Admitting to a mistake after being put on the spot (unintentionally or on purpose) and earnestly accepting it takes immense courage.
We are all humans and tend to make mistakes every now and then. But the thing with mistakes is, our intention sometimes doesn't come through right away and we're misunderstood. However, if it's someone like you who has been around for a while now (which you have been, about a year and half now, and a great part of the community) I strongly believe that you should be given the benefit of the doubt before facing flagging and down-voting, that's just plain negative and self-righteous. I am not pointing any fingers, but polite advice and gentle reminders go a long way instead of demeaning attacks made on character and intentions behind something that you thought could work for those who are unable to join Steemit, and also to help you earn a little - aren't we all doing that? What's SO terrible about that?
I know it's needless to say that since you have a following of over 15,000 people, your word, your actions and your work will be looked forward to, and there will be great expectations from you - with power comes responsibility, right? And perhaps this may be the first interaction on a personal basis, I have been following your work, just like many more people here.
So what if something bad happened, you're so nice to actually admit and resonate, and make amends, especially when that's the harder road to take, believe me I know. This is a place to spread love, knowledge and joy - let's not change that.