@dantheman thank you for explaining yourself, but these type of posts show exactly why Steem can not possibly attract more quality users than we are doing right now.
Clear cut agreements, in specific contracts, is an essential piece in advanced economics and society. The Steemit.com website doesn't needs a typical "TOS" (as a centralized social media website would have) but even saying "The rules are: there are no rules" is better than leaving the confusing messages we've seen so far and encouraging these types of what for a long time now have been called "flag wars".
Seldom do I find myself arguing for a "social contract", but if such a contract is to exist, a much clearer such is exactly what is needed to be communicated to users via the user interface itself rather than via a constant back and forth of posts (that most members can't or at least won't keep up with), to accompany the actual innate "semi-contractual" workings of the Steem blockchain.
Further more, the semi-contractual parts of the blockchain need to be more clearly explained as being dependant on the witness "hives" social agreements, as developers and witnesses decide to implement or discard features.
Last of all, to make this possible in the first place, the actual contracts, the most rigid parts of the blockchain itself, need to reformed as to not confuse new users or make a single whale able to shun new posts or users.
My proposals would be
Replace the flag icon on Steemot.com with a downvote button.
Replace the "trending page" with a "high(est) priced" page.
If you deem it necessary to maintain an information box for the downvote, make sure it only mentions the actual contractual workings; the mechanics, what a downvote is currently guaranteed to lead to.
Implement a separate flag button that only affects rep and visibility.
Make changes that prevents an individual whale user to hide posts or change the rep of another user unless at least 1 other (preferably a certain % of nonfollowing users) agree with the first individual user.
--Changing the system either to discourage upvoting ones own content / or stop users from making money from their own upvotes could and should perhaps be done too. But I think the previous points should take precedence.
Also see this post about requested improvements for Steemit
https://steemit.com/steemit/@barrydutton/steemit-needs-please-comment-with-your-ideas-to-improve-steemit-e-3