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No need to apologize. :)
Can't say I blame you for the confusion.
You should've seen us all stumbling around here this past July. LOL

What is this platform for?

For people to post what they consider to be good content (original content, in particular, is typically very successful).

What is the reason for upvote?

This platform isn't based off of "tipping", where you simply hand someone money for posting. It's based off upvotes. And the more Steem Power you have (whether that means actual money to purchase Steem, or just your time creating content and earning Steem Power), the more influence your vote has, meaning the more money the post you voted on will receive.

How do we know what to post?

Well, you don't, really. It's like fishing with a variety of baits. Original content - content that you yourself created - tends to be the best bait, in my opinion.

How do we know exactly what we cannot post?

See answer to previous question.

Don't get me wrong, there's certainly a learning curve, but that can be said of anything, really.
Let me know if you have any further questions. I'll be glad to answer them to the best of my ability.

The platform is for blogging about whatever interests you. You upvote to show support for what other people have posted, and you can earn a small curation reward for upvoting. People upvote you based on how well they like your posts, unless they are running vote-bots that auto-vote everything anyway.

You post whatever you want, provided you use appropriate tags. Tags should relate to the content, and a list of popular tags is always available here if you need some idea what can draw attention. The first tag is a permanent category for your post, so choose wisely.

I suggest reading some articles here or elsewhere on the web about how to format posts in order to make them easy to read. I don't mean to be overly-critical, but your posts are somewhat disjointed and hard to follow. Good paragraph structure will go a long way toward attracting readers.

Some helpful posts from other Steemians:

Steemit Markdown Basics for Beginners
Updated Steemit FAQ part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
Headers and White Space

@iloveupvotes will eventually get tired of being a troll. There have been more like him in the past and when they are not rewarded monetarily or with attention they usually move on.

How do we know exactly what we cannot post?

There isn't anything you can't post. There are things that most of the community agree that you shouldn't post and some will flag you for it. Plagiarism and letting others assume what you post here is your own words or works by not providing a link to where you found it is the most common mistake new users make.

The second is not adding your own thoughts or comments to what you share. I see someone form @steemcleaners commented on one of your previous posts. It's great to share.. When you do just use a few quotes from what you are sharing, provide a link, and give a comment or two.

And of course scams, spam, and hate speech.

This is a community and there are a lot of different views, like many others here I believe original content should be rewarded.. even if that content is just a picture of your pet or a comment about your day. Not everyone who contributes will have a creative niche. I haven't found one unless you count the few humorous posts I've done as @zoee.

I spend most of my time here posting random thoughts, posting about @zoee (who is currently nosing my elbow and making it hard to type), helping out in steemit.chat, and being a member of @steemcleaners.

I hope you don't get discouraged! Hang around, there are a lot of members here ready to give you advice. Being active and commenting is a good start.

Okay, time to walk @zoee. If I'm available I'm always happy to help.

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