Thanks to everyone who helped this much-needed project come to fruition! According to @ned, the Steemit team will be using this FAQ on a site page. They will also be linking it to steemwiki.com and a few other places.

Also, I'd like to thank @arhag in particular for answering some of the more challenging, technical questions.

Unfortunately, the FAQ exceeded the post size limit, so I have to split it into two parts. I'll link to part two at the end of the post.

Steemit FAQ

What is Steemit.com?

Founded by @ned and @dan, Steemit is a blockchain-based social network that rewards users for posting and voting. The technology is advanced, but the proposition is simple: Blog, earn Steem.

Who are @ned and @dan?

Ned Scott, CEO @ned
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nedscott

Daniel Larimer, CTO @dan @dantheman
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-larimer-0a367089

What is the difference between Steem and Steemit?

Steem is the name of the entire blockchain-based & censorship-resistant system. Steem is also a name for the system’s value token (currency).

Steemit, Steemit.com and Steemit, Inc. are all names for a privately-owned company and a website which offers people a secure way to interact with Steem, the system. Steemit is simply an interface to view the blockchain content of Steem.

Can I earn money on Steemit? How?

You can earn money various ways on Steemit:
Blogging - By sharing your original and unique posts, you can get upvotes by community members. Depending on the upvotes you receive, you will get a portion of that day’s total payout.
See: How do reward distributions work?
Curating - If you discover a post and upvote it before it gains Steem, you will receive a curation reward (if the curation award is at least 0.001 Steem Power). The reward amount will depend on the amount you have vested, called Steem Power.
See: What is the difference between STEEM, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars?
See: How do reward distributions work?
Investing - There is no guarantee that investments in Steem will appreciate in value, but if you believe Steem tokens will increase in value, you may purchase Steem Power or “Power Up” your STEEM.
See: What is Powering Up and Powering Down?
See: Why should I Power Up and not cash out?
Saving - You may hold Steem Dollars, which currently yields 10% APR (Annual Percentage Rate), but this interest rate can change depending on market forces.
See: How do reward distributions work?

Is Steemit a scam?

A scam usually starts with you having to give money to someone else. Steemit gives you currency (in the form of Steem Power) just for signing up. It doesn't require you to invest anything if you don’t want to. Steemit does require effort, however. Write and post your unique and original content. If the community upvotes it enough, you get paid.
See: Where does the money come from?

I don’t have the skills to create quality original content. Why should I join?I don’t have the skills to create quality original content. Why should I join?

Don’t sell yourself short; everyone is good at something. Okay, you don’t write well. That’s fine! Are you a good photographer? Start a blog displaying your photos. Do you know a lot about football? Start a fantasy football blog, giving your best predictions each week and become the expert people seek for advice on their fantasy team that week. Maybe you are interested in arts and crafts? Display the work you’ve recently done. Video game connoisseur? Write reviews and tips for your favorite games. Can you make food look beautiful? Start a food blog!

If you honestly cannot think of anything you are good at or interested in, keep it in mind. Something will come to you. Until then, read the posts on Steemit and enjoy the great, fresh content!

Furthermore, Steemit gives you access to the earliest stage of this new exciting web technology and allows you to participate by doing things you may have already been doing! For example, posting and voting on content around the internet. Steemit is more than blog to earn. It’s social networking. Come and enjoy your time on the internet, let your voice be heard and join others curating a great place for content and networking.

Even if you don’t enjoy blogging or reading content, you will probably benefit from having a Steem wallet because it gives you a fast, cheap and easy way to transfer money around the world without restrictions.

Where does the money come from?

The currency of Steemit.com is Steem. The value of Steem comes from liquidity providers, investors, and traders on exchanges.

Using a pre-determined mathematical formula, the Steem network continually creates new Steem tokens to reward content creators and curators (for voting on blog posts). Some of the newly-created currency gets transferred to users who add value to Steemit by blogging, commenting, and voting on other people's blog posts. The remainder is distributed to holders of Steem Power to protect them from dilution.

The "money" at its core is like game tokens, distributed to creators and curators as rewards for successfully playing the game. What makes the system robust is that the tokens, traded on markets, have a real-time value. The markets allow Steem tokens to demonstrate their value. This way, when one has a Steem token, that person can know what their token is worth to other people. It is similar to how someone playing a video game could obtain a rare item by playing the game. If they have the scarce item, then they could potentially sell it on video game item markets. Think of Steem as a game system for content, where the rewards people earn are video game tokens that have real market value and are readily tradable for Bitcoin and USD.

