I'm new to steemit and do not really understand what is going on but I do have a way I deal with spammers anywhere. I don't get too many here since I am a minnow, but when I do, I send the most appropriate of these three comments back:

QUOTE:
You are not supposed to ask for followers here at steemit. Search for "how to comment on posts" for ideas. But in general - write a few sentences about what you see in the post and tell the person if you upvoted or resteemed to help them. Then they might follow you anyway. Good luck!

OR

You are not supposed to ask for votes here at steemit. Search for "how to comment on posts" for ideas. But in general - write a few sentences about what you see in the post and tell the person if you upvoted or resteemed to help them. Then they might follow you anyway. Good luck!

OR

Look up "how to comment at steemit" so you can learn what they like here. The big guys will crush you if the see this type of comment repeatedly. You need at least one sentence and it needs to say something specific about the post you are on. Three sentences is even better! Good luck :)
END

I use copy/paste (!) to send these replies, but I do alter each a bit. I get about a 50% reply and most often that reply asks me to explain what I mean. They don't realize they are doing something wrong. I assume the other 50% are real spammers so they do not answer.

I've been doing this same thing with different wording for spammers in my email, fb, and Twitter for years and I get a very similar return of about 50%.

I open at least 200 posts a day on steemit and comment on 30-50. I have noticed in the last days that the spam is getting grayed out. Previously I rarely saw gray on the spam.

I want to thank all of you who are helping in this effort. I was wondering how posts with only a video and one line of text or a link with one line of text were getting $50+ payouts and I guess now I know.

I came here for the alexa ranking and useless comments on dumb posts make things look bad. The awesomely great content here should be what rises to the top, and I hope it will by your efforts. I'm happy to see no downvotes on this post. That gives me encouragement.