Beginners Guide to Steemit. Part 1.

A Guide To Improving Your Steemit Reputation.
It's easy to slip up and commit an unintentional Faux Pas, especially when we're new and learning the ropes. On Steemit, as in life, what is considered polite can be influenced by such things as culture, language and personal beliefs.

There are a few things we can do, however, that will make us better Steemians and ensure that we become valued members of the community and help to improve our reputation along the way.

No Rules
Steemit is a decentralised platform. This means that you can say whatever you like without censorship, however, you can be flagged and lose reputation. For this reason, it's useful to have a guideline to what is considered polite behaviour within the community.

Here are a few simple tips to help you improve your reputation on Steemit and avoid unintentionally offending someone.

(Image source: physicalculturalist.ca)

1. Asking For Upvotes.
I brought this up first because it's something we all encounter, virtually from the outset. If you write a good post, people will naturally show their appreciation by upvoting, but are by no means obligated to do so.

Directly asking someone to give you an upvote can make some people feel uncomfortable and end up making you appear rude. After all you wouldn't walk up to a complete stranger and ask for money (even if it is just small change) and expect them to view you in a positive light.

(Image source: your dictionary.com)

Far better to earn your upvotes through writing creative posts and thoughtful curation. After all everyone prefers to receive a well written comment, complimenting our post rather than, "I upvoted you, upvote me?"

2. Proper Use Of Tags.
It can be challenging to choose the right tags for our posts. There are plenty of articles on Steemit that will tell you which tags get the highest number of views. But, before you rush out and indiscriminately tag your post with what you perceive to be the most lucrative, it's important to make sure that your tags are, actually relevant to your topic.

(Image source: shittyactivist.com)

Writing a post about cookery and then using tags like 'steemit', 'bitcoin' or 'news' is inappropriate and likely to annoy people. The use of irrelevant tags is called 'tag spamming' and is more likely to earn you a flag rather than an upvote.

3. Respond To Your Comments.
When someone writes a meaningful comment on your post, show your appreciation, by responding to them. Creative content alone, will not earn you loyal followers.

(Image source: Chatbot's Life)

Steemit is a great platform for creating dialogue and, by engaging in conversation, you can, not only encourage a loyal following, but also, you'll make some firm friendships too.

4. Plagiarism.
There's nothing wrong with sharing an article or image that you've found online, so long as you visibly give credit to the original source. If you're unsure of the original author, still make it clear that it's not your own work, as you wouldn't want it to come back and bite you further down the road.

(Image source: coyotechronicle.net)

It's also important, if you're posting a picture of something you've made, to make it clear that it is your own creation, to save confusion. Plagiarism is frowned upon, and can quickly earn you a flag if you are perceived to be receiving credit for someone else's efforts.

5. Over-posting.
Although regular posting is important for a healthy reputation, there can be 'too much of a good thing'. People will follow you, because they are interested in what you have to say, but if their feed becomes clogged with an overabundance of your posts, not only will they not take the time to read them, but will also quickly press that 'unfollow button'

(Image source: Carolina Records Center)

An average of 3 to 4 well written posts per day, is more than ample, although, squeezing the odd meme or joke in there occasionally, I'm sure will be forgiven. More than this will actually reduce your payouts not increase them.

6. Flagging.
This is a very controversial subject and I have seen quite a few posts on the community discussing what constitutes fair flagging. Being flagged has a negative impact on your reputation, and, if received from a whale, can completely destroy a burgeoning new Steemian.

Flagging in Steemit is not the same as 'disliking' something on other social media sites. It has a marked negative impact on the person you flag, so it's only fair to be sure of your reasons.

(Image source: Thought catalog)

Obviously anything that could be considered offensive, pornographic, harmful or racist, is likely to be deserving of a flag and I'm sure that very few would argue with this. There are many grey areas, however, and these will always be a source of dispute. Personally, I think it should be a question of common courtesy and respect for other people's point of view, although others may feel differently.

Flagging someone simply because you don't agree with them, is hardly fair. Instead politely discuss your point of view in your comments. Of course, if someone is being abusive or inappropriate, then, you are quite within your rights to flag them.

Finally, if you are posting anything explicit or pornographic, you should always use the NSFW tag. Nudity may be acceptable in your culture, but please bear in mind that other parts of the world may find it extremely offensive.

To Summarise

(Image source: longterm-investment.com)

There are many other subtle etiquette guidelines to being a polite Steemian, some of them involving more technical issues such as the use of bots (don't ask me, I have no clue about such things, at this stage). I will cover more on the subject of etiquette in future posts.

This post has dealt with the basic and most common etiquette issues, that are likely to be encountered by a new Steemian, starting out and wondering what is generally to be considered 'acceptable'.

As always, if you have enjoyed this post, or have any tips on etiquette of your own, please share in the comments below, and thank you for taking the time to read my article.