I have commented there and indicated that I am open to restoring the reputation. However, I and most if not all major stakeholders consider buying votes to be abuse and will downvote it when I see it. I am firm on that position.
Referral marketing is a less serious concern. As I said it hasn't become a major problem yet; if it does then community consensus may become hostile to it. As of yet that has not happened.
I used a couple of your comments here to restore rep.
Thank you very much for restoring (improving, actually) my reputation.
I think that buying attention is not the same as buying votes but am more than willing to concede that it is I who may be wrong rather than you. In any case, I will never convince everyone of the point and am very aware that any additional vote-buying is suicidal and stupid (and I try not to do stupid things ;-)
Could you please perform the same reputation repair on august-newbie if you haven't already? She will be editing her post to remove the (perceived ;-) vote-buying.
I appreciate all that you're doing for the community! Live long and prosper (and know that I'm now following you and willing to help with reputation repair as needed)!
Both accounts have been restored to positive rep status
Smooth, you'r smooth. This is one of the better stories of Steemit. It has been fun to read it for myself.
https://steemit.com/reputation/@mark-waser/how-to-restore-your-reputation-after-a-stupid-mistake-plus-a-great-deal
If you have any complaints, I am more than happy to edit however you recommend.