I am also new and still don't know the rules. The main thing is how to get your articles free from the "noise".
Anyway, what i do is i try to keep good content, upvote what I like, comment on what i like...
This looks like the cartoon below :)
source: https://steemit.com/cartoon/@quickfingersluc
I also discovered how to seperate my original content from resteems...
Yeah that's what i'm doing.
Just doing the best content that i can and hope for the best.
Thank you for the comment and good luck!