The Unwritten Rules of Steemit

I would like to invite anybody who’s been here for more than a month to contribute a post that would be helpful to the mass immigration of new users from the past couple days!

Not everybody realises there are many unique qualities to this social media platform. A newbie’s online habits from other websites can lead them to learn lessons the hard way. As the system becomes more complex there is more and more for them to catch up on.
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Things get a little hectic around here when our population has a sudden growth spurt.**
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It is our responsibility to pass on what we have learned and make the newbies welcome!**
Here's mine

The Unwritten Rules of Steemit
There is only one real rule to steemit and it’s more of a universal law of nature which is

Do not lose your password, your account cannot be recovered if you do.

There are however some unwritten rules you should know about.

For clarification, there is no concensus on the rules of steemit.

The Core Principles are
When posting, aim to contribute value
Upvote material that contributes value
Only flag material that is abusive

You are free to decide how to treat the platform. But of course, freedom doesn’t protect you from consequences.
In the real world, you are theoretically free to sleep with your neighbours wife, post a video of the two of you on a porn website (with her consent) and then email the link to all your neighbours.

This freedom however does not protect you from theoretically being attacked by your neighbours husband, scorned by all your other neighbours and recognised by porn connoisseurs for months afterward.

Reputation to Uphold
Because people are getting rewarded here for their contributions unlike any other social media platform, there are some major positive differences for online etiquette. Exposing yourself to the online world can be daunting. You could face criticism, ridicule and humiliation. With most social media platforms this is due not only to the anonymity of your online account, but mostly the lack of repercussion for having a harmful attitude towards others.

The steemit community is different!
Because of the consequences of nasty behaviour you are much less inclined to abuse your steemit allies. As long as negative behaviour is continuously 'nipped in the bud' nasty comments will likely be hidden by the users low reputation.

Though you might face some constructive criticism and feedback which you might consider, you’re much more likely to be encouraged than trolled!

Nothing that you publish can be deleted from the blockchain. It will be online forevermore even after editing. This is also the case for your commenters on your own posts, so you can easily be exposed for publishing misinformation. Whether you claim to be a doctor or a non-professional, if you make factual claims it is advised to link references from where the information was taken or a source that backs up your claims.

Introduce Yourself
You have the right to remain anonymous, but if you choose to expose your identity on #introduceyourself, you could include a verification video.

It is not at all obligatory, the only reason you might be asked for this is because we want to discourage identity theft.
(Removing the sound from the video does not verify that you are behind the account)

War on Bots
Sockpuppets are multiple accounts controlled by the same user. Sometimes they come in the form of a bot. Different bots have different intentions. Some like to flag material for the sake of trolling, others automatically comment on posts with trivial comments like 'nice post'.

Don't make yourself look like a bot. There is a war on bots!

Plagiarism
The steemit community prefers original content.
For that reason, we have a Robocop in the form of @cheetah. The purpose of Cheetah Bot is to detect plagiarism. If you like something you read on an article for example, unlike Facebook or Twitter, you cannot simply ‘share’ this material with the steemit community. If you choose to copy and paste the article into a steemit post, Cheetah Bot will detect your plagiarism in order to warn the steemit community. Not to mention, you could be subjected to copyright laws!

There are ways around this that most steemians deem appropriate.
For instance if you like something you read on an article and you want to encourage a discussion on it, you could format your post to link the article and outline your own thoughts on it in order to engage with the rest of the community.

Flagging is for abuse
There are no rules to tell you why you should or shouldn’t flag. There is no consensus and many steemers will deem other steemers reasons as inappropriate. You get to decide for yourself your reasons for flagging.

Bad Reasons for Flagging

Disagreeing with a post
Jealousy of rewards
Revenge
Anything other than abuse

What can be considered abuse?

Plagiarism
Irrelevant spamming
Verbal abuse
Deceptive tagging

Dilution of rewards
If you do choose to flag posts simply because you disagree with them, which is not advised, you should know that you have a soft limit of votes (around 100 per day) and you may be wasting them by using them for negative instead of positive curation. After you reach this limit your curation rewards are diluted. Similarly if you post more than four times a day (apart from comments) you may not get as much reward as you would staying under that limit.

Thanks for reading, I hope it helps!

I welcome your constructive criticism and any additional unwritten rules you may have come across through learning to contribute in harmony with your steemit comrades.

Thank You @sujoy1995