Another way of looking at Steemit is as a website much like Reddit. However, it is different in that it pulls its information from a decentralized blockchain and cryptocurrency database called Steem rather than a centralized, private database. In this way, Steemit is also analogous to other blockchain-based businesses such as Blockchain.info, which pulls its data from the Bitcoin network.

Rewards paid to bloggers do not come from Steemit Inc, or investment in Steemit Inc. It comes from the Steem blockchain itself. There has been more than $3 million USD worth of Steem tokens paid by the Steem blockchain to creators and curators. Steemit does not and will not ever compensate the contributors of the Steem network for curating and creating content. Steemit is not a middleman to any of the blockchain processes, and the technology remains completely open source and transparent for anyone to audit and verify. Steemit is a social network built on the Steem blockchain, whose users are paid by the blockchain.
@steemrollin/steem-where-does-the-money-come-from

Why is the money there in the first place?

The money is there primarily because of high user growth. As with other social networks, the 'Steemit' network effect is beginning to take hold, which makes it more valuable to existing users, and should lead to it growing further. The "network effect" refers to the fact that the more people use something, the more valuable it becomes because more people can get something they value from it.
@wingz/instead-of-asking-where-the-money-comes-from-ask-why-it-s-even-there-in-the-first-place-digging-deeper-into-the-steem-economic

What is the difference between STEEM, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars?

All three are currencies in the Steem network and fall under the umbrella of Steem tokens. All three types of Steem tokens perform a vital role in the Steem ecosystem. They are:

STEEM - The most liquid form of currency in the platform. It should only be held for short-term trading because it will be diluted 50% per year due to ever-increasing supply. You may convert STEEM into Steem Power, Steem Dollars, or another currency altogether.

Steem Power - Having Steem Power is similar to owning restricted shares in a company. It is a measurement of how much influence you have on the platform and determines how much your vote is worth on a post. It is important to note, when you decide to cash out your Steem Power (Power Down), you will get paid equal payments of STEEM for the next 104 weeks, taking two years to cash out your Steem Power completely. Once you start the powering down process, you can stop it at any time. You don't have to cash all of it out.

Steem Dollars - A smart contract promising you will get about $1 USD worth of Steem at the current market price. One Steem Dollar is always worth around one US Dollar, although it can vary a little. Steem Dollars must be turned into STEEM before they can be “Powered Up” into Steem Power. You may also convert Steem Dollars to another currency outside the Steem economy.
@shredlord/steem-steem-dollars-and-steam-power-explained
@donkeypong/still-confused-by-steem-steem-dollars-and-steem-power-the-power-plant-analogy

If Steem consistently creates new currency, how much am I being diluted by holding STEEM, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars?

STEEM - In its second year, when the curve stabilizes, there will be a 50% dilution of Steem, which means that there will be a 100% increase in Steem per year. It's being created at about three times that rate now (which is similar to the Bitcoin dilution rate in its early days).

Steem Power - Steem Power you hold increases at 90% per year, versus the 100% increase in Steem supply, so the dilution of Steem Power is the difference between these two. If you hold Steem Power and don't add to it with content or curation awards, your Steem Power will be diluted by 10% per year. Once again, the numbers are different now while Steem is in distribution mode.
See: What is the “distribution phase” of Steem Power?

Steem Dollars - No dilution, rather they gain 10% interest per year. This interest rate can change depending on market forces.
@hisnameisolllie/steem-dilution-rate-explained-currently-much-higher-than-you-might-think

Why won’t Steem Dollars become inflated?

Steem Dollars work differently from standard STEEM tokens, which get inflated a lot. The issuance of STEEM tokens back Steem Dollars. When the value of the STEEM token goes down, more STEEM tokens are used to back the Steem Dollar. The Steem Dollar is affected little by the inflation of Steem with one exception: If the price of Steem tends towards zero.

In general, the price of 1 USD is a target price but the network cannot guarantee it under all circumstances. In particular, there are a few unlikely "Black Swan" events, like USD hyperinflation and Steem going to zero, which can affect the backing mechanism. Additionally, the number of Steem Dollars in circulation should not exceed 20% of Steem’s market capitalization for safety reasons.
@dantheman/steem-dollars-have-limits

What is Powering Up and Powering Down?

Powering Up - If you wish to gain more influence in the network, you must increase your Steem Power. Powering Up is the process of turning your Steem into Steem Power.

