A few unwritten rules I’ve found useful over the last couple of years since moving to Lemmy :)

1. If you’re missing a particular smaller or niche community - be the change and create it!
2. If someone is challenging you in a thread in good faith, respond in the same way
3. If they’re just being a dick, don’t waste any sort of mental energy on them - just block them, forget them and move on.
4. If you’re the one being a dick (and be honest, we all know when we are) walk away for a bit
5. Don’t be too proud to ask for guidance but do it in the right communities :) e.g. don;t ask for tech help in a community thats not about tech help.
6. Be prepared to see a lot of Star Trek memes and Nicole spam.
7. Bask in the warm glow of an open source, privacy respecting, non-corporately controlled environment.