If you’re new here to Steemit, there’s probably one thing on your mind:

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This shit is hella-complicated...

Not gonna lie to you, it is! It took me at least a couple weeks to be comfortable enough to explain Steemit to others. People are used to joining an app (immediately) and (also immediately) understanding nearly 100% of it right off the bat.

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That’s definitely not the case here.

Here on Steemit, there are so many extra variables. One of them, which is highly unique, is the total monetary incentivization to post, comment and Upvote ANYTHING. When you incentivize this, it will only be so long before people start to take advantage of it in any way possible.

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Enter the liars, stage left.

Have you ever come across somebody here on Steemit who seemed suspicious in some way? Well, you probably have whether you realize it or not! There are actually people on here who lie to get rewards they don’t deserve (or maybe they would deserve if they would just be REAL with us)...

Even worse than a regular, run-of-the-mill lair are IMPOSTERS. There are people here who would rather pretend to be somebody else, and there’s something terribly wrong with that, and it can’t be incentivized whatsoever. These people deserve 1 thing and 1 thing only. A big-ass FLAG, otherwise known as a DOWNVOTE.

But how do we find these people? “I’m not a detective, bro” you might be saying. However, we have a detective of our own here on Steemit.

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Enter @sherlockholmes, stage right, with a magnifying glass & a fully-loaded .38 special. He has just kicked down your front-door-facade and has a long list of reasons why you’re an asshole.

Go follow this man immediately. He is easily the most badass Steemian ever to live, and we all owe him for what he does here!

@sherlockholmes is a Steemian who investigates other Steemians all day. People send suspicious accounts to him via Steemit Chat and he “follows the money”. He uncovers fake accounts, accounts with DOZENS of other “sister accounts” who are all controlled by 1 person, and all types of other people who abuse the beautiful ecosystem that is Steemit. This man, if there is such a thing, is a real-life superhero.

He manifests in a digital form, exposes your lies, (probably flags the shit out of you), and disappears into a cloud of “FUCK YOU, MAN!”

Reading this dude’s posts is like reading real-life mystery novels about the Steemit world. And on top of that, it’s HILARIOUS to see how people react when they realize they’re caught! People will try to back up their lies again and again and again, and when he exposes the (overwhelming) evidence against them, sometimes they just say:

“Oh...”

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Oh, indeed!

It is really important that all of the fakes, all the liars, and all the imposters get found ASAP, or change their ways (which is unlikely but I’m an optimist at heart ❤️)...

However, what about all the people that @sherlockholmes can’t find? After all he’s one person, not an omniscient GOD (right?)...

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Enter @cheetah & @steemcleaners, stage right, with hella flags. One might be for you...

Luckily, we have some bots on here who make sure liars, imposters and plagiarists don’t get any rewards. They are SteemCleaners and Cheetah. There are more, but these are the main 2.

Make sure you post original content, and when you don’t, make sure you give CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE!

If not, you may get flagged. You may also get flagged for posting a referral link (which I don’t agree with in moderation, but for the sake of not getting flagged, I’m going to move on). If you know anybody who may be an asshole or one of the other Taboo people on Steemit, bring it to the attention of @sherlockholmes, let him follow the breadcrumbs, and see what he finds out! In the case of the account being worthy of flagging, he will let you know and then you and the bots and everybody else on Steemit can show those Assholes what it means to be REAL, and also the consequences of not being real.

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Enter complete subject-change, stage right: BANDWIDTH.

Ok I know what you might have been thinking this whole time... WTF does Bandwidth have anything to do with, well, any of this stuff?

Bandwidth is essentially the amount of interactions and posts you can make on Steemit. Also, it is directly proportional to your STEEM POWER. If you’re (really) new here, likely the only STEEM POWER you have in your attached wallet (at the top right of the screen in the circle button) is sitting in parentheses; This is the minimum amount of Steem Power you need to perform a minimum amount of interactions on Steemit (upvotes, comments and posts).

As you “do stuff” here on Steemit, which alters the Blockchain (every upvote, comment and post has to get processed by the Witnesses, or Miners if you will), used a small amount of your available Bandwidth.

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You can check your available Bandwidth, and watch it recharge, via www.steemd.com !

Check out this site and one of the first things you will see is your Voting Power and your Bandwidth.

These are both very important to keep track of. Some people who are new here try to post AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, BACK TO BACK TO BACK, and if you have only the MINIMUM bandwidth (Steem power), then you can’t do that and you’ll have to keep your STEEMING in moderation!

If you ever have trouble doing ANYTHING here on Steemit, go check your bandwidth! That’s probably the issue, and you need to let it recharge most likely 😄

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Wow this is a lot to take in, Alex...

I know, but aren’t all amazing things in life? Steemit is literally one of the only things that comes to mind as far as being able to COMPLETELY FREE HUMANITY, and there’s something really awesome about that!

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Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. This is some weird stuff, we know, and there’s no such thing as a stupid question about STEEMIT!

👁💥👁 🐠💦