Ok so let me clarify.  When we say reputation we don't mean steemit's version of rep.
This is more like a performance review... 
"This person did their job well", only this isn't a person, it's a worker node, basically a labor proxy for you.  An application running on your computer at home, that is supposed to be making money for you while you're out doing other stuff.  But say your internet dropped out in the middle of you agreeing to be a network node for someone (this is automated, you enable or disable these things at your leisure and your worker node participates in what amounts to a spot auction).  Anyways if the connection drops and your internet is flaky and unreliable, you're going to take a rep hit so you sort lower when people are looking for a reliable network node to use.  However these things tend to resolve themselves and thus the decay to 0.

Content creation rep isn't part of viva per se, since content creation activities are handled on 3rd party websites with their own rep system, for instance steemit.

As for the voting, unless you're on the awards committee, your machine or you just needs to find 7 things a week to vote on.  It can be 7 things in the same day or one a day or any mix.  As long as the rolling 7 day total >=7 then you get your daily dividend.

Otherwise it's assumed you've dropped out and this frees up liquidity for people who are active.
But all you have to do is take care of whatever is keeping you from it, in order to jump right back in the action.

Nevertheless, this is done *mostly* through a labor proxy with the exception of chestnut press, which is a company I will explain in the next section.