![comments.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmcMH4rqb2eb11RanYXYAiK8xL1VeXZMJdXDnXi1LTSnan/comments.png) ![steemlinedivider.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPP5g9tirBYReKpojYxKXR5zJoH69NszYVtcibptyzvfu/steemlinedivider.png)

"We Can No Longer Reward Our Audience"

Many Steemians out there are skeptical, angry or concerned that HF21 killed engagement. That HF21 put the last nail in the *"comment"*-coffin. Many users are afraid that the **social** aspect of Steem came to an end after the new changes HF21 brought to the platform, and I was concerned in the beginning as well. Especially as an author who has focused on my own profile and my audience ever since I got here. I used to upvote comments in an attempt to reward my audience with **something**. But I also did it in an attempt to show my appreciation and to show them that I was grateful. I always wanted to reward my audience, as I knew that they were likely to come back if they got something for it... As someone who never cared much about curation rewards, this was a superb thing to do, but HF21 took that away from us. I can understand that people are concerned or discouraged after such a change, but this is literally the **perfect** opportunity for people to get recognition and to build their brand. We need to adapt. Many people are likely to stop writing comments, as they aren't likely to be rewarded for it, so people eager to get more recognition and to build their presence will have a great chance to do it. And the chance will increase for each minute someone else stops to engage. I know that it's hard to stay positive and to see the good when you feel overwhelmed by the bad and when you feel that you are being affected in a negative way "all the time", but there are good things that comes with it. It's only a matter of finding the good. It's about looking outside the box, or to see things from another perspective. ![steemlinedivider.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPP5g9tirBYReKpojYxKXR5zJoH69NszYVtcibptyzvfu/steemlinedivider.png)

Another Perspective

Unfortunately, I can't show you any real statistics or in-depth details for this, so I will just try to state an example instead. Even though it might not be 100% accurate, it should give you a good idea of how you can take advantage of this. Let's say that author X made a new post and this author usually got 50 comments from 50 unique users **before** HF21. If HF21 truly "killed engagement" like many claims it to have done, this same author should get far **less** comments **after** HF21. So, for the sake of this example, let's say that this same author gets only 20 or 10 comments **after** HF21. That should be a decent number of comments if engagement and comments has been killed. This basically means that the chances for this author to notice your comment has increased, and even if you don't receive an upvote for your comment, you have definitely increased your chances of getting a new follower and upvotes on your future content. As long as you don't write garbage-comments. However, this doesn't stop at this specific author, as many authors are well-known and usually have some discussions within the comment section of their articles... So, you don't only increase your chances of exposure from this author, you increase your chances of gaining more followers and ultimately more upvotes in the future from many other authors as well.

Why Would That Happen?

Since HF21, people are looking for more high quality content to reward. We have more manual curation than before and people are eager to earn curation rewards, so they need more content to choose from. If you put in hard work and time to build your presence and to get recognition and exposure, why wouldn't people reward you for your efforts? As long as you produce quality? The short answer is, that they would reward you for it. But, no one will spend countless hours trying to find these "gems" out there, so if you engage, and write comments in an attempt to "***build your own brand***", you are more likely to be on the receiving-end of an upvote than others who doesn't put in the same amount of work. ![steemlinedivider.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPP5g9tirBYReKpojYxKXR5zJoH69NszYVtcibptyzvfu/steemlinedivider.png) #NewSteem Is About Quality And Hard Work. > *“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”* ― Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa