1. Never help someone with corpse retrieval and let them lead.
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Death leads to desperation. A desperate party leader is dangerous.
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2. Never do corpse retrieval in an area you are unfamiliar with.

3. Never answer the question "Will you do me a favor?" with a simple yes.
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If the favor turns out to be something you cannot do, the person may harbor some resentment because you already said that you would do it. The size of the resentment is usually in proporation to how important it is to that person.

They may be asking you to get involved in political affairs of which you have no knowledge. This will almost always lead to trouble for you.
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Neranz Laverani, Seeker of Knowledge

Never trust someone who says, "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

No one lives forever. Find a place to get adequate back-up equipment to help with corpse retrievals.

(Hopefully not too far off-topic...)
They may be listening. Don't assume that since you dont see any immortals that your private channels are private.

Never forget to HEAL before rushing off to get your corpse.
(You'd be surprised how many do).

Never agree to come along when a level 30 mage says: "I feel bored. Let's go kill the Big Green Dragon!"
(Because you are crispy and taste good with ketchup).

do not go with someone to some place you dont know how to leave.

Don't go for that "one last fight" when you're ready to go train and level up.

These are my survival rules I go by for exploration. Knowing the mud helps keep you alive. Exploring is the best way to know it.

1. Do not get attached to your first character.

Consider your first character on a new mud disposable.  This will make it easier to explore.  You will die a lot.

2. Do not accept equipment for your exploration character.

Equipment gifts from others can make you become attached too early to your exploration character, especially if you do not know where to find the equipment when you die.

3. Do not be careless with your exploration character.

Just because it is disposable, doesn't mean that caution should be thrown completely to the wind.  Dying a lot means that you have a lot more walking to do overall.

4.  Mages make the best exploration characters.

For two reasons, know monster and invisibility.  It is just as important to know which monsters can see invisible as it is to know their general statistics.

Neranz Laverani, Seeker of Knowledge

An expansion on Shao_Long's comments:

Logs are your friend. Log everything.

Reviewing logs helps you notice things about areas that may have been missed before. I have found many nuggets of knowledge hidden in logs.

If you discover a bug, a log might be helpful to the coder. (Not necessary for your survival, but nice for the mud).

Neranz Laverani, Seeker of Knowledge