I've also had those "Japanese t-shirt sayings" on my posts. When I take a look at the Scout's comments, it turns out they post the same comment everywhere. A couple of days ago, I noticed two of those Match.com (hee hee - good one) said exactly the same gibberish. Then I checked who they were following. They were following accounts with names starting from a to k. BOTs! Bring out the Raid! All I did was comment on each that they were bots and mentioned the other account names. Neither of them got any upvotes. We need to be vigilant, though. Maybe your approach of flagging is better than mine - I don't know.
On the issue of begging for follows and upvotes, I generally don't respond at all. When I upvote the real comments from people who've obviously read and engaged, I continue to ignore them. Maybe a Pollyanna approach, but I'd rather crowd my little Steemit space with positivity and not give the eejuts any time, energy, attention or reward.
Thanks for raising this issue with humour and valiance!😊😊
The thing about the trolls is that they upvote their replies and steal from what is a percentage of your post. About the only way to get rid of them is flagging. What else can we do? Wish I knew. Ellie Mae🐓🐓
Hmmm...so far I haven't seen these critters (the bots, anyway) self-upvote on my posts, but thanks to your comments I'll be more vigilant. I have seen a number of newbies self-upvote, though, and usually it's a matter of one or two cents. I used to do that too, before HF19, because old Jerry Banfield recommended it, and for a minnow it was a good strategy at the time. Not any more! Don't want to waste my vote on me. Now that I can only really use 20% of my voting power in a day, I'd rather save it for upvoting posts (and Steemians) I like, as well as to upvote good comments to my posts. So, in short and after all that, I don't know, Ellie Mae, but I sure understand how you feel...😊😊