I think we all should have learned a huge lesson from Abit and his flagging experiment.  The reward pool was allowed to grow because there was a check on abuse.  Since that stopped, there has been rampant cash grabs.
I'm with you on this one man.  Flagging is necessary as long as it is used responsibly.

Do you propose to flag EVERY thank you, nice post and other similar comments, or do you propose to flag only comments with self upvotes?

There is a deal, the platform has a lot of not English users, which post their "Thank you" and "Nice post" just because they don't know English and would like to get some attention from others. It's not their fault that Steemit doesn't have a translation feature and they cannot comment with their native language. Flagging these guys would just kill their accounts and Steemit as an idea.

On the other side of that coin - if i would downvote any big guy, as a reply from his side i would expect that he just downvote all my posts and kill my reputation and my account

Steemit, as a platform should be more smart and just deduct all selfvotes from paychecks.

Proposing to perform our "civil duty" would only implement "hate each other" policy  and would lead to creating Steemit police and Steemit government with taxes and others required attributes

just my 5 cents  

Flag for plagiat posting, or other bad posts. I si aggre with you

I do not agree with points 3 and 4. Steem (above all) is a platform for free speech. There is no free speech without the so-called "hate speech".

Also, I'd like to mention that you shouldn't flag all posts that don't share your viewpoint or posts that you simply don't like. Don't overuse the feature, only use it when it is blatant shit.

I would also like to mention that upvoting your own comments isn't a reason to flag. Yes, there is a debate of whether it is correct or not to upvote your own stuff, but while the possibility is present, use it. Just don't spam pointless comments that don't bring any progress to a conversation only to upvote it and earn a miserable 0.01 SBD.

There's a lot of controversy over it. I've read articles saying we shouldn't have the option to flag or down vote at all (which is ridiculous) I agree that some people need to be penalized. It's how we keep the positive vibes in the community and keep out those who would only hurt the community as a whole

I had a recent experience where i was flagged but imo it wasnt justified this "person" totally misunderstood the situation and flagging is a perspective based something.  

Flagging creates more flagging, so when looking at the option to flagg someone's post/comment, the problem with that is, someone that gets flagged. Could become so angry that he or she will make multiple accounts and totally destroy someone's reputation and that person would have worked on for his/her profile for many many months and it could all be gone in a week.

Revenge is sweet they say but it really isn't.  

The Flagging system would be good if the amount of accounts allowed to be made per IP would be (1). But right now with a system that allows multiple accounts and even Anon accounts it can create a absolute bloodbath.
So i understand why Steemians don't do it they understand the non productivity of the flagging system at this time.

It can work and it should work but it needs some adjusting.

THANK YOU for this post! 

I flagged my first post the other day-- someone straight-up ripped off a news article and posted it verbatim here, AND spammed popular tags in the process. 

I appreciate your perspective on the process-- I'm still learning the platform, so it helps to hear from someone with more experience like you!

Did my first flag yesterday 😬 Some guy posting a get rick quick scheme with links - very spammy...

The self voting hate has to stop.  I used to do it up until recently, but that was just my choice, I was told from the beginning that is what everyone *should* do, and I honestly I feel kind of that way, the discriminating of people who do it makes the assumption that they are doing it for a negative reason, when we are all here wanting our posts to be seen, otherwise we would all have accounts on Blogspot.  

https://media.giphy.com/media/SUeUCn53naadO/giphy.gif

Again,  I personally stopped, but this is only like as of last week, the negativity on the practice should be more personal is all I think, and honestly I might just do it again, I like nearly all my comments, not all of them, but a lot, it feels more fake that I am holding back from upvoting only because there are some users who make it out like an issue. 


I agree with 2 through 6, but feel 4 doesn't meld well with 1 (maybe because you just called the practice "THE WORST" but without explanation on why it is such a bad thing, I am curious).   Great post, hope it gets discussion out of it, because people are way too fearful of hitting the flag button but I definitely am not none of those people, but it also takes a decent amount until I use it.

good post Matt- i had an issue with a steem whale, and couldn't bring myself to flag him, cause i was fearful that he could downvote me and drop me down a lot. I want to be a positive influence here and decided to put it behind me, but i believe your right and we should take them on even if they can hurt our slow growth. I notice your upvote on one of my blogs and decided to come and see what your write about. Hopefully i will write some decent content this week, keep rockin -David

man. OK if you say so.. I have been scared to flag because I don't want to get in a flagging war. Or to have some whale take notice of me in the bad way.. but I do see the reward pool becoming fuxxored. And your my boy blue. So if you say flagging is the good fight we should be fighting.. I'm with you..
PS: Dope agoric gif too! How is agoric.systems going?! Whatcha guys building?!

Hey! Interesting post! 
Can i check something! 

Are you saying that by upvoting your own comment you take money from the authors main post?

I wasnt aware of this!
Thanks!

If people self upvoting comments with just a word or two is not enough. I started to notice some are also using the many pay for votes services increasing their reward even further.

Just remember, every time you flag a post you are taking away one potential up vote you can make for the day.

**_Is it worth it?_**

I think it won't do much for the reward pool. But it would maybe weed out the abusers and make room for decent folks. Upvoted and resteemed.

I don't agree at all, this would only start a flagging war, and here the most important thing is, how do you discern what deserves a flag? If a buddy of yours copy pastes something, do you flag him? So my post is crappy, do you flag it? Obviously when something comes to a vote it is a subjective matter, what seems insulting to you might seem great to me. Like for example this post, the people who are flagrantly asking for vote will see it as insulting, so should they flag this post? Look at one of the most controversial persons here @berniesanders, many people say he is doing a great service, then he flags them and he becomes an asshole. No I think with flagging all you get is a lot of bad will and nothing positive comes from it. This is supposed to be a free speech platform, if you don't like something ignore the post or mute the person.

I haven't done it yet
But if I will see anyone abusing anything or anyone then I will definitely do it 
Have a lovely time