Powering Down - If you have Steem Power, and wish to cash out, you can begin to Power Down. While powering down, the network has calculated your Vests, which are a stable measure of STEEM supply. The system will transfer 1/104 of your Steem Power, computed as Vests, to STEEM each week for two years (104 weeks).
Example: 1,040 Steem Power will be paid out as 104 weekly payments of 10 Steem.

Users can continue to curate and earn curation rewards while powering down and may stop a power down at any time.
See: What are Vests?
See: Why should I Power Up and not cash out?

How does Steemit, Inc. make money?

Social media companies can have tremendous market values without actually making any money because investors are forward-looking. Facebook, Instagram, Tinder and Snapchat, what did they all have in common? At one time, they were all losing massive amounts of money each year, while being valued in the billions of dollars. Why? Because they had a vast user base and investors know there are many ways to monetize a company with a large active user base.

I just signed up. Are there any steps I should take before I get started?

Yes! First and foremost, your account is worth money, so you should secure it.
@pfunk/your-steem-account-is-worth-money-how-to-secure-it-with-a-new-owner-key-to-keep-it-yours-forever

Secondly, we urge you to read the rest of the FAQ, so you know the ins and outs of Steemit. We promise you will come out the other end a much more knowledgeable Steemian. Knowledge is power, and with your new superpowers, you are significantly more likely to achieve a high level of success.

What are “Tags and Topics”?

When creating a blog post, you have the option to tag it with relevant keywords. Doing so allows users to sort posts by topics of interest. For example, if you’re posting a recipe for a gluten-free and vegan pasta, you might use the tags: “food,” “gluten-free” and “vegan.” It is important to only use tags that are relevant to your post.
See: Why and how should I use tags?

Account Management

How do I view my account?

You can see your account by clicking on the avatar icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
Your Account Homepage

“A” - Home, New, Hot, Trending, Promoted, and Active

These are various ways to sort blog posts.
Home - Most recent posts of the people you follow.
New - Posts are sorted by the time posted, newest first.
Hot - Popular posts at the moment.
Trending - Posts with the highest rewards that day.
Promoted - Listings that are boosted by Steem Dollar payments get "Promoted" for greater visibility.
Active - Most recent posts with edits or comments.

“B” - Search, Submit A Story, Account Home, More Tools

Search - Click the magnifying glass to search Steemit.
Submit A Story - Create a new post.
Account Home - Click the avatar from any page to see your home page.
More Options - Click the three horizontal lines to view additional options and tools.

“C” - Followers, Posts, Followed

Followers - People who follow you.
Posts - Number of blog posts and comments you’ve made.
Followed - People you follow.

“D” - Blog, Comments, Replies, Rewards

Blog - Displays your blog posts, beginning with the most recent. Click on Blog to keep track of how your recent posts are doing, or find something you wrote in the past.
Comments - Shows your most recent comments on blog posts.
Replies - Shows responses to any of your posts or comments.
Rewards - Shows the rewards you have recently received. These rewards are separated into “Author rewards” (for blog posts and comments) and “Curation awards” (for posts and comments you have voted on).

“E” - Wallet

Wallet - Shows how many of each currency token you have. The three currency tokens are STEEM, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars. You will go to your wallet to buy and sell these tokens.
@thecryptofiend/the-missing-faq-a-beginners-guide-to-using-steemit
See: What is the difference between STEEM, Steem Power and Steem Dollars?

How does the Steemit search function work?

Click the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen to bring up the search function. Steemit’s search utilizes Google services, searching within Steemit.com. Often, the search function won’t find blog posts and comments published within the last 24 hours, because pages must be indexed by Google before they will appear.

Do inactive accounts ever get deactivated? If so, how long until removal?

No, accounts do not get deactivated.

Where can I see who I follow and who follows me?

Go to your Steemit profile by clicking your avatar. Then click on the underlined “followers” (people who follow you) or “followed” (people you are following).

I come across a lot of posts I would like to save for later, can I bookmark a post within Steemit?

Bookmarking posts is not an option at this time, but until then, there is an excellent Google Chrome extension called Bookmark Manager that you may find useful.
@ash/two-great-chrome-extensions-i-use-to-save-and-manage-great-steem-posts
You also have the option to resteem (reblog) a post. This will share that post with your list of followers and it will be saved as part of your blog so that you can easily find it later.

How can I auto-post my Steemit blog posts to Twitter and Facebook?

You can set this up through ifttt.com. Step-by-step instructions:
@ash/how-to-auto-post-your-steem-posts-to-twitter-fb-everything

Reputation

What does the little number next to my name mean?

