Reddit, the modest community that has grown into one of the leading forces on the interwebs, only has a few rules. That’s because the site admins are proud of the fact that reddit is one to most open platforms for free speech around.

Having said that, the admins have decided to remind the community that those rules are important – especially rule #3.

In a blog post, the reddit admins compare the site to a “busy community park” that has to occasionally be regulated. On the topic of the “park rules”:

…a small number of cases that we, the admins, reserve for stepping in and taking immediate action against posts, subreddits, and users. We don’t like to have to do it, but we’re also responsible for overseeing the park. Internally, we’ve followed the same set of guidelines for a long time, and none of these should be any surprise to anyone.

The five rules of reddit (4, really) are as follows:

• Don’t spam
• Don’t vote cheat (it doesn’t work, anyway)
• Don’t post personal information
• Don’t post sexually suggestive content featuring minors
• Don’t break the site or interfere with normal usage of the site for anyone else

That last one isn’t even a real “rule,” admits reddit.

Alongiside those rules exist a more informal set of guidlines, basically for not being a dick on the site. They’re called reddiquette:

On reddit, “being respectful” involves doing things such as upvoting good content, downvoting irrelevant content (but don’t downvote good discussions just because you disagree!), marking your submissions as NSFW if they might get someone else fired for viewing at work, and so forth. And don’t litter — that is, when you submit something, it should be because you think that it is genuinely interesting, not just because it’s something you made. Many subreddits prefer that you submit stuff that’s NOT yours, while others prefer it if you only submit items that you’ve created. You should always make it clear whether a submission is your content or someone else’s — don’t try to pass off someone else’s work as your own!

By January of this year, reddit had grown to 2.3 billion pageviews a month – which come from 35 million unique visitors. Popular subreddits can generate over 5 million impression a day. Reddit has the power to affect real change on issues like internet privacy, as well as help raise money for charity and awareness for important social issues. The site’s also been known to come through with remarkable examples of kindness and generosity.

It’s also really good for funny pictures and cats.

Because of this, we feel that it is important for reddit to take time each year to remind everyone that although open, the site works best when people are mindful of a few basic principles.