I'm seeing some misunderstanding when people talk about how they think reputation works. I have only been back 2 weeks, so maybe things have changed that I am not aware of. But as far as I know, it still works this way.
The Misunderstanding
The misunderstanding is about how reputation is earned. People seem to think you only gain reputation if the person voting on you has higher reputation than you.
STEEM POWER is What Matters, Not a Higher Reputation
Attaining reputation is not dependent on the person being a higher reputation than you. Getting more reputation only requires STEEM POWER being used to vote on your posts or comments**. Someone can have a lower reputation than you, and still you will gain reputation points. How do I know? Because I have seen it work through analyzing posts I made in the past.
Whales used to vote more liberally. When I would get a vote from a whale who had lower rep than me, my reputation points would go up a lot because they were voting on me with a their STEEM POWER at a high enough voting power. If they voted with less power, I would get less reputation points.
I gained a lot of reputation (as others have) because of the amount of SP that was being used to vote on my posts or comments. Now that whales hardly vote (at least not on my posts :P) my reputation goes up slowly, bit by bit.
Delegated STEEM POWER
If I get voted on by someone who has a lot of delegated STEEM POWER, and at a high enough voting power is applied, then my reputation points go up quicker compared to lower SP accounts voting for me.
Attaining reputation is based in STEEM POWER, not in someone having a higher rep than you :)
Getting voted on with STEEM POWER will make your post rewards and your reputation score go up in value.
Downvotes / Flags to Lower Reputation
The misunderstanding likely comes from how flagging/downvotes work. In the downvote, it's based in STEEM POWER as well as reputation scores. If someone has a lower reputation than you and flags you, you only get your post reward value removed by the weight of their vote, but not your reputation.
But if someone has a higher reputation than you and they flag you, you will get reputation points removed from your account, in addition to the post reward value removed from your post. This is where the misunderstanding comes from as I see it.
I hope that help clear up the misunderstanding about thinking a higher reputation account is required for more your reputation to go up when they vote. All that is needed is STEEM POWER.
STEEM POWER runs/"powers" everything on the platform ;)
Reputation is only a real measure of getting voted on with STEEM POWER, despite how we may like to think otherwise...
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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