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Thanks to Your Help, the Official Steemit FAQ is Now Complete! (PART 2)

shenanigator (68) in steemit •  2 years ago

The FAQ exceeded the maximum post size limit, so it had to be split into two parts. This is part 2. How do I upvote a post?

At the bottom of a post, you'll see something like this:

When you click this upvote button, a slider will appear (if you have sufficient Steem Power, currently about 350).

Adjust the slider to your desired vote power and click the upvote button again. You have now upvoted the post.

When you have upvoted the post, the arrow will turn blue. Click again to remove your upvote. When you remove an upvote, you forfeit all curation awards for that post.

Why are my blogs posts not making much money? They are higher quality than a lot of the “Trending” posts I see.

It takes hard work, consistency, and patience to build a loyal following on Steemit. Consistently put out high-quality content, and you should gradually gain followers. Eventually, some whales will see your work.

Additionally, when a Steemit user has a long track record of producing quality content, a collection of users tend to read everything she posts. This kind of relationship usually takes some time to build.

For strategies to improve your long-term success:

My comments rarely earn any money. How can I change that?

A wide variety of things make for popular comments, but some of the best tips are:
Spot soon-to-be trending posts and strike early.
Praise the post if you enjoyed it.
Highlight a point the author made and respond.
Add useful information, correct something, or ask a question.
Aim for one paragraph in length

What are the legitimate reasons for flagging a post?

You can flag a post for Plagiarism, Verbal Abuse, Deceptive Tagging, Spam, Scams, Threats, etc.
You should not flag a post for Disagreement, Political Incorrectness, Envy, Retaliation, etc. If you flag a post, you should leave a comment stating the reason for the flag.

The steemit community likes to encourage flagging etiquette.

If you come across a post that appears abusive, please post it in the Steemit chat room:

How is the value of a user’s vote calculated?

The value of a single person’s vote varies based on:
Steem Power - More Steem Power means a higher vote weighting
Voting Power - With each vote you cast, your voting power decreases. It will regenerate from 0% to 100% in 5 days. You will maximize your influence in the network by placing at least 5 votes per day at maximum power.
See: What is Voting Power?
Current value of a post - If your vote is worth $0.02 on a new post, it might be worth about $0.45 on a post already worth $250, or several dollars if the post is already worth $1000s.

To find out how much your vote is worth, check out this tool:

What is Voting Power?

Think of your voting power as a big tank of water. Every time you vote, a valve at the bottom of the tank pops open and squirts out some power. The fuller the tank, the more power squirts out the valve. The amount of power that squirts out the valve is one of the things that determines how powerful your vote is. (The other is your Steem Power, which you can look up in your wallet and is an entirely separate thing.)

If you vote and vote and vote without stopping, it's like leaving the valve open, and it won't take long before your tank is empty.

Fortunately for you, there is a steady drip of power coming back into your tank! This drip refills your tank at the same rate, always, no matter what.
What happens to the drip if your tank is full? The water gets wasted! Think of it like the tank just overflows if it's full; all that voting power is just dripping down the sides going to no purpose.

How voting power works

How to vote optimally

Find out your vote worth here:

What is the voting slider?

The slider lets you change the strength of your vote. You can adjust it based on how much you like each post and how many times you want to vote each day. However, to maximize your influence in the network, we recommend not adjusting it unless you are certain you understand the tradeoffs.
See: How do I upvote a post?

Does the amount of Steem Power held by an account have a DIRECT impact on the visibility of its posts?

If the account owner votes up her post, then yes. It will add some money to the payout, which has the effect of making the post more visible.

Does flagging use up my voting power?

Yes, it does.

Does flagging bring any reward to the curator?

No, it doesn’t. However, sometimes reporting abuse such as spam and plagiarism to the steemitabuse channel on steemit.chat can earn you a reward in SBD from @steemcleaners.

How are curation rewards distributed?

Distribution of curation rewards depend on several factors:

Your Reward Shares (rShares)

Steem calculates rShares by multiplying Steem PowerVoting PowerVote weight

Amount of time (since posting) when the upvote occurs

In the early days of steemit, many users were voting for posts by popular authors the moment they were posted because they would get a significant curation award. To combat this, Steem developers changed the system to reward waiting, and consequently, encourage reading posts before voting.

