Achievement 3 by @iamchukwudi Task: Content Etiquette

Blockchains and crypto-based projects, in general, operates on a consensus mechanism which is a very basic term referring to how the blockchains and projects reach agreements, verify activities, decide on what is valid or not and also decide on what deserves a reward or not. For example, bitcoin operates a proof of work system through which users' abilities to solve complex mathematical operations through sophisticated computers are used to keep the blockchain running and consequently, the ability to confirm/verify one or more transactions on the blockchain is rewarded. Other blockchain systems operate proof of burn, and proof of stake systems. However, Steemit is different, for it operates a Proof of Brain System.

Healthline
The consequence of this is simple, to succeed in the Steemit project, you don't need beefy hardware or need to hold a lot of the Steemit's native tokens, instead, you need your brain (your intellect). A common way this is applied is that creators on Steemit have to share content that shows their intellectual strengths and the community using their wisdom and intellectual strengths, judges the quality of what has been shared and consequently, content providers/authors, as well as the curators, are rewarded. A nice system right?

But there is a problem!
Since no one is an island of knowledge, how do we create a balance between personal thoughts and borrowed thoughts in content? How do we balance between personal productions and borrowed ones in our contents?

Etiquette Illustrated
The Steemit community of intelligent people and curators came up with a content etiquette to guide content providers in their daily exploration and utilization of the Steemit platform. At the heart of content etiquette is the "No Plagiarism Rule".

Anti-Plagiarism on Steemit

Plagiarism is a sin in the Proof-of-Work system. "To not plagiarize" implies the following:

• Not copying verbatim from another person's content either here on Steemit or outside Steemit and sharing it as your own.
• Refraining from any form of content spinning or modifications to make another person's content look different from their's and more as if it was your original content.
• Clearly referencing/citing sources when content includes borrowed thoughts or media materials (images, gifs and videos) from other sources.

Assuming we have been able to successfully achieve the first two points, how do we clearly apply referencing/citations?

Here are some ways:

1. Directly mention the author with a leading statement and embed the source

Here is an example:
Instead of just copying from Investopedia the comment "A blockchain is a form of database", the correct way to present this thought is:

According to Investopedia, a blockchain is a form of database.

^{See Markdown guide for how to embed link}

2. Directly cite an image/other graphics by providing links to the original author

An example is this illustration of a blockchain by Business Post:

It will be wrong to leave this image like this because "It wasn't your original production".
I have also noticed a "wrong practice", that is placing a watermark on a graphic material obtained online, this is wrong irrespective of whether you acknowledge the author or not, you don't own any rights over the content (unless they are open for modification, most commonly some items under Creative Commons licencing such as those from Pixabay). So, here is a better approach to images:

Business Post
As you can see, I added/embedded the link to the image as well as the original author.

3. Make superscripts number tags to reference everything at the end of your work/or embed all links within

If for example, I have the following thoughts in my work:

• Blockchain is a form of a database
• Cryptography is commonly associated with blockchains
  But I want to preserve the visual appeal of my work, I can simply avoid plagiarism by referencing using superscript number tags, a common approach commonly seen in academic works. Thus, the above statements may look like this instead:
• Blockchain is a form of a database ¹
• Cryptography is commonly associated with blockchains ^{2
  Learn how to add superscripts and subscripts here}

Then at the end of all the write-ups, we could list references:

1. Investopedia - https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp
2. Upgrad - https://www.upgrad.com/blog/cryptography-in-blockchain/

We could also embed the reference/citation to the number tags as shown below:

• Blockchain is a form of a database ¹
• Cryptography is commonly associated with blockchains ²

Check for Plagiarism

Since we can't guarantee that our contents are 100% free from plagiarism, we can use some tools to verify and where necessary, make needed adjustments.
A very common plagiarism tool used by most bloggers is the Small SEO Tools Plagiarism Checker.
It is easy to use, simply copy your write-ups and paste, verify you are human and click on check plagiarism.
Here is my plagiarism report for this Achievement 3 task.

My content was 98% unique and 2% plagiarized. This is expected as @cryptokannon requires that we copy a statement and add it to our post verbatim.
However, the goal is to **always achieve 100%" content uniqueness.

Final Words

Content originality is very important here on Steemit. So, we should all say no to plagiarism, avoid content spinning, spamming, and avoid borrowing peoples work without proper acknowledgements.

"I have read and understood the Steemit Etiquette on Steemit Community and will do my best to embrace them"

^{I think I have developed an awesome achievement 3 task, please what are your thoughts? @cryptokannon @bright-obias @ngoenyi}