This number represents your reputation score (also referred to as rep); the higher the number, the better. The lowest possible reputation score is -25 and the highest possible is 75. New users start in the middle at 25.
The reputation score uses a log10 scale with some tweaks, meaning:
A score of 30 is about 10x better than a score of 20
40 is about 10x better than 30
50 is about 10x better than 40
This log10 scale means a score of 60 is about 100x stronger than a score of 40 and 1000x higher than a score of 30.
@digitalnotvir/how-reputation-scores-are-calculated-the-details-explained-with-simple-math

Why does my reputation score matter?

A reputation score is one way Steemit measures the amount of value you have brought to the community. In real estate, they say there are three variables of the utmost importance: location, location, location. On Steemit, those things are: reputation, reputation, reputation. It’s not to say other variables aren’t important, but reputation will be an enormous factor in your level of success.
It is worth noting that if your reputation goes below 0, Steemit will hide your posts and comments making it very difficult to gain monetary rewards and followers. This incentivises online etiquette and respect for your fellow Steemians.

Why will reputation be a major factor?

One result of developing a high reputation score is generating a lot of organic followers (those who follow you because they value your work). These are people who are much more likely to read, interact with and upvote your posts.

Additionally, Steemians frequently look at users’ reputation scores when deciding which articles to read because they know higher reputation scores means it is much more likely quality original content. A blog post from a higher-rep user is less likely flag-worthy spam or plagiarism. Furthermore, the higher your rep, the more effect your vote will have on the reputation of others. Subsequently, this makes your reputation immune from damage by reputations lower than your own.

Lastly, uses for reputation scores may change. For example, rather than the trending page being sorted by posts’ value, reputation could play a role in the sorting algorithm. Same goes for comments - Currently, comments are sorted by their value based on votes, but Steemit developers could change it to put comments from the highest-rep users at the top. Also, higher-rep users could eventually receive moderator privileges in discussion forums or chat rooms. Additionally, rather than Steem Power being the main factor determining vote worth, reputation scores could become a part of the algorithm.

How do I improve my reputation score? What hurts my score?

To put it simply, add value to the Steemit community to improve your score. But harm the community and your score will suffer.

• Create and post quality original content. It’s all about quality, not quantity.
• Engage in thoughtful discussions in the comments of blog posts.
• Up-vote thoughtfully. Don’t upvote junk, only vote up quality content.
• Build your following by posting quality content.
• Avoid bad behavior; it can get you flagged.
• Don’t harass other users or become disrespectful due to an online disagreement. This can lead to trolling habits which could get flagged.
  See: What are the legitimate reasons for flagging a post?
  @stellabelle/how-i-achieved-the-1-reputation-ranking-on-steemit-and-how-you-can-improve-yours
  @knozaki2015/steemit-has-introduced-a-new-reputation-score-what-is-it-and-how-can-you-boost-up-your-score

Does my reputation score affect the amount my vote is worth?

No, reputation has no effect on the value of a user’s vote. That is determined by the amount of Steem Power you have. However, your reputation has an effect on the reputation of the accounts you upvote.

If someone has a higher Reputation Score than me, will it lower his Reputation Score if I flag him?

Someone must have a higher (and non-negative) reputation score than you for their flag to negatively impact your reputation. However, upvotes from anyone still help your reputation as long as the upvoter's reputation score is non-negative.

If you see something worthy of a flag, such as plagiarism, and you fear that this user could retaliate by flagging you in return, you can take the issue to the steemitabuse channel on steemit.chat.

Payouts

Why does my time until payout keep changing? When do I get paid?

After you make a post, a 24-hour timer starts counting down. When you get an upvote, time is added. The amount of time added depends on how much Steem Power the curator possesses. Someone with very little Steem Power might add a few minutes to the clock, whereas a vote from someone with millions of Steem Power will add hours.

Nearly all first payouts occur within 48 hours of posting. If you get at least $0.01 of upvotes after the first payout, you will receive a second payout four weeks later.

Distribution of rewards for all curation and comments happen only at the first payout. The author gets rewards from both payouts.
See: What are minnows, dolphins, and whales?
See: How do reward distributions work?

Why does my payout estimate keep changing when I’ve received no new upvotes or flags?

There is a fixed amount of new Steem created every day to be dispersed as rewards in a rolling 24 hour period. At any given time, the system is making an estimate of how much you will be paid based on what percentage of Steem Power-adjusted votes your post possesses.

