The naturalmedicine.io platform has been explicitly created to showcase and reward content that pertains to all aspects of the world of ‘natural medicine’, which has been explained in the NaturalMedicine Manifesto series of posts.

Like all the other SCOT Tribes appearing on the Steem blockchain, we are setting our standards and expectations around the quality of content that appears. This is because the intention of the platform is to look outwards to the global ‘natural medicine’ community, and to provide a specific niche space for any bloggers, creators, herbalists, natural therapists, and any ‘natural healing’ enthusiasts to come together and share their wisdom and experience in this field.

The rewarding of the LOTUS token will be based on a post meeting the standards and criteria and expectations set by the NaturalMedicine Community, in line with the wider Steem Community ethos on curation and sharing of reward pools. Thus upvoting and downvoting will be the mechanisms through which we are able to moderate the content that appears on naturalmedicine.io.

As stated in the Manifesto, we are following models of natural systems to guide us, so the following guidelines should be seen as organic and liable to change as the Community sees fit. Allowing the individual members of the community to curate according to their own personal standards is important in a self-regulating, decentralised system.

Having said that, the @uplotus and @downlotus accounts will monitor content and curate accordingly.

The following are general guidelines when choosing to post your content on naturalmedicine.io, using the #naturalmedicine tag, or using any of the tags that call the post into the platform. They are provided to assist you to self-regulate your behaviour when choosing to create content for this platform, and provide the frameworks to allow your creativity to thrive.

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 Steem 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 Steemcleaners and other communities responsible for blacklists.

LOTUS rewards

We have two main curation accounts: @uplotus and @downlotus. These are effectively ‘whale’ accounts focussing on rewarding quality NM content with the native currency of the platform, LOTUS.

Rewards of LOTUS on naturalmedicine.io will be based on the guidelines and standards outlined above.

LOTUS can be staked to increase your own voting power on [naturalmedicine.io] - we call it LOTUS POWER (LP), thus increasing your curation rewards on the platform. It can also be traded on Steem-Engine and FreedomEx for other tokens and STEEM. It will also be able to be traded for a number of other things, which will be rolled out and implemented over time (so stay tuned…).

You’ve been downlotussed

If you discover that you have received a downvote from @downlotus or any of the specific curation accounts, it is because your content has not met the standards and guidelines (see above) expected by the NM Community.

The first thing to state is do not take this personally! This is not a reflection of you as a person, just a decision made that what you have posted on naturalmedicine.io is not appropriate for the platform in some way.

The second thing to remember is that the downvote on naturalmedicine.io affects your share of the LOTUS reward pool, not the rewards that post may get in STEEM, SBD, or other SCOTokens (or at least only minimally affecting those). The downvote has happened because it isn’t appropriate for naturalmedicine.io but may be completely fine for other platforms on the Steem blockchain.

Here is the process we are following:

• As well as the downvote from any of the specific curation accounts, a comment will be left with further details.

• If you wish to appeal or discuss the downvote, 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. This is the appropriate forum where specific feedback can be given. We presuppose that this has happened ‘accidentally’, and that provided with feedback you will be able to continue to post in naturalmedicine.io according to the guidelines and expectations of the NM Community.

• The curator may choose to remove the downvote, or a percentage of it at their discretion. Discussion must happen in that channel, and all discussion in other forums will be directed to this channel, and no conversation will happen elsewhere.

If even after this you continue to post content that is inappropriate and irrelevant, you will be muted from the platform. This means nothing you post (posts or comments) will appear on naturalmedicine.io, and neither will you receive LOTUS rewards. Please note: this does not prevent your content appearing anywhere else on the blockchain! This only affects you on this specific platform.

Again, you are able to enter the #downlotus-appeals channel of our Discord to negotiate the muting being lifted, and this will be handled on a case-by-case basis. If you repeat the same action, muting will be permanent, and your account will be passed on to other Steem-based blacklists.

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 Steem, right? Well… most of us anyway. Because we are fascinated and passionate about the wider implications of blockchains such as Steem.

We have put these guidelines together in order to inform the wider Steem 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 Steem (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.

Did you know that Natural Medicine has its own SCOT-Tribe platform - https://www.naturalmedicine.io? By using this platform, you not only earn our native token LOTUS, but can find other like-minded folk posting on everything from herbalism, meditation, healthy eating and essential oils, to homesteading, cannabis and environmental health. If you'd like to delegate to show your support of natural healing wisdoms, and receive benefits from upvotes to great contests and prizes, and help support us curate worthy content, please click here!