august-newbie and I both made catastrophic mistakes this morning (she'll blog about her mistake as soon as she repairs her reputation).
My mistake was that when I offered what I thought was a great pro-community deal (with https://steemit.com/steemit/@mark-waser/power-up-your-steem-account-with-120-sbd-for-usd100), I tied it to up-voting and commenting so that I would profit from it as well. I was very clear that I was doing this so that I would profit from the deal as well -- and assumed that since it seemed like a reasonable "profit" on a excellent deal that took some time and effort on my part, that it was an excellent pro-social idea.
The error is that this can also be perceived as vote-buying -- 10 SBD for up-voting the post, powering-up and then up-voting the redemption post. I would argue that I was buying STEEM and attention (single shot votes) rather than buying votes (a politician that will cast many votes) -- but I'm (now) smart enough that I will never do this again if I can avoid it.
Note: I am still willing to honor what I consider to be a seriously pro-community offer WITHOUT requiring any up-votes or comments -- just send an e-mail to me at mark.waser@wisdom.digital so that I can tie the $10 I receive from Coinbase to the STEEM account that I should send the 10 SBD to.
Note 2: If this new offer violates any community taboos, please tell me why in the comments rather than flagging this post. I am the one who gave august-newbie the guideline to "be relentlessly pro-community and anti-parasite" in https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@august-newbie/omg-i-m-getting-paid-to-invest-in-the-steemit-community and believe strongly that *warning* before punishment is only fair.
THE SOLUTION TO REPAIRING YOUR REPUTATION is simply to talk to the individuals who flagged you. If they up-vote a comment (or two) of yours, it will negate any flag that they have placed (I have been told that changing a vote -- i.e. removing the flag -- does not work and, besides, they may insist that the post remain flagged anyways). I had received 14 flags (serious overkill for a non-obvious newbie error) but @smooth repaired me such that my reputation was better than it was before (thank you very much, sir!).
The Digital Wisdom Group is firmly convinced that the reputation system is entirely necessary for the health of steemit (https://steemit.com/reputation/@august-newbie/reputation-and-the-fight-against-anti-social-behavior-not-just-bots) even if there are growing pains like august-newbie and I have experienced.
STEEM on (wisely ;-)!