Let's pretend a piece of content is currently worth $5. But then, many other articles suddenly become highly-upvoted. The money to pay those popular posts needs to come from somewhere, so a portion of your post's value is reallocated to these newly-popular posts. Now your post may only be worth $4.

Another reason your payout may change is price movements in the seven-day moving average of Steem.

My post said I was going to get paid $50, why did I only make $37?

The value appearing on your post is not the amount of your payout. You, as the author, are guaranteed at least 75% of the total. As much as 25% goes to the curators (the people who upvoted your post).
See: How do reward distributions work?

How do reward distributions work?

The Steem network separates payouts into two categories, the author reward, and the curation reward:
The author is guaranteed at least 75%. Curators get up to 25%.
Author reward is paid out:

• 25% in STEEM
• 25% in Steem Dollars
• 50% in Steem Power
  Curation rewards are paid out:
• 100% in Steem Power

What determines how much of the curation reward goes to the author versus curators?

The payout split depends on how long after posting the vote was cast, using a linear function:

• If a post is upvoted the moment of posting, 100% of the curation award goes to the author.
• If a post is upvoted 30 min after posting, 100% of the curation award goes to the curator.
• Between 0 and 30 minutes, each moment that passes, more of the reward goes to the curator.
• At 15 minutes it's a 50/50 split.
• At 3 minutes, 90% goes to the author and 10% to the curator.
• At 27 minutes, 10% goes to the author and 90% to the curator.

I’m upvoting posts at the right time. Why am I not getting meaningful curation awards?

This is a complicated topic, but keeping things more understandable - To receive meaningful curation rewards, you need a combination of: Steem Power, high voting power, and high voting weight. You must also upvote posts before they become popular and after some time has passed since posting. The more accurate answer to this question involves a lot of math. If you are not mathematically inclined, you may want to skip to the next question.

The system determines the total amount of rewards (in STEEM) to allocate for a post based on its net rshares (sum of both positive upvoting rshares and negative downvoting rshares contributed to the post), its reward weight percentage (normally 100% if you don't post more than 4 posts per day), as well as other global parameters in the system at the time of payout like the sum of total vshares of all posts/comments on the platform with positive net rshares, and the total STEEM held in the reward pool. Assuming the net rshares of the post is positive (otherwise there would be no payout), the exact equation is steem_in_reward_pool * reward_weight_percentage_of_post * vshares_of_post / total_global_vshares where vshares_of_post = f(net_rshares_of_post) and f(x) = (x+s)^2 - s^2 with s = 2000000000000.

The fraction of the total rewards allocated for a post that go towards curation rewards is at most 25% (it can be less because of upvotes during the initial 30 minute reverse auction period). Then that amount allocated to pay curators of the post is divided among the various upvoting curators (who haven't changed their initial vote on the post) according to the relative weight they received for their upvote on that post. That weight is a function not only of the rshares they contributed to the post with their upvote (which is itself proportional to the product of their chosen voting weight percentage and the total amount of VESTS they had at the time of the upvote), but also on the accumulated rshares contributed by upvoters of the post before them. If you want to learn the exact math behind the calculation, I recommend reading @theoretical's post series on the topic.

Steem rewards users for commenting and upvoting. Why not for sharing?

You can gain curation rewards from resteeming (reblogging). The rewards that you gain will depend on how much STEEM the post gains after you upvoted the post and shared it with your followers. What this means is that sharing content that will be popular before it gains popularity would give you a greater curation reward than sharing content that is not going to be popular or content that has been seen by everybody already.

Can I choose to be paid in 100% Steem Power?

Yes you can. Before you publish your post, you can checkmark the “Pay me 100% in Steem Power” box.

Now that I earned some Steem Dollars, what can I do with them?

You have a few options:

• Visit a Steem marketplace such as https://www.peerhub.com (created by @steemrollin)
• Hang onto them and earn interest
• Cash them out
• Buy STEEM
• Power Up (Must convert to STEEM before powering up)
  @piedpiper/so-you-just-earned-your-first-steem-dollars-now-what
  @blueorgy/how-to-convert-your-steemdollars-sbd-to-cash-usd-transfer-it-into-your-bank-account
  @beanz/how-to-get-my-usdteemit-money-into-my-bank-account
  @steemrollin/peerhub-bringing-steem-beyond-social-networks-to-the-new-economy

Money

How can I invest in Steemit?

