I'm new! I'm just a baby vamp and I have no idea what's going on, what I can do, how can I build, how can I help my clan?

Well, first try reading through the General Info page. Now that your eyes are glazed over, here's the short version:

Start recruiting and building clan (the Add-Me topics on the Zynga forum can be a big help, just follow the 1 post rule!);

Find someone to Santa Pong for Pyros with - either online passing, say, Fangs back and forth OR someone you can "dump" like 100 Fangs on when they're offline, then when they log in, they can send them back to you;

Do missions. No you're not going to get a lot from Missions at first, but you will get small amounts of blood and it starts adding up with Mission Mastery. DON'T BANK IT! (you lose 10%) Once you have enough;

Buy Minions in groups of 10 to get Blood income and start spinning the Wheel every 4 hours;

With income you can buy more Abilities and start SLOWLY doing Ability Mastery;

Combat, but check your clan size and SR before hitting that Attack button

I'm an established or getting to be an established Vampire. What should I be doing and what can I do to help my "baby vamps"?

Make sure you've got enough Minions to keep a good positive Blood income;

Buy MORE Minions;

Do the Mission Mastery and Ability Mastery (you WILL need a GREAT income to finish this!);

For your baby vamps, first, if you're their Sire, be certain you've joined their Clan and spread the word that this vamp is new and needs good, active, honest, helpful players to grow their Clan;

Help make sure your baby vamps are getting Purges from invites until they have better offensive abilities;

Buy Glamor in bulk - like at least 200 at a time and send them to your baby vamp. Why? so they can Unlearn them for Blood so they can buy Minions, start doing (more of) the Ability Mastery ... remember how hard it was at first? Help your little ones out. And there's a benefit for you to doing this;

Get your Pyros! Make sure you have at least 501 and it's always good to have extras for gifting/trading. Sending Glamors to your baby vamps will help them and will help YOU get more Pyros from Santa! Win/Win here.

I've "found" Abilities in Combat. Does my opponent lose these? And will I lose Abilities while fighting?

No and No. The Abilities are just "found", they're generated by the Game. No one is losing anything.

What's a Zombie?

Simply, a Zombie is a player whose Health is under 20. They could be in-game and just fought or they could be logged out with Health under 20. The "rub" is even though a Zombie cannot fight until their Health is back above 20, they CAN Hit List another player while Zombie'd.

I was logged out, but when I logged in I found out I'd been attacked and it's messed up my stats and SR! What's up with that?

See Zombie above. You must have your Health under 20 when you log out. Yes you can (and probably will) be attacked, but it won't affect your stats and you won't see the attacks on your Newsfeed.

I attacked someone and got 70,000 (or 140,000 with clan rally), but my SR didn't change and the attack button went away after _ attack(s). Why?

Because you attacked a Zombie! 99% of the time all you'll get is a bit of experience and blood. You cannot get a kill so to me it's kind of a waste of rage to keep going.

Someone attacked me 10 (15, 20) times! That's mean, they're harrassing me! They're not following the 3 Attack Rule! Right?

Actually no, that is not harrassment. That means your opponent has rage to burn, you have health and they're probably going for a kill as well as exp. points and if you have it out, blood. They may also be trying to collect bounty if you're on the HL. Check your newsfeed, that will let you know if you've been HL'ed, by whom and for how much.

That doesn't mean there isn't such as thing as harrassment or abuse, you just need to know the difference. From the Zynga official forum, please read this topic on what constitutes harrassment:
http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=136667 ... while you're there please be sure to read all the TOS and ROC and yes, they can and will change from time to time. It's our responsibility to now and follow as best we can the Rules.

Also have a look at this, regarding "What constitutes Abusive Behaviour? http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=126348

and I think this lovely says it all quote from Gordon the Ghost regarding the 3 Attack "Rule" from this topic: http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=139415 says it all:
"This issue is a dead one. Anyone subscribing to this antiquated method of play is leaving themselves open for utter destruction at the hands of people playing the game competitively."

Someone at a higher level attacked me out of nowhere! How? and it's now ok for me to give them to my Clan as a "chewtoy" isn't it?

If you are on the HL anyone on that server can see you, regardless of level. If you "help" someone one in clan with a mission or fight it will show up in the newsfeed, if you've posted on someone's wall, you're seen. Then there are players who use lower level clan (or their own babies) to find lower levels to attack or HL so the higher levels can try for bounty. No that's not fair, but it happens.

I cannot find it at the moment, will update when I do. But posting "chewtoys" on your wall or clan comments is afaik considered harrassment. So just don't do it. Get your character bigger and stronger and then take that bigger guy on yourself!

What's this "gifting recruit" thing that sometimes just appears?

This is something new as of June, 2009 and it's really nice - when you're lucky enough to get the page. It will just appear! There's 3 gifts - an Offensive, Defensive, and Movement gift. Now the Offensive one, Bloodletting, is not so great, that one I personally pass on. The Movement gift is nice mainly for lower level, either hasn't unlocked MS or can't afford enough for the whole clan. Premonition, the Defensive ability is really the best to give. Honest! If you and most of your clan are lower level/lower SR, then you might want to go for the Movement ability gift. If you want to gift the best, go for the Defensive (the middle gift). It's a great way to invite your friends and introduce them to Vampires/Vampire Wars and adds to your clan.