Post value before and after you upvote

Given all these curation rules, what is the best time to vote?

Curation rewards will be negligible unless your vote is worth more than a penny. Until that time, just vote when you come across something you like.

If you have enough Steem Power to get a notable curation reward, there is a huge benefit to voting before others vote. However, there’s also a significant curation reward bonus for waiting up to 30 minutes after posting. Curators should weigh these two factors against each other to come up with their personal strategy.

Can I get curation rewards for voting up comments? Does the same 30-minute rule apply?

Yes, you can get curation awards for upvoting comments. No, the 30-minute rule does not apply.


How can I keep my Steemit account secure?

How do I make my active key and owner key different from my posting key? Does the GUI allow this?

It is a very good practice to use a separate key for the active authority and another separate key for the owner authority. And furthermore it is a smart idea to keep the owner key offline. Unfortunately, the steemit.com GUI does not currently support independently changing the keys of the various authorities. Any password change on steemit.com changes the owner key, active key, posting key, and memo key in such a way that all four can be derived using the password. Other Steem community members have created third-party tools that can change a user's authorities independently. Options include @xeroc's Piston, @modprobe's Steem Pressure, and more (warning: these are third-party tools developed by people with no official association to Steemit Inc., and also some of these tools might be in beta, so use at your own risk). You can also change your keys using the command line cli_wallet tool that can be compiled from the official Steem codebase.

Is it safe to use my account while on public wifi?

No, not without first taking additional steps. To prevent someone from hacking into your account while on a public wifi network, you should use a service like Private Tunnel VPN. Also, if you are only posting, commenting and voting, log in using your Posting Key.
See: In my account, I see “Keys.” What are these? How are they used?

Steem has five different keys (passwords) associated with each account. Four of these are used with typical accounts and the fifth by witnesses. They are Owner, Active, Posting, Memo, and Signing keys. Each has its particular set of functions and limits.

The Posting, Active, and Memo keys all have what is called a private key that can be viewed on Steemit. Your private Owner key is the password you used to sign up for Steemit. Do not share your private keys. When logging into your account, you will be doing so with the “private” option of that particular key, because it will give you the ability to perform specific functions.

To see your private keys:
Click: “Wallet”
Click: “Permissions
Click: “Show Private Key” next to the key you wish to view

A key is like a password, except they are unique in that each key allows the user to perform specific functions. Notice I said “the user” not “you.” If someone else gets ahold of your keys, they will have full control of your account.

Owner Key - The owner key allows its user to post, vote, transfer funds, vote for witnesses, and change all keys including being able to alter the owner key. The owner key is only meant for use when necessary.The only thing the owner key can not do is decrypt private messages/memos sent to you, only the memo key can.

Posting Key - The posting key allows accounts to post, comment, vote, and follow other accounts. Most users should be logging into Steemit every day with the posting key, only using the active key when something to do with transferring funds or changing keys is necessary. You are more likely to have your password or key compromised the more you use it, so a limited posting key exists to restrict the damage that a compromised account key would cause.

Active Key - The active key can perform almost all functions for an account except change the owner key. It can change all other keys on an account, including the active key. The active key can do everything the post key can do, plus allows transferring, trading, powering up/powering down Steem Power, and voting for witnesses. It cannot decrypt private messages encrypted to your memo key.

Memo Key - The memo key is the only key that can decrypt private messages sent to your account. The Steemit team will implement this private message feature in the future.

Before you start logging in with any other keys, ensure your keys are backed-up, and your backups are backed-up!

Is Steem, Steem Dollars, or Steem Power insured in the event of a hack or if someone takes over my account?

No, it is not. If your money is in Steem Power, however, it is impossible for a hacker to take out more than 1/104 per week.

How do I set up my recovery account?