Investing in Steem Power is similar to buying shares of a company, or in this case, the Steem blockchain. Increase your Steem Power and you’ll have more influence on the network (with a more powerful vote). You have the option to invest your time to earn Steem Power by commenting, curating and posting. You also have the opportunity to make a monetary investment.
See: How do I get more Steem Power?

How do I get more Steem Power?

If you have Steem Dollars, you can convert them to STEEM from your wallet. Once you have STEEM in your wallet, click Power Up to turn it into Steem Power.

If you don’t already have STEEM or Steem Dollars in your wallet, you’ll first need some Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. You may purchase Bitcoin on various exchanges. A few popular Bitcoin exchanges are Coinbase.com, Circle.com, and Localbitcoins.com. Once you have your bitcoin:

• Click the three horizontal lines in the top right corner of Steemit.com
• Click “Buy Steem”
• Send the amount you want to purchase to the address on the screen.

Here are a few other tutorials on how to buy Steem and transfer it to Steemit:
@psylains/steem-tutorials-2-how-to-buy-steem-and-transfer-them-to-steemit

How do I withdraw money?

You can withdraw money many ways. Here are step-by-step tutorials for several different options:

Sell Steem Dollars via Poloniex
@ash/steemit-how-to-sell-steem-dollars-via-poloniex-newbie-friendly

Withdraw Steem Dollars to a bitcoin address
@piedpiper/how-to-withdraw-your-steem-dollars-in-less-that-a-minute

Convert Steem Dollars to a country’s currency and withdraw to a bank account
@beanz/how-to-get-my-usdteemit-money-into-my-bank-account

Convert Steem Dollars to bitpay debit card (USA ONLY)

Convert Steem Dollars to WIREX debit card (USD EURO & GBP Supported)
@b0y2k/convert-your-steem-dollars-to-physical-money-to-spend-or-withdraw-anywhere

Convert STEEM to many other cryptocurrencies via ShapeShift
@shapeshiftio/official-announcement-shapeshift-has-added-steem-to-the-exchange

Why should I Power Up and not cash out?

Everyone has different priorities. Some may want to power up to increase their voting influence and curation rewards. Others may want to cash out. It’s strictly a personal choice.

If you believe Steemit has the potential for significant growth, you might think it wise to power up. Not only will you immediately gain more influence in the network, but it also has the potential to increase in value.

Consider this, if Coca-Cola decides they want influence on Steemit so they can promote company-related posts, they will have to purchase a significant amount of Steem Power to do so. In this hypothetical example, Coca-Cola alone will increase the price of Steem significantly. Now, imagine if dozens of companies followed suit.

Is it true that payout money is coming from new investment in Steem?

It is highly misleading to say so. When someone cashes out, he effectively decreases his investment in Steem. At the same time, another individual increases his investment in Steem. Therefore, it is not fair to only mention the "new investment" and skip the fact that simultaneously a current investment ceases to exist.

Payout money is always in the form of Steem tokens. For your convenience, and to hedge against price volatility, those tokens are packaged as Steem Dollars and STEEM when the blockchain pays you.

STEEM has value since they are like shares in an enterprise which has a real market value. When you cash out, you sell those tokens (shares), and somebody else buys them from you. Therefore, these are just shares of a company changing hands: one person exits, the other takes their place.

Let's consider an example: If Mark Zuckerberg wanted, he could reward the most popular Facebook pages with shares of the Facebook. Those users could then cash out by selling their shares, and somebody would surely buy them. This hypothetical scenario is akin to the daily happenings in Steem.

What determines the price of STEEM?

Much like how the price of a stock goes up and down, the value of STEEM varies, determined by buyers and sellers on exchanges.

Will I make a profit by powering up?

Powering up does not ensure that you will automatically earn a profit. Profit is contingent on how the price of Steem changes over a given period as well as how much Steem Power you earn as a content creator or curator.

Powering up (converting STEEM to Steem Power)

• Increases voting power and curation rewards
• Protects against dilution (90%+ protection compared to the running inflation rate)

How do I send money to another user?

1. Click on your avatar to get the drop-down menu, and select ‘Wallet.’
2. Click the down arrow where your Steem Dollars are displayed
3. In the drop-down menu, click ‘Transfer.’
4. In the box ‘To’, type in the username of the account you want to send the Steem Dollars to.
5. Type your password to authenticate.
6. Check your history to confirm your transfer.
   @steemrollin/steemit-how-to-send-another-user-steem-dollars

What are fees for transferring money between Steem’s three currencies and between other users?

