Eleven years ago yesterday, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey made history by sending the very first tweet: “just setting up my twttr.” The replies below the tweet, many made on the March 21 anniversary of the original tweet, include @HAlanScott’s “honestly, half of the great things that have happened in my career are because of Twitter,” @MehrTarar’s “Thank you for that. Truly turned a big, big place into a global village. You rock” and @MiguelGamino’s shout out to the whole founding crew, “Happy Birthday @twitter! Congrats @jack @biz @noah @ev! You changed the way the world is woven together.”

It’s hard to believe Twitter has only been around 11 years. From everyday social interactions to political organization, live streams of presidential debates and more, this social network has grown vastly in the past 11 years. And with 313 million monthly active users, the conversations that take place can be productive, informational and fun – even more so if you’re willing to keep a few unwritten rules in mind that will make Twitter more pleasant for everyone.

There’s one simple action you can take to avoid inviting abuse to an unsuspecting person. When you see someone mention a celebrity or political figure in a tweet by name, don’t include the person’s Twitter username in your reply or retweet. If the person who posted the tweet wanted to use the celebrity’s username in their tweet, they probably would have – adding it yourself increases the possibility they might see it and retweet it, thereby reeking havoc in the original tweeter’s notifications.

Speaking of retweeting and replying, don’t reply to incredibly old tweets, especially if you have an opinion you feel the person must know about – if you’re taking the time to reply to a 3-month-old tweet to share an opinion they probably didn’t want anyway, what purpose does it serve on their end to see what you write? Plus, depending on the situation, it can border on creepy.

When you have a thought you want to tweet that requires several tweets to get the point across, thread your tweets so anyone can easily start at the top and read the entire thought in succession. You can do this by posting your initial tweet, replying to yourself, removing your @-username and posting the next tweet in the thread. Do this after each tweet in a row — not just the first one —and your tweets will form a thread that is easy to read and share.

Finally, a few simple rules that essentially extend to the rest of the internet: Don’t tweet while drunk (it’s not as much fun for everyone else as it is for you), don’t steal tweets or photos posted within tweets (Twitter’s search function is pretty savvy at picking out offenders) and if you’re watching a TV show, try not to post overt spoilers (but you can also use a #spoiler hashtag or a designated hashtag for the show that others can mute using a third-party client or app).

No matter what your primary use for Twitter is, following these simple rules will make your social networking experience (and the experiences of your followers) more positive, relaxing and enjoyable.