Everyone is already enrolled into the recovery feature by default. The only question is who your current recovery account is set to. You can find out the recovery account for anyone's account by, for example, looking for the corresponding field on their steemd.com page. On the page for my account, you can see that the recovery account is currently set to "steem". This is the account that Steemit Inc. uses to help users recovery their access to their account. You might notice that with some accounts, such as @gxt-1080-sc-0001, they have a blank recovery account. A blank recovery account simply means that their recovery account is the currentrank 1 witness. The default for newly mined accounts is a blank recovery account. On the other hand, the default recovery account for a newly created account is the creator of that account. So accounts registered from steemit.com use "steem" as their default recovery account. As another example, we can look at@someguy123's awesome AnonSteem service which allows users to create a new Steem account over a Tor connection by sending the service an appropriate amount of bitcoin. This is an alternative way of creating a new Steem account to Steemit Inc.'s free registration faucet. But new accounts created using this service have@anonsteem (which is the creator of accounts registered using that service) as their default recovery account. For example, one can look at the steemd.com page for @steemmarket to find that it currently still has its default recovery account of @anonsteem.

So what if you want to change your recovery account? Or what if you want to disable the recovery feature for an account entirely? While it isn't possible to disable the recovery feature, you could simply change the recovery account to "null" (@null is a special account on Steem that no one has any control over) which effectively does the same thing. It can still be changed back to some other account in the future, but like all changes to the recovery account, for security reasons it requires owner authority and has a 30 day delay before the change actually gets activated (and the change request can be cancelled using owner authority at any time in those 30 days). It is possible to change your recovery account using a cli_wallet command, but I'm not aware of the existence of any user-friendly GUI tool or interface to do so currently. Again, I will let someone else write the step-by-step guide for how to change your recovery account using cli_wallet.
Answer written by @arhag.

How does the recovery process work? What should I do first if I discover that someone hacked my account?

You must have already assigned a trusted individual who can identify you independently of your key. Steemit can identify users by their email, Facebook, and Reddit logins (if you signed up through us). You could also use your mother, wife, employer, or friend, or another 3rd party provider.

When you notice your compromised account, you should contact your account recovery partner (the trusted individual) and ask them to submit a request to change the locks on your account. They verify you by whatever means they find satisfactory and then submit a proposal to the blockchain to change the locks on your account.

Once you submit the proposal to the blockchain, you will have 24 hours to log in with both your old and new keys (aka passwords). Any key you used within the past 30 days is sufficient. If you login in time, then the keys will be changed, and the hacker will be locked out.

If you don't have a key used in the past 30 days, then your account will be unrecoverable.

What if your Recovery Partner is Hacked too?

In this case, they would appeal to their account recovery partner. Once they recover their account, then they can work with you to recover your account. It is exponentially unlikely that the hacker can compromise all accounts in a very long chain of recovery partners. Therefore, you and your recovery partner should not use each other as their backup.

Technical Questions

Can I mine Steem? How do I start?

Yes, you can. To get started, check out these tutorials. However, with each Steem hardfork, you may need to make updates to continue mining.

How can Steem consistently produce blocks every 3 seconds since proof of work takes an unpredictable amount of time?

To have consistent and reliable block production every 3 seconds, Steem separates block output from solving proof of work. When a miner solves a proof of work for Steem, they broadcast a transaction containing the work. The next scheduled witness includes the transaction into the blockchain. When the transaction is included, the miner is added to the queue of miners scheduled to produce blocks. Each round, one miner is popped from the queue and listed in the active set of witnesses.
See: What is the difference between Proof of Work and Proof of Stake?

What are Steemit witnesses?

Technically, there is no such thing as a Steemit witness. But rather a witness for the Steem blockchain. The Steem blockchain requires a set of people to create blocks and uses a consensus mechanism called Delegated Proof of Stake, or DPOS. The people delegated to create these blocks are called witnesses.

They are voted on by owners of Steem accounts, using a steem-power weighted system. They are some of the most trusted members of the community and tech-savvy. They are expected to keep a node running every second of every day.

Blocks are produced in rounds, 63 seconds per round and 21 blocks per round. Every round, the top 19 witness accounts are delegated to generate a block, a backup witness produces one block, and the last by a miner.

In addition to producing blocks, witnesses are also responsible for providing a price feed of the US dollar value of Steem as well as setting the Steem Dollar interest rate. As an incentive to do all their required tasks, the system rewards witnesses one Steem for each block they produce.