There are never any fees for transfers within the Steem network. However, if you transfer Steem to an exchange and convert it to another currency, you will incur a small fee.

What are Vests?

To put it simply, Vests are your investment tokens whose value is represented by Steem Power. Steem Power is akin to Steem held in a fund. Vests are Shares in that fund.
@hisnameisolllie/what-are-vests

What is the “distribution phase” of Steem Power?

The purpose of the distribution phase is to get Steem currency in a significant number of peoples’ hands. During the distribution period, Vests are compounding at a higher-than-normal rate of 3% per week.
@jl777/re-alexgr-investing-long-term-with-steem-time-as-an-overlooked-parameter-20160805t120032075z
@alexgr/investing-long-term-with-steem-time-as-an-overlooked-parameter

If I invest x Steem Power and do not curate or post content, how much will I have after a year?

This requires a lot of assumptions (see the linked comment for details), but a simplified (and therefore somewhat incorrect) answer is that after the first year initial distribution phase, one's fractional ownership of all Steem Power will decrease by some percentage less than 6.7% (the exact number depends on what fraction of STEEM is kept powered up) per year if they do nothing (note that this analysis ignores the effect Steem Dollar conversions have on the supply). If we go by the typical ratio of STEEM held as Steem Power versus liquid STEEM that we have seen for the last several months, then annual percentage decrease in fraction ownership of Steem Power is probably closer to 5%. So for example, going with those assumptions, if someone had 0.1% of all Steem Power in January 2018 and then simply waited for a year without earning anything or powering up/down, they would end up with roughly 0.095% of all Steem Power in January 2019.
@arhag/where-does-the-money-come-from-a-look-into-the-economics-of-steem#@arhag/re-anonymint-re-arhag-re-innuendo-re-arhag-where-does-the-money-come-from-a-look-into-the-economics-of-steem-20160725t194412239z

What happened to the liquidity incentive rewards? Were they allocated elsewhere?

It was apparent that the liquidity reward systems were not achieving their desired effect. We have disabled these rewards until we find a better solution, which should reduce the amount of liquid STEEM on the market.
@steemitblog/steem-version-0-12-0-released

If I’m inactive, or the total amount of Steem Power Vested is below 90%, do I lose VESTS or are they stable?

The amount of VESTS you have does not change unless you power up/down or earn rewards. However, the amount of Steem Power those fixed amount of VESTS can claim does always increase with time. The fractionf of the total STEEM supply that your fixed amount of VESTS can claim can either go up or down depending on the fraction of the total STEEM supply that is kept powered up as Steem Power. If exactly 90% of STEEM is held as Steem Power, then f stays constant. If more than 90% of STEEM is held as Steem Power (which is the usual scenario), then f shrinks over time (but I already discussed in the answer to the previous question above how there is an upper bound to the shrinkage rate given certain assumptions). If less than 90% of STEEM is held as Steem Power, then f will actually grow. Keep in mind, this analysis once again ignores the effects that Steem Dollar conversions can have on the STEEM supply.

Posting

Will I earn money by sharing links?

Steemians tend to support original content because it’s what provides the most value to users. If you are only posting links, you probably won’t be rewarded. In fact, it is possible you will get flagged as “link spam.” However, if you have valuable insight to add to an article, and you give credit to the proper source, there is a much better chance the community will value the post.

“Copy & Paste” of entire articles that were not originally written by you is considered plagiarism and therefore condemned by the Steemit community.

How do I add pictures and videos to my blog posts and comments?

Just insert the image or youtube link inside your post or comment.
@billbutler/adding-images-to-your-steem-posts
@algimantas/detailed-guide-how-to-add-videos-in-steemit

Some posts have pictures that take forever to load. How can I prevent this?

The number one reason people won’t read your blog post is that it is taking too long to load. Therefore, it is important to make your photos a reasonable size. One way to do this is to upload your photos to imgur.com. When choosing the photo size click “Huge Thumbnail” or “Large Thumbnail”.

I see people using high-quality photos that clearly are not their own. Is it okay to use random pictures from the internet?

No, using random pictures from the internet is not allowed. You may, however, use photos from “free image” websites such as Pexels.com. At the time of the writing of this FAQ, all photos on Pexels are free for personal and commercial use and require no attribution.
@mindover/don-t-plagiarize-images-here-are-13-free-and-legal-ways-to-find-high-quality-photos-you-can-use-on-steemit

Does it cost anything to post comments or content?

No, it is free to post on Steemit.com.

What are “Promoted” posts?

