I have noticed that many minnows tend to spam the system with shitposts and beg for upvotes.

So if you're one of those kinds of people and you are reading this, I want you to know something. I call this the golden rule of steemit:

Steemit is not a money-making site that you blog on;

it is a blogging site that happens to give you money

Minnows:

In short, that means that your steemit journey shouldn't be about money. It should just be treated like any other site that doesn't give you money. After all, most people don't beg for money on facebook or twitter.
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So treat it like you would any other blogging site and post content that you earnestly care for. Just do what you do on other social media sites and pretend like the aspect of money isn't even there. Just keep on doing this, and one day you'll find that you're a dolphin or a whale.

Dolphins and Whales:

You hold the most SP but the minnows make the majority of the posts. However, it is your posts that get the most attention. So if anyone has to advertise a cause, it's you. If we can keep the cesspool of minnow spam (I acknowledge that most minnows are great for the community, but many are also spammers), then we can keep steemit healthy. I encourage every steemian, especially the dolphins and whales out there, to spread the golden rule of steemit.