Why should I vote for witnesses?

Each steemit account has 30 votes to the weight of their Steem Power. Members of the steemit community use their accounts to vote for the most trusted members of the community. As miners these witnesses are often very tech-savvy. They are expected to keep a node running every second of every day. The witnesses that are more favourable to the community are often the community members who are putting in a lot of extra work to improve the network by developing things for example that are useful to the community.

Where can I vote for witnesses?


How are witnesses expected to behave?

Witnesses are employees of the blockchain. They are responsible for critical jobs and paid very well. Therefore, the community should hold witnesses to the highest of standards.

A well-qualified witness should have satisfactory answers to all these questions:
What makes you qualified for the job?
Are you reliable?
What kind of hardware are you using?
What kind of internet connection do you have (ISP, speed, etc.)??
If things break, how fast you can fix them?
Have you prepared to mitigate damage from dangerous threats like coordinated attacks against all Steem witnesses at the same time?
Are you helping other witnesses?

Is Steemit open source?

Yes, Steemit.com is 100% open source.

Is there an API?

Yes, there is a steem API.

How do I use cli_wallet?

Steem Command Line Guide - A Learner’s Guide to Using cli_wallet

What is available for developers interested in Steemit?

Many software engineers are currently leveraging the open-source code to build their applications on Steem. There are more than sixty so far.

Who are the Steemit developers? How big is the team? What is their background? Who is doing what?

Look for additional information from the Steemit team in the coming weeks. Follow @ned, @dantheman, and @steemitblog to ensure you see updates on this subject.


Where can I purchase official Steemit merchandise?

There is no official merchandise yet, but it is easy to make Steemit gear on zazzle.com. For instructions, check out this link:

Am I allowed to use the Steemit logo?

Currently, the Steem and Steemit logos are the same and is free to use. Steemit, Inc. will have its own logo created in the next few months so that it can be distinguished from Steem. The Steemit logo will be proprietary while Steem and its three squiggles will remain open for public use.

What can I post about? Is anything banned?

There are no official rules for steemit. However, the community is learning to have online etiquette as people here value their reputation.

Posting your original content is encouraged. Users wishing to post to Steemit and their other blogs simultaneously may do so. Users from @steemcleaners are constantly on the lookout for plagiarism, so you may be asked to provide proof of blog ownership. You should only have to submit proof once.

Users may post something that is not their original work, but must cite their sources. It is unlikely that posts with links only will get rewarded. You can increase your chance of getting a reward by adding your own thoughts to the content.

Prohibition of content from the blockchain is not possible, and nothing can be deleted from the blockchain; at most, it can be removed from the front-end layer, Steemit.com.

The lack of clarity may be a result of non-uniform laws across the globe. What is legal in one country may be illegal in another. Entire networks or mail providers are affected in some cases where a particular government bans their operation. The emergence of a clear-cut "guideline" may not happen for years to come, if ever, in part because of the global differences in legal frameworks. Also, in part due to the difficulties involved in enforcing anything at the level of the blockchain (which is not very desirable).

While trying to remain uncensored, as a US company, Steemit, Inc. may be required to remove some things from Steemit.com, such as child pornography.

Steemit is intended for a general audience and, as a result, some Steemit Content may discuss or depict adult-oriented topics. We realize that this content may not be appropriate or desirable for some of our readers depending on their current location, age, background or personal views. As a result, we mark this content as Not Safe For Work (#NSFW).

Marking Steemit Content as NSFW does not prevent you from being able to access this content but, instead, helps you make informed decisions about the type of content you view on Steemit.

What is @steemcleaners?

Steemcleaners are a group of Steemians concerned with the plague of plagiarism, copy paste, spam, scams and other forms of abuse that keep cropping up on Steemit. Fighting individually seemed fruitless, often resulting in retaliatory flagging, harassment, and other issues. Therefore, we have created a group account to stand as a united front in defense of Steemit.

Am I allowed to have multiple Steemit accounts?

Yes, you may have multiple accounts.

Can I remain anonymous?