When you make a blog post, there is the option to promote it with Steem Dollars. It will then show up in the “Promoted” tab. The order it shows up depends on how much the post received, highest amounts first.

Steem Dollars spent to promote a post are paid to the account @null, which nobody owns or controls. Once a user transfers SD to @null, Steem removes them from the currency supply.
@steemitblog/introducing-promoted-content

How do I promote a post?

Scroll to the bottom of a post.

Click “PROMOTE”

Type the number of Steem Dollars you want to send and click “PROMOTE”. This action cannot be undone!

Can you post unlimited comments and blog posts, or is it limited in some way?

There is a 20 second wait time in between comments to prevent spam. No hard limits exist regarding the number of blog posts a user may publish per day, but if other users feel you are spamming, it is possible you will start getting flagged by community members who see spam as a form of abuse.

However, there is a soft limit to the amount of blog posts you can publish before the payouts for the account become diluted. Each account can post four blog posts per 24 hour period and get 100% payout for each one. If you post five blog posts in a day, the payout for the 5th falls to 65% of the amount it would have otherwise paid.
6th = 45%
7th = 33%
8th = 25%
After editing a post, the 24-hour clock for that article resets.

@steemitblog/steem-version-0-12-0-released
Note: The “Changing Payout Periods” section of the above link is no longer valid.

What are Steemit’s policies on plagiarism and spam?

Plagiarized posts and spam are deemed as abuse and will be flagged by community members. If you are posting someone else’s content, you must give them credit! If using a previous Steemit post, you can display credit to other users by linking their name to the borrowed content (Example: @dantheman) or by linking directly to that individual’s post. If posting content from outside Steemit, be sure to link directly to the page(s). Also, if you wish to be rewarded for sharing this material, it is a good idea to add your own original and relevant thoughts.

How do I format a post if not using the editor?

You can format blog posts and comments by using HTML and Markdown. Here are basic commands that should be helpful to you:
@minion/professional-tutorial-for-post-formatting-both-for-beginners-and-advanced-users
@beanz/steemit-posting-tutorial

How long can my post be?

Posts can be many pages long, however, before posting think about how much people are going to be willing to read at one time. For example, some users post their books on Steemit but usually do so one chapter at a time.

Why and how should I use tags?

You may add up to five tags to a blog post. The more relevant tags used, the more like-minded readers will come across your post. Be careful, though, if your tags aren’t related to your post, you may get flagged for deceptive tagging.

Just below the box for the body of your blog post, there is a box for tags. If you write a post about traveling to Arizona, you might use the tags: “road-trip grandcanyon traveling arizona travel” All tags must be lowercase letters, and hyphenated words may include one dash.

Another way to tag your posts is in the body of your post. When doing this, you include a “#” before the word you want to tag, for instance:
“My family and I were traveling through the Arizona desert. On our road-trip we visited the Grand Canyon.”
@rok-sivante/the-top-3-reasons-to-tag-your-steemit-posts-a-simple-quick-strategy-for-long-term-profits-and-success

For how long after posting can I make edits?

You may edit your posts until the second payout occurs.
See: Why does my time until payout keep changing? When do I get paid?

How do I delete one of my blog posts?

You cannot remove a blog post; you may only edit it, and it is only possible to edit until the second payout. The blockchain permanently records every post and comment and every edited version of every post and comment.

What is @Cheetah?

@Cheetah is a bot (developed by @anyx) that scours Steemit for plagiarized content. Cheetah will not flag content immediately, but it alerts other users to look into it further.

The worst offenders (serial plagiarists or identity thieves, for example) will go on Cheetah’s blacklist. These users will get flagged by Cheetah when they post.
@cheetah/cheetah-bot-explained

Is it possible to get off the blacklist?

Yes. They can make an appeal (a post saying that they understand what they did wrong) and make it clear to the steemit community that they intend to stop plagiarizing or spamming. They should also join steemit.chat, and make their case known in the steemitabuse-appeals channel.
@cheetah/cheetah-bot-explained

Can I sell goods and services on Steemit?

Right now, not easily. However, in the future, after direct messaging is set up, there are plans to have a “Classifieds” hashtag for selling goods and services. Posts with a classifieds tag will not earn any rewards.

You can use https://www.peerhub.com/ to buy products with Steem Dollars.

Note: I had to go through the entire doc and reformat it before posting, so I may have missed some formatting. Also, some images went missing in the process. To view the FAQ in its entirety (with pictures and all), click here to see the Google Doc.

Click here to see Part 2