) You read all six, lol. (I did too.) @nobyeni is really playing that guilt card hard in this one, hilariously so. Don't worry, it worked on me too. But hey I'm listening so :p
Hmmmmm...
I'm sure it depends on the user... A good spam comments is unrecognizable from a legitimate comment. That's what makes a professional spammer. Once you're found out, you lose.
According to @nobyeni Last Week? It's a huge plus!!
Questions can be completely honest, but of course you can also make them up on the spot.On this point, I have a question.
oh shoot I already goofed that up. Let me try again.
Questions can be completely honest, but of course you can also make them up on the spot.On this point, I have a question?
huh still not sure I am getting this. Spamming is harder than it looks :) Thank you for your guide! I will go back to the practice room and keep working at this until I get it right.
No no no... it should be like this:
I like how you adviced only advenced spammers to use this techniquem first IT'S HARD TO DO RIGHT... secondly, it's hard to mask your spammy questions on the long run (and if you're any decent spammer, you'd want your spam to last a bit long, right?).
Well, I love asking questions, because all your points are valid even if you're not a spammer.
It gives me easy way to make the post owner respond to my comment. Don't you agree?
Haha! This really made me laugh. Yes, I agree, are you surprised?
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Yes, I accept, and would be honoured, thank you. @muxxybot is very much appreciated!
Congratulations human. This post is featured in today's Muxxybot curation post.https://steemit.com/curation/@muxxybot/muxxybot-curation-60
I absolutely love this, though without the satire tag I was seriously wondering if this was a joke or not :P
SO...in bullet point #4 under Advantages of the Philosophical Turn, I see that you've said:
"Questions are inviting people to respond. PLEASE NOTE: When you do not respond to an answer given to you in a fruitful and engaging manner, your spamminess may still shine through. Be aware of this before you apply the Philosophical Turn."
What exactly do you mean by this, pray tell? I'd love to gain a fuller understanding of what this means, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Please answer me, and upvote duly - or else. What's your name again? I love roosters too!