- A short illustrated guide on how to vote on STEEMIT -

Social media sites have always been sort of an uncontrollable cascading phenomenon. Even the original dial up bulletin board systems that predate forums as we know today were wild. Sites of yesterday such as myspace and facebook have always relied on hired staff to ensure user safety and quality content..

STEEM and Steemit.com have rapidly evolved social media removing the underlying corporate policing and allowing their users to decide through curation what is acceptable and shown on the site. While it IS possible for steemit.com to censor some posts choosing to not display them to the public, It is IMPOSSIBLE to delete any content from the STEEM blockchain once it's been submitted.

Success or Failure..?

How does the content you see on the site come to success or failure?
Successful posts are met by user uptucks() and earn large payout days and months after.
Posts that don't make the cut are flag tagged() and their visibility and payout are reduced.

A small illustration below can act as a rough guideline on what to do / what not to do here:

Your average STEEM / steemit.com user will tend to uptuck or flag content according to their first impressions on your post based on the diagram above. This is only a rough average of what most users look for before they cast their decision sending you into heavenly success (and payment) or flagging you into oblivion.

Assuming you stick to the guidelines in the success column, you should avoid getting flagged.

Flag Taggin'

How to get rid of shitposts

Found some content you're sure is garbage and don't want anyone else have to see it?

At the top right corner of posts you'll find an outlined flag icon () that allows you to flag tag.

Clicking the flag icon() flags the post, making it less visible and unlikely to get paid.

icon means that you haven't flagged this post yet.
icon shows when hovering over unclicked flag.
means that you have flagged the post before.

To undo the flag tagging: simply click the () again.

Uptucks (Upvoting)

uptucking breeds more content!

Discovered awesome content on someone's post and want to toss them an uptuck?

At the bottom of posts by the comments you'll find the uptuck icon() that pays the author.

icon means that you haven't uptucked the post yet. They get no reward from you.
icon appears after you've uptucked any users post. You give them money and popularity.

If you've previously voted for a post but you no longer want to uptuck it, simply click again to untuck. When you first create your STEEM account your Uptuck will be worth only a fraction of a penny. However as you post, uptuck and flag tag new posts you will gain STEEM POWER to give you more sway. By Uptucking user content not only do you give them a monetary boost, but also a visibility one as well.

You can check how much your uptuck is worth: http://www.steemdollar.com/dollar_per_vote.php

Also, The more uptucking you do the less power it has to instill money and visibility on posts.
As a general rule around 20 uptucks a day will allow you to maintain a strong and worthy vote.
If you somehow manage to use up all of your uptuck power it will recharge over 5 full days or so.

Closing Notes

Unlike other popular social media sites such as reddit, your voting via flag tags and uptucks here are worth more than fluff. You as a user have great power to influence what other users will get to see on the site. That being said it is all of our responsibilities to maintain a friendly and welcoming environment for all. This is a community that relies on it's users to provide accurate post curations and to help keep STEEM livable.

You likely will encounter users that are rude and unfair.. Always remember to take the higher road and try to make a mends if you're having issues with people, rather than just flag taggin' them indiscriminately. Behind most of these usernames are real people with feelings, and given the inability to completely police the STEEM blockchain we must remember to treat each other with dignity and respect.

BONUS: Free icons!

Feel free to use the uptuck and tag flag icons you see in this post! Links to all are below:

- Uptuck (clicked) -
- Uptuck (unclicked) -
- Flag Tag (unclicked) -
- Flag Tag (hover) -
- Flag Tag (clicked) -

Edit: Holy hot damn! Thank you to everyone who's read and uptucked on this article. <3