Yes, absolutely. You are entitled to your anonymity. You may notice some cases of users seeking verification of identity on certain steemit accounts. This is because if they are claiming to be somebody, (and not anonymous) then verification is favorable. The reason for this is because users who put a face to their profile often gain more rewards than those who don’t. For this reason there has been some cases of identity theft. When a user discloses their identity and removes their anonymity they may be asked to verify that what they are saying is true. You are still however, entitled to remain anonymous.

What is a blockchain?

A public ledger of all transactions ever executed. It is essentially a distributed database where pieces of information are added in a sequence of small blocks, hence the name “block-chain.”

How is Steem different from Bitcoin?

On a technical level, the two cryptocurrencies are running different technologies for their blockchains. Based on Graphene, Steem uses a system of “Witnesses” to carry out the bulk of the work involved in maintaining the blockchain.

Regarding economic differences, Bitcoin has a maximum number of coins of 21 million and a relatively low inflation rate. Steem is different in that regard with no maximum number of possible coins in existence as well as built-in dilution protection in the form of Steem Power. Steem users can also avoid volatility through the existence of the Steem-Backed-Dollar (SBD or SD), a token which is floating in value around the $1 mark. Additionally, SBDs currently pay 10% interest.

Is there a Steemit mobile app?

There is not an official Steemit mobile app, but there are currently several third-party-developed mobile apps for the Steem blockchain. Note: Exercise extreme caution when logging in to third-party apps. We recommend only logging in using your Posting Key in case there are any security holes.
eSteem: https://steemit.com/steemmobile/@good-karma/finally-esteem-is-on-ios-app-store-other-development-updates

What are minnows, dolphins, and whales?

Frequently users give fish names to others based on the amount of Steem Power they hold. Not STEEM, not Steem Dollars, just Steem Power. Henceforth, fish in the Steem Tank will be quantifiable:
<100 SP = Plankton
100-10k = Minnow
10k-30k = Baby Dolphin
30k-100k = Dolphin
100k-300k = Orca (Killer Whale)
300k-600k = Humpback Whale
600k-1 Million = Fin Whale
1 Million+ = Blue Whale

Why aren’t whales voting up my posts?

It is possible that it’s just a bad start with hard luck. Most people don’t get lucky with their first few posts.
There are some things you can ask yourself:

If you are doing all these things, it is only a matter of time before your content starts getting upvoted by whales. You can also visit the #writing-exchange channel on steemit.chat if you want to get some constructive criticism of your writing to help you improve.

Can I receive notifications when I get votes?

Currently, there are no options to receive notifications directly on Steemit.com. The third-party application https://steemstats.com/#/ (developed by @jesta) has an option to set up notifications on your computer. There is also a Google Chrome app called Steemification that will notify you when someone upvotes or replies to you.

Why can I only add five tags?

Steemians can merge many tags into one; therefore they are redundant. Also, it helps prevent spam.

What should I know about bots on Steemit?

Bots are like dogs; some are good dogs who have good owners, others are not. Some are stray dogs; others have a leash and a caring owner. Who's the owner? A caring one? As every caring owner, he will always try to "correct" the bad owner's behavior and teach him how to treat his dog well. Bots are here to stay, and the only thing we must do is ensure that they are properly vaccinated, checked by the vet regularly, well cared for and are not running wild without a leash.

Proof of work - Miners solve a complex mathematical problem. The miner that solves the problem first adds the block to the blockchain. The network rewards the miner for doing so.
Proof of stake - Requires ownership of the cryptocurrency. The more cryptocurrency you own, the more mining power you have. Benefits: eliminates the need for expensive mining rigs, runs on a tiny fraction of the power, and it requires miners to have a stake in the network.

Can users connect to and use Steemit from countries which have national firewalls, such as China?

For now, yes. However, the GFW (Great Firewall of China) will likely become problematic in the future. Here is an excellent article on Steem and its adoption in Asia:

What does Steemit’s development roadmap look like?

What are activity shares? Do they have any function?

They were an idea that Steemit ultimately scrapped. They do not have a function.

What third-party tools are there for Steemit?

There are a lot of them, and people are constantly developing more.

Will I get a 1099 (IRS income tax form) from Steemit?

