The second is the flag, when you flag a post you are saying that you think the content and quality of the post is not acceptable and will objectivity erode the quality of Steem like spam or plagarism.
The last type of vote is a 'no vote' this vote which is the default for every post you don't engage with and says either you have not seen this post and cannot comment, you do not agree with the content and/or quality and cannot endorse it, etc.Yes @pfunk, yes it does but remember there are actually three votes that you can cast. The first is an up vote basically signalling to steem that you are impressed with the content and quality of the post and as such you are endorsing and promoting it.
I would argue that if you really are trying to improve the quality of Steem you do not use flags to signify disagreement with a point of view our even how that view is expressed, that is what the 'reply' function is for and if you are incensed than 'mute' that person. Remember not everybody will agreed with you and what goes around comes around.
A lot of us have come to Steem because we feel we are not being allowed to express ourselves on other platforms without censorship. When I see flags being used to attack people because you simply disagree with them I loose a little more faith in the platform, if you want to create an echo chamber I and I assume others will turn from contributor to speculator and syphon as much money out of the system as possible as that will be the platform's only value at that point.
pfunk, that was a good article, I don't think we disagree at all. The only thing I will say on this is that a flag has an effect beyond the post or comment that is flagged as it affects your reputation. I do not think that flags should be used to signify disagreement with a single post that is all. Of course this is an decentralised platform and users should operate it as they see fit within the scope of the platform.
Reputation doesn't get affected very much by a single flag though. It's not something to be too worried about unless your reputation goes negative, which is something that won't happen unless you really messed up.
Well I invite you to look at https://steemit.com/life/@susanne/the-crap-i-put-up-with-because-i-m-a-girl-in-it and see if my comment deserved a 50 point drop in rep
Cheers pfunk that's a good idea thanks for the advice
I can't comment under @chuckleberry so reply is here:
Yeah that's unfortunate, and it's an artifact of Steemit more than Steem. At least changes to the Steemit rep system are easier to do than change Steem. I don't believe you should lose so much reputation from one comment either. I'd vocalize the problem on the steemit.com github.
A 0-vote is a waste of time. Like I said, I don't downvote things without good reason.
Re: flagging, the meaning got muddled when a downvote became a "flag" on the Steemit front end. I'm not going to conform to the front end UI's idea of using it solely for clear abuse. The concept was changed because idiot newbies were downvoting everything. You can see more on the topic in the comments of this post.
https://steemit.com/steemitabuse/@generalspecific/a-recourse-for-preventing-the-abuse-of-flagging-downvotes