Hi @choogirl, this is a question I actually know the answer to! Haha. @laurabanfield had the misfortune of joining a few days after her husband, @jerrybanfield, pissed off select members of the community for creating a steemit registration service that cost more money than someone else's steemit registration service, and apparently @laurabanfield was immediately deemed guilty by association. This all went down a day or two after I joined, and was essentially my introduction to the steemit community. Needless to say, I almost bailed right away.
For the record, I'm making no comment or representation of opinion here on @jerrybanfield, @laurabanifield, or the community. (lest I be downvoted into oblivion)
Thanks @doctor-onion. That makes sense. What a shame for Laura. This is not the type of behaviour that encourages new members and growth in the platform. Working your way around Steemit is hard enough as a newbie, never mind dealing with a sea of downvotes that destroy your reputation on your first post. That would be quiet soul destroying. I hope she comes back in time.
" select members of the community " ... bashed my rep during the first few weeks when the platform launched . I was stunned regarding the dedicate whale nickle and dime button clicking. That experience gave Steemit a Vap fail vibe feel to me. I only started reposting a year later. I have a build it and they will come mentality. Good content providers will hopefully dominate user feeds one day. I really do enjoy creating the content I post on Steemit. I just try now to block out all the poo poo fluff hoping this "gaming" eventually works itself out.... I'm not gonna let my negative experience at the start effect how I share on Steemit..... If new users keep having the initial same negative whale experience that most steemians eventually experience , Im sure a competing platform will surly take the lead in emerging new space. I like Steemit . I really hope all this all works it way out... honest open dialogue will help keep self perfecting the platform
Wow, that's a shit story as well. Thanks for sharing. I will check out your profile.
The revenge flagging is a seriously worrying issue for me on Steemit. It's pretty messed up that one person can flag your account into oblivion basically forever just because you said something they didn't like. :-/
Good job! Thanks to @lexiconical you have planted 0.13 tree to save Abongphen Highland Forest in Cameroon. Help me to plant 1,000,000 trees and share my Steem Power to the others. Selfvoting is prohibited, but that should be the reason to spread the world to protect our precious environment. Check out profile of our conservation association @kedjom-keku and the founder/coordinator @martin.mikes to get more information about our conservation program. My current SP is 14273.95. Help me to plant more trees with your delegated SP.
Thanks a lot,
your @treeplanter
www.kedjom-keku.com