No, you are not being paid by Steemit. The Steem network pays you. It is your responsibility to determine what, if any, taxes apply to the transactions you make, and it is your responsibility to report and remit the correct tax to the appropriate tax authority. By creating an account, you agree that Steemit is not responsible for determining whether taxes apply to your Steem transactions or for collecting, reporting, withholding, or remitting any taxes arising from any Steem transactions.

What are the age requirements to join Steemit?

Although we welcome users from all walks of life, Steemit is not intended for or directed at individuals under the age of 13. Therefore, people under the age of 13 may not create an account or otherwise access or use the Services.
What languages are supported?
English is the primary language used on the SteemIt platform. Some users post in other languages, but it’s a small niche at the moment.

If posting in a language other than English, how will I get recognised?

You can use language hashtags to help you to reach the audience that speaks your language. Language-specific groups include:
Chinese = cn
German = deutsch
Korean = kr
Russian = ru
Swedish = sv

What is the Steemit Whitepaper and what is its purpose?

For clarification, there is only a Steem Whitepaper. There is not yet a Steemit Whitepaper.

The Steem Whitepaper was written to describe the mechanics of the token system that makes decentralized content incentives and distribution possible in a way that can improve web technologies across the board. It is also applicable to Steemit, one of the first websites to plug into the Steem blockchain. Users who have read the Steem Whitepaper will better understand how their interactions with Steemit are interactions with Steem, the decentralized network.

Is Steemit decentralized? What about Steem?

Steem as a blockchain is more decentralized than Steemit.com. Steemit, Inc. as a company, may be subject to laws that Steem (as an impersonal blockchain database distributed all over the world) is not.

Where is the Steemit Privacy Policy?


I read through the FAQ but still need more help. Is there a place to go for more help?

There are a few things you can do:

Steemit Lingo A-Z

Baby Dolphin - User with 10k-30k Steem Power
Blockchain - A public ledger of all actions ever executed.
Blue Whale - User with 1 Million+ Steem Power.
Curation - The act of sorting through content by voting on posts and comments.
Curator - Someone who votes on a posting.
Dolphin - User with 30k-100k Steem Power.
Fin Whale - User with 600k-1 Million Steem Power.
Humpback Whale - User with 300k-600k Steem Power.
Minnow - User with 100-10,000 Steem Power.
Nuke - A community initiative to downvote someone into oblivion for some abuse.
Orca - Also known as a killer whale, a user with 100k-300k Steem Power.
Plankton - User with less than 100 Steem Power.
SBD - Steem Backed Dollar, also known as a Steem Dollar.
SD - Another frequently used abbreviation for Steem Dollar.
Steem - A reference to the entire network. Also utilized for the system’s value token.
STEEM - A form of Steem token that one should only hold for short-term trading.
Steemer - A Steemit user.
Steemian - A Steemit user.
Steem Token - The currency of the Steem ecosystem. SP, SBD, and STEEM are all forms of Steem tokens.
Vests - Steem Power is essentially Steem held in a fund. Vests are shares in that fund.

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.


steemit faq steem steem-help writing-exchange
2 years ago by shenanigator (68)
97 votes
jlufer (73)  ·  2 years ago

Very good job, a lot of information very important excellent congratulations post

shenanigator (68)  ·  2 years ago

Thanks, I hope it will be a useful tool for everyone.

team101 (60)  ·  2 years ago

Thanks for your hard work. I really appreciate it. upvoted and following!

linkback-bot-v0 (54)  ·  2 years ago

This post has been linked to from another place on Steem.

Built by @ontofractal

apertus-cogitari (51)  ·  2 years ago

question regarding this:


Are you saying that the login credentials are not sent using HTTPS? To say that a VPN is necessary for safe public wifi use implies that there is an inherent need to trust ISPs and VPN providers (because they can obviously see as much of your traffic as a public wifi snoop can).

jyezie (61)  ·  2 years ago

The tags should be "standardized" : my proposal

baerdric (65)  ·  2 years ago

Thanks, just saved me from making and repeating a mistake (bots). I had thought that bots seemed a little skanky, but tried a few anyway. Turned them off, I'll just like what I like. I'm not here to make money anyway, but to encourage decentralised systems by investing my original content.