For attempting to read this, please give yourself a round of applause...

This is another Dear diary session, but unlike the last one, I wont bicker, I will help.

Let me start with a fun fact: Do you know that copy and paste is the fastest way to finish but not write an article? But do you also know that doing so means you are saying that you have nothing to offer on something you want to put to others.

Steemit's stance on copy and paste

Sorry in advance to all those who do copy and paste because I am about to crash that party for you. The truth is virtually all topics you can think of has one or two references about it on the web. What gives it it's unique mark is the ability to present it how you understand it.

Do you know why an offender and his accessory, depending on the nature of the crime, are not necessarily given the same sentence for a crime? It is because one is the mastermind while the other well was just along for the ride in one way or the other.
Now I know some might not get my explanation, so I will say it like this: The original author and the copy cat cannot get the same rewards, so don't expect anything, except to get caught and probably warned and if you continue, banned.

If you used follow this animated Japanese anime called Naruto, there was a ninja called Kakashi who was bestowed with an eye which enabled him to copy the techniques of others. Now there was a catch, he was not as good as the original user because he lacked the stamina to perform such techniques.

Of course we don't expect to be rewarded for another man's work, if anything, the original author should be sent a thank you card for his marvelous work and well as for the "copy ninja" he should be made an ambassador for copy cats worldwide.

The one mistake some people make is they assume no one cares nor reads their post. I am here to tell you that people care and read your post(s), but the problem is what differentiates your posts from the rest.
I could simply write and post, I could talk on every topic that comes to mind and most of all, I could simply highlight all and paste, but where do I factor in my own ideas.
You copied and pasted someone else's idea because they attempted something and you liked it, don't you feel you should try and let us judge if we'll like it or not?

Abraham Lincoln tried so many times before he got that position of a president, what is your excuse not to try to work hard?
Steemit was created to help originality and creativity thrive, not to promote copy and paste. If you want where you can do copy and paste and be rewarded try here.
Did I forget to mention the link above is non existent? My bad, it is because nobody rewards plagiarism.

The truth is you don't have to start out by writing lengthy articles, you could write something moderate but powerful and original here on steemit and get rewarded for it because there is no word limit on your posts. Although you might or might not get the same amount as someone who wrote a textbook on steemit, you can at least start somewhere.

When is a work plagiarized?

This is very simple, your work gets plagiarized when you simply and wickedly lift little things like whole sentences without references from an author or site without references.
Do you also know you can be guilty of plagiarism from pictures and other multimedia files?

This is where I tell you how it happens. Let us say you download an image from the web, you forget to visit the site and first of all check if the image is copyrighted, you download it and upload here on steemit, your article enters trending and someone like me who likes to read a lot sees it. The person decides he likes the image you used and he surfs the web using guided parameters.

If he finds a similar copy from a site that have all their images copyrighted, he can accuse you of plagiarism. If it is a free image site, then you might be let off the hook. However, it is advisable to simply copy and paste the link as reference whether it is free or not, after all you copied the image too.

If you however copy a whole site and paste, then you might just be lazy. A steemian got banned some days ago because he was warned severally not to post copied articles here anymore. Well he felt he could get away with it and at the end of the day got himself a ban.
Same rules apply to video

Always obey the rules

A letter to my Tag developers

Tags were created for a simple reason, which is VISIBILITY
My mum always tells me that "do not plant rice and expect yam to sprout". When you get into a place, the first thing is to make inquiries or study how people do.

As a curator, one of the things I dread is the use of wrong tags. You sometimes see beautiful articles that should be curated, missing their curation window, because they were discovered late due to wrong tagging.
People want to vote, all we are asking is please use the right tags.

If you are having issues selecting tags, please click on this link to see the available visible tags
Tagging is very essential, especially to newbies, as I plan on making a video explaining how to use tags. The reason the video is not yet out is because I am still consulting on the use of various tags as I do not want to spread the wrong information.

The tag you use goes a long way in determining the visibility of your posts. As a newbie, you have to realize that certain tags are for specific purposes and using them wrongly can land you in trouble. For example, those who often use the #steemit tag, you have to realize it is for posts directly related to steemit.com. So tagging an article about a car under steemit is a waste of limited tags.

Also, don't go creating new tags as a new person when there are visible tags for the job. I stumbled on a post where people were using "steemitdotcom" as a tag. The thing is they were new people and my brief time observing them, I realized they were oblivious about certain things. I tried correcting them and got rebuffed for it. The truth is such people could come out later and complain but they forget one basic thing....

It is hard enough being a newbie, why give yourself a death sentence by "hiding" your posts with wrong tags?

When you see high ranking steemians using personalized tags, note that they have the votes to make it visible.

Note: If you are a Nigerian, please always use the #nigeria and #africa tags respectively so as to give your posts better visibility for curation. Also if you are from any part of the African continent, please indicate so you can be added to the africa united closed chat group by @gavvet and @dragonslayer109 and so many others. You can also message me on steemit.chat and I will ask for you to be added (Africans only)

I know I can only talk and advise, and that is what I will do.

Thanks for the 700 followers, I promise to do my best

Image credit: 1-2-3-4

Thanks to @elyaque for the badge and @son-of-satire for the generic footer