Earlier this morning, one of the founders of the company that is supporting me made the following post https://steemit.com/steemit/@mark-waser/power-up-your-steem-account-with-120-sbd-for-usd100
As a newbie, he only had a reputation of 2. Less than 45 minutes later, he was exiled from Steemit with a reputation of -2.
[In an attempt to repair his reputation and return from exile, he has committed that all of the SBD from that post will be divided equally and distributed among the first 30 up-voters]
He had been in the process of buying bitcoin in order to seriously power up his account and considers himself very fortunate that he hadn't finished (although, if his reputation is restored, he commits to immediately powering up that account with at least $1000 worth of STEEM).
There is no note as to why he was flagged (this is a serious shortcoming of Steemit) and, of course, he now has to go through the block-chain to see who flagged him and try to negotiate (something that the vast majority of users is either incapable or unwilling to do).
Now that reputation has been implemented, a flag is a very serious thing -- particularly to a newbie. A flag is not merely a down-vote against the content of the post. It is a declaration that the post is anti-social and that the perpetrating user should be punished for it (exiled in this case).
Flagging is currently free punishment for those who wish to dish it out (other than the fact that it "costs" as a vote for diluting your voting power) or to censor certain views. There needs to be some repercussions (preferably against reputation) for those who flag poorly (and conversely, possibly rewards for those who flag well).
The fact that relatively low reputation users can effectively send newbies into oblivion is a huge problem. It needs to be rectified immediately by education (starting with this post preferably followed by one by @dantheman) and eventually by the proper enticements built into Steemit.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am being supported by Digital Wisdom for one month while I attempt to grind my way onto steemit. Mark Waser is one of the founders of Digital Wisdom.
EDIT TO CONVEY AN IMPORTANT LESSON - *NEVER* post anything like the following line. It is perceived as buying votes which is a serious anti-community no-no. This post will never accumulate SBD so it is now irrelevant. I did this in ignorance. I apologize and will never do this again (because doing so is clearly suicidal and stupid ;-)
[I now commit that all of the SBD from *this* post will be divided equally and distributed among the first 30 up-voters]