I'm new to Steemit and don't quite know how flags work. Do I only get so many (the way you only have so many 100% comments)? Does the person who I flag see that I flagged them, and then can retaliate? 

I see plenty of posts that either look stolen (or DEFINITELY are), are otherwise crap, or are negative/not serving the community. But, should I do anything? I'm so new, I don't want to risk my reputation score and be deemed an asshole just because I want to see good content here. 🤷🏻‍♀️ What's a girl to do?

Been there. Done that. And got a huge flag from the person i flagged.

what if we get flagged in return??

Problem is when flagging a whale, it wont make a positive difference, the whale will most likely flag everything on  yourself ehich will hurt alot, I dont think your intentions are to give all of us (your followers) bad reputation and downvotes.

Surely flags are good to use at inappropiate content from smaller accounts, I support that.

While I appreciate your encouragement, I can't imagine that my $500 account stands a chance against the swam that will follow.  Can't say I want my rep to go to (-18) within my first 60 days on the platform.  Who will back me up if it does? You?

I am not sure if me flagging the false prophet will effectively do anything.  What we need is strength in numbers.  I'm talking 5,000 downvotes.  but 5,000 accounts are goin to get swamed with 15,000 pissed off followers.

So help me help you by well, helping me.   I am not sure what kind of help I'm presently asking for.  

*I just know I can't do it alone*

Per steem.supply this guy is taking 41 grand home this week.  He's making over 100 g a month, *easily* from this platform.  Why is this okay?  

While I am a little jealous, what has me annoyed is *everyones* rewards being affected.  

What do *I* do?  What do *we* do?

A whole lot of bullshit earning on steemit. Should these undeserving payout continue? Besides when you flag, they come back flaging you continiously with the same sp that got them the earning. So you end up loosing.

Wow good advice

I've been thinking of writing a bot that would upvote only people with good PageRank score. This algorithm simulates "flow" in a directed graph and so accounts with a lot of fake followers would have a low rank.

I've been thinking of writing a bot that would upvote only people with good PageRank score. This algorithm simulates "flow" in a directed graph and so accounts with a lot of fake followers would have a low rank.

@berniesanders sir. Since you're running as a witness now... What do you think of the idea of anonymous flags? 
I know this is a decentralized platform and everything should be transparent on the blockchain or whatever... But can we make the flags visible to witnesses only?

Can we even take him down @berniesanders?

Feels like we're losing this battle. It's so frustrating.

I agree.  I've flagged dozens of posts of people who were pirating film and TV on DTube.  I never received a retaliatory flag.  If Steem is going to be worth something, flagging has to be used to curb bad actors.

Well flag people who are spamming and abusing steemit. But still we shouldn’t make it personal because then uses  can abuse this and will start flagging other people they don’t like.

Man it just sucks to not have a whole lot of steem and wasting voting power not helping and encouraging a good post, but downvoting a crap post that doesnt deserve what it has.. I want to use my power helping good authors.. Once I downvote I am usually on damage control for weeks trying to not get downvoted back.. No easy way

Exactly, I dont know what you're talking about. I am just resteem.

🗅

Never keep your your freak flag in the closet, let it loose

What are the reasons for flagging? Shitty content, plagiarism, over valued post, self upvoting via bots, of these the shitty content and overvalued parts are not good reasons what may seem shitty to you might seem great to others, plagiarism- steemcleaners and cheetah are on that even screwing posts that aren't plagiarism, self upvoting comments I think is wrong upvoting your own article is OK I think sometimes that is the only vote I get. All in all I don't think flagging has any real benefit except that the flagger loses that down vote when he could have upvoted an article he thinks is great or maybe a lot of articles depending on his VP.
Of course we also have the vendetta, but that one is for personal reasons so I can't opine about that.

What if I flag some one basically bot farming shit posts and he starts flagging my legit posts as a revenge? What about the comments that get spammed like WOW GREAT POST THX FOR SHARING? Should we start flagging those?

Affirmative! Though I am of the opinion that there should be a caste system in flagging. Let minnows monitor minnows, dolphins to dolphins/minnows and whales to whales/dolphins/minnows.

https://media.giphy.com/media/xT77XWum9yH7zNkFW0/giphy.gif

you making shit posts of no use to community and still flagging others

that's true and I count it a positive action either by removing rewards and keep the community clean or by encouraging the author to improve the content quality and that also will keep it clean

Bernie, 

You're like the king of flags, you know what you're doing and you're trying to help steemit which is good. I think if you have the time, it would be really good if you created a "how to" guide to flagging. I don't mean 
1. press flag 
2. then press ok

I mean actually: these are behaviors to flag.
*
*
*

And some sort of a minnow support to allow us little guys to get a hold of you if our cause is just, so that we don't get killed by some arsehole...

Just a thought.

Ok, I changed my mind, this guy is king of flags: 
http://img.xcitefun.net/users/2009/09/117613,xcitefun-flag-man-.jpg

So let's say your more like emperor of flags.

[Flag King](http://img.xcitefun.net/users/2009/09/117613,xcitefun-flag-man-.jpg)

Hey @berniesanders The reasons it has become so unpopular is obvious.
Now is the time to clean house and make sure that the people who are being flagged are being flagged for the right reason.
Yes there are some very valid reasons for flagging, plagiarism being a huge one. 
But that is not what people are being asked to flag many times. Flagging without any consensus and open discussion seems to be doomed from the beginning on a platform like this

You know what? 

I get flagged everyday. Even though the little piss-ant who does it annoys the shit out of me, I respect him for doing what he believes is right. 

**Even though he’s wrong.**

*I had to get the last word lol.*