I've been confused by the mechanisms involved in reputation, so thank you for this helpful post.
The ability for a higher rep user to ruin someone's reputation seems a bit problematic to me as a chilling effect on free speech. I hope a change is made at some point to address that.
I hope that we won't find a lot of bullying on Steemit where users with higher reputation downvote a weaker account out of existence. Steemcleaners has dealt with some of these issues, but I haven't really been watching their activity.
I agree completely! I am only new to steemit and have just been smashed into oblivion by someone down voting all my content :( Is there a way back or do I have to open a new account and start again? I can't even post new content any more so I seem stuck... :(