I find that the comments on Steemit are meant to be civilized and add real value to the discussion and the community. Whether I agree or disagree with a post I find myself asking the question “is this reply valuable enough to leave as a comment?”.
I find that the other social media platforms are plagued by insulting trolls. I, for one,don’t mind a few somewhat sycophantic comments with a veneer of meaningful engagement so long as it’s mixed with the truly valuable and sincere comments. It’s much better than me going on YouTube and being called a “nigg@r” by a 14 year old for no reason. Let’s not forget how extremely rude and useless people can be on the internet. It may be “keepin it real” to be contrarian and worse insulting (which people equate with being critical) but kudos to Steemit for incentivizing people to choose valuable cordial commentary.