Extended: The 8 golden Rules of EVE

These are based on Akita T's Golden rules for new players, originally published on the old forums.

Forum Link here.

Be able to afford a loss

* Never fly something (or with something in the cargo) you can't afford to lose. Yes, not even in highsec. Meaning that you should not fly a ship you cannot afford to replace and refit. 

Consent to PvP

* You consent to PvP when you click "undock". 
* You are not safe in 1.0 security space. CONCORD is there to punish, not to protect. Get used to the idea. 
* In most cases, the only way to be 100% safe from aggression inside the game is to be docked in a station. Being cloaked in a secret safespot could work too. 

Everyone can scam - and so can you

* Never grant corporation rights to stuff you can't afford to lose either. No exceptions. 
* People offering free stuff? Probably traps. Be cautious. 
* Free stuff usually isn't. Not even minerals you mine yourself. 
* If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Paranoia pays off here. Double-check everything. 
* Scamming and unethical behavior some would consider griefing is not only allowed, it is encouraged and rewarded by the game mechanics.
* Harassment or real-life threats are not ok, and you can get a shiny ban for them. Learn the difference. 

Experience matters, not ISK or Skills

* Just because some character is just a few minutes old doesn't mean he's a newbie. Many people have alts. The reverse is also possible, people come back after very long breaks, and characters are sold. You could see year-old newbies around too.
* Skills that take less than 1 day to train are short skills. Over one week is long. 
* You're in this game for the long haul. Don't expect to do something meaningful in the grand scheme of things in the first day of your first trial account ever. 
* All other things being equal (experience, skills), superior numbers more often win a fight rather than superior ship value. However, things are hardly ever equal. 
* Total skillpoints count doesn't matter much either, it's level of relevant skills to the current situation that does. Yes, that does mean a 2 mil SP combat-oriented newbie could badly beat up a 60 mil SP industry-oriented veteran. 

Bigger is not always better

* More expensive stuff is not always better stuff. 
* Slightly better stuff usually costs many times more than slightly worse stuff. Choose wisely. 
* Tech-2 is usually cheaper and better, but harder to fit. Sometimes it's not better. Other times it's not cheaper. And occasionally, neither cheaper nor better. 
* There are no "solopwnmobiles" in EVE. Everything you can fly blows up if it's shot hard enough. 
* With enough skills and experience, ship size really doesn't matter all that much.

Use the in-game info

* Show Info and Variants->Compare are your best friends. Use it on all stuff you can. 
* Always check your ship insurance before you undock. If it's a T2 ship however... not that important. 

Unfair circumstances?

* There is no such thing as "a fair fight" or "an unfair fight". There's only a fight. Circumstances are irrelevant. 
* Just because you can fly something doesn't mean you should. 

You will lose stuff, don't worry! 

* If you PvP long enough, you will lose your ship. It's only a matter of where and when. 
* If you logoff in space without a PvP timer, you're only safe after 1 minutes... and then only until you log back in. If you logoff with a PvP timer, it's at least 15 minutes. Bottom line, once a fight started, don't logoff. You'll only die anyway. 
* Somebody, somewhere has better skills than you, more experience than you, is smarter than you, has more friends than you and can stay online longer than you. Just pray he's not out to get you. 
* If you lose stuff, it's almost always your fault. Really, only yours. 

Use Tools - the EVE community thought up great stuff to use!

Use out-of-game fitting and market tools
Use apps - there are a lot of good ones out there to make life easier
Use one of the Overview packages to help orient yourself


[As seen reposted by CCP Phantom - Senior Community Developer - expanded by MadLib]

More came from redditors: Link!

Further things to remember [reddit wisdoms] 

• ships are ammunition, not investments (hoy205) 
• If you die, don't hesitate to ask for advice, tips or tricks from your attacker. More often than not they are very willing to teach you how to play the game if you are willing to listen. (boomboss81) 

Fly Your Way (porpoiseoflife) 

• This is a sandbox game where you can play how you want to. You can do the nullsec wars, highsec mission running, lowsec faction warfare, industry, mining, exploration, wormholing, or anything else that captures your fancy. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's your corner of the sandbox, so do what you want in it. Just be prepared for someone else to come along and kick your sandcastle into dust bunnies. Because just as you can play how you want, so can everyone else. 
• If you're not comfortable in a corporation, then leave. Nobody is holding an autocannon to your head and forcing you to stay where you are. If you don't like the people, then find someone else to fly with. If you don't like their policies, then go somewhere else to live. If you think you're getting ripped off by the leadership yet don't know how or why, then you probably are getting ripped off and should evacuate immediately while taking anyone and anything else you can get your hands on. 
• Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Always leave a fallback plan. That load of gear you get from the career agents can keep you in the game even if you somehow lose everything else. Even if you never use that T1 destroyer or the two free Ventures for the rest of your playing career, you never know if they will become useful in an emergency to help you get back on your feet if you ever need to evac. And as you get older, you can build up more supply caches with better ships. But never just sell off the nest egg that the game supplies you with out of the career agents.

Sooner or later you will have to fly/haul something that you can`t afford to lose, so here are some basic tip&tricks (Zalmoxeh)

• Don`t attract attention. If you do, someone will find a way to blow up your ship. No exceptions, even if you are in a titan.
• For example, if you are in the trading business, never use same char for trading and hauling.
• Always use a scout (a friend on voice coms or an alt, even better).
• After you jump a gate, you have 1 min to look at your surroundings, make good use of it.
• Learn how to identify ganking set-ups.
• If you see a frig hull with sensor booster effects, that`s probably a scanning ship.
• If you keep the camera as close to your ship as possible, sometimes you can hear a click when you break invulnerability. That means someone has scanned your cargo/fit.
• If you see on grid or on directional scan Tornados, Trashers, Svipuls, Catalists or Taloses, those are probably gankers.
• Learn how to use D-scan.
• Tracking camera (default, shift+c) and 5 degrees scan is a very powerful tool.
• Always use insta undock and insta dock. Use multiple insta undocks and change them regularly (they can be probed down).