One of the joys of Steemit is that there are no rules. There are no official moderators to ban your account if it goes against what they decree. That said, I know Steemit can and will exclude posts from their site if they get a take-down notice, but those posts may still appear on some of the many other sites that use the same blockchain.

This doesn't mean that users won't use their Steem Power to flag you if they disagree with what you say or with how much you are making. When you flag you get this popup that gives some reasons why you might flag, but they are not rules. We can each make our own rules. I personally flag comments on my own posts that I consider spam. It's a form of curation as I want the good comments to rise to the top. I generally only give a small flag unless it's really malicious, e.g. phishing. I know some people see flagging as 'violence', but it's a tool to be used with care.

![Flag](https://steemitimages.com/DQmc198aCy6sbGTR9dQqiGTUx5G9Q2Ljz2CkKpVCYHpn7FQ/Screenshot%20from%202018-03-18%2011-39-17.png)

Self-voting can be controversial. I'll admit I did it myself when my vote was worth a cent or less and I made very little generally. I see no harm in minnows voting on their own posts to get a small boost, but I tend to think that for comments it should be left up to the post owner and others as  it does affect where the comment will appear. I see people doing it 'for visibility', but it should only take a few cents to get that in most cases. Once you have a few hundred SP you get the slider that allows you to vote with as little as 1% of your power.

What I object to are people like this. This is someone with several hundred thousand SP. He gets a big vote on every post from a whale, that he may control, but feels he deserves even more. It amazes me that other people actually give him more, but 95%+ of what he makes comes from that whale and himself. He doesn't seem to feel anyone else deserves much. Not very community-minded. You can check any account with [this tool](http://www.steemreports.com/outgoing-votes-info/)

![Greed](https://steemitimages.com/DQmeffTzXi8hvwvn98JEh3HRDc4vk2xa8QqwKiWKk9xG1fQ/Screenshot%20from%202018-03-18%2011-33-13.png)

My [own graph](http://www.steemreports.com/outgoing-votes-info/?account=steevc&days=14) will show me voting for several hundred people, but not myself. I gave that up some time ago as I felt I didn't need it. I have a few regular supporters who ensure I always make a few dollars on a post. I'm happy to use my limited voting power to support others. If we can keep increasing the 'middle layer' of dolphin level accounts then the influence of the whales will decrease. It could take a while as there's still only around a million accounts here and many are not active.

# But what about curation rewards?

I hear you ask. Okay, so voting on a post by one of these big self-voters may make you something, but it may not be much. Minnows can make a lot more with good comments. Some of us value the conversations here and will reward good contributors.

This is my personal opinion. I want to see Steemit become a dominant platform that rewards good content, as was intended. Excessive greed could threaten that as new users will be discouraged. The old 'do as you would be done by' saying should apply. We have an opportunity to create something wonderful here. If it really takes off then we all stand to benefit. The Steem price may be at its lowest this year, but it's still far better than the real low point. Imagine if it goes to tens of dollars! That's worth fighting to achieve.

What sort of Steemit do we want?

<p><b><div class="pull-left"><img src="https://steevc.keybase.pub/steemit/steevc.png"></div>
I'm Steve, the geeky guitarist. </b></p><p>I'll buy <a href="https://steemit.com/guitar/@steevc/steem-for-picks">guitar picks for Steem Dollars</a></p>
<p>If this post is over seven days old you can vote up one of my newer posts to reward me.</p>
<p><b>Spam comments may be flagged. Beware of the <a href="https://steemit.com/steemit/@katharsisdrill/some-splendid-advice-on-commenting">Commentphant!</a></b></p>