Content Guidelines

Above all, be kind

The first rule of thumb we should always apply in any social media context is consider the impact of your content - could it potentially cause harm?

Content that contains any form of hateful comments directed at any individual or group of people will not be tolerated on this platform, even in comments. Given the raison d’etre of naturalmedicine.io there really is no reason for any such content to appear anyway - it is irrelevant.

In other words, be relevant

This platform is dedicated to share and publish content relevant to natural medicine, health, and healing. As mentioned in the post about the 5 Fields of natural health, the topic is considerably broad; however we feel it is fairly obvious in most cases whether content is related to ‘natural medicine’ or not.

If you are wanting to promote your post so it is seen by more people — maybe you want to let people know about your natural medicine-related product, service, or event — we invite you to use the Promoted part of the site. The details of this will be posted and advertised soon, please contact a moderator or elder in the NM Discord: https://discord.gg/ZjZAAdH

If in doubt, leave it out!

If you’re not sure your content is directly related to ‘natural medicine’, then chances are your gut instinct is spot on! We are leaving it to you self-regulate.

We invite you to read the Manifesto thoroughly, and ask yourself where in the 5 Fields of natural health would the content of your post sit.

Quality, not quantity

Most people who are active on Hive can tell the difference between a good post, and a post that has little value.

Unfortunately, it’s easier to easily define what is poor quality, because creativity is unique as well as subjective.

What will not be tolerated are posts that are just a single picture with no adequate story, or a whole lot of photos thrown into a post. This is not a platform dedicated to photography, and there are dedicated Tribes and dApps devoted to that sort of thing. Photos are wonderful, and good #photography posts usually also tell a story in some way. And it needs to be relevant to ‘natural medicine’, above all.

Also, take the time to make your post presentable and readable. We are wanting to showcase your content to the world. Learn how to use markup to your advantage. Take the time to do your best with spelling and grammar. Use paragraphs and different formatting to good effect. We really want you to take pride in your creative output, so let that show!!

Make it interesting! Grab our attention. Anyone can write a post on the nutritional value of an apple… but why are you telling us something we could literally find on hundreds of other pages with a simple search on the web? Tell us a story, let us know about cutting-edge breakthrough research, or your own experiences with the herb/food/substance.

Here’s a question you could ask yourself when going to use the #naturalmedicine tag on your post:

Am I sharing a post that has a direct reference to natural medicine, health, and healing, or am I including this tag merely to get rewarded in LOTUS?

Allow your authentic self answer that question, and make your own self-regulated choice of whether you’re acting with integrity or not.

Plagiarism: just don’t do it!

If you are getting your information from elsewhere, then cite your references. You can use formal academic methods if you like, but hyperlinks work just as well (if not better). This includes all your images. If it’s your own photo or artwork, then credit yourself explicitly.

Plagiarised content will not be tolerated, and the steps (outlined below) will be taken. This includes taking foreign language articles, translating them into English, and presenting it as ‘your own work’.

Keep in mind there are a number of systems in place to easily check plagiarism.

Mind your language

The reality is that the main audience and the team of curators and creators are for the most part native English-language speakers, and naturalmedicine.io is an english-language platform. So posts do need to be in the English language.

At present.

In the future, it would be great if we had the capacity to be able to handle multiple different languages, as ‘natural medicine’ is a global thing, and cultures all over the world have indigenous medicines and folk-traditions around health and healing that can be shared.

There is also nothing stopping the creation of a similar platform in other languages either! That’s the beauty of the decentralised blockchain system we have on Steem!

For the moment, however, we have to stick to English language content.

We don’t care if your English isn’t brilliant, either! The main thing is to get across your message as best as possible. The NM Community is also here to help each other, so you’re invited to approach fellow folk for help if you feel you need it.

We like all kinds of farming, except token farming

Token farming is the practice of placing all possible SCOT-Tribe tags in a post in order to capture rewards from as many SCOTokens as possible.

It is similar to the kind of farming practices which are concerned more with extracting as many resources as possible, without giving anything back for sustainability.

This also will not be tolerated. Your content needs to be relevant to ‘natural medicine’ in order to attract a reward of LOTUS and appear on the naturalmedicine.io platform. Abuse of this kind will be reported to Hivewatchers and other communities responsible for blacklists.

If your content is deemed not to meet the standards and guidelines, you will receive a warning, followed by a downvote if it goes unheeded. If you wish to appeal or discuss the downvote or warning, you are invited to enter the #downlotus-appeals channel of our Discord https://discord.gg/ecEBwJT. In this channel, you can discuss with elder moderators and curators the reasons for the downvote/warning. This is the appropriate forum where specific feedback can be given.

The intention for this process is to maintain the quality and standards of the platform, which reflect the standards and values held by the NM Community.

Natural systems are self-regulating systems

This is why we’re all on Hive, right? Well… most of us anyway. Because we are fascinated and passionate about the wider implications of blockchains such as Hive.

We have put these guidelines together in order to inform the wider Hive community about our expectations as a SCOT-Tribe, and how we will go about curating our corner of the blockchain.

If you plan to create content to be published on naturalmedicine.io, and to receive LOTUS rewards, we invite you to use what you’ve just read as inspiration and as feedback into how you can bring value to the Natural Medicine community. They are provided for you to be able to self-regulate your own behaviour, knowing we have systems in place to help maintain the homeostasis of the system.

Our intentions is to reach out to the all the NM folk who are not on Hive (yet), so we want the space to be inviting and appealing to content creators in this field. We want readers and consumers of NM content to easily find what they are looking for, instead of having to wade through posts about topics they may not be interested in (such as cryptocurrency or conspiracy theories).

We warmly welcome your creativity, your wisdom, your passion, and your feedback.

The @uplotus account is a 50% Beneficiary of this post.

Earn Instantly For Writing Good Natural Health Content

If you would like to earn LOTUS and HIVE rewards for sharing your natural health content on www.naturalmedicine.io, you can sign up for a free FREE account by emailing welcome@naturalmedicine.io. Read more about us on our Welcome Page. We support writers sharing about herbalism, TCM, yoga, meditation, vegan and other healthy diets, as well as earth centred practices such as foraging, permaculture and biodynamics.

Please consider delegating to help keep this collective going. For any questions, come ask in our friendly Discord here !