NOTE: .174 STEEM is worth two cents at market value as I write this post.
"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?" - Rodney Glen King
I've recused myself from this discussion up until now, not having anything particularly constructive to say. However, after reading a wide variety of opinions, I have five simple observations to share. I hope they may help "cut through the fog."
No Way To Go But Up - Photo courtesy of Jungwoo Hong and http://unsplash.com
Caveat:
Although I am a strong believer in giving credit where credit is due, I have not read all the arguments or all the posts on this topic, and I have probably forgotten certain references. I make no claim of originality for the ideas expressed here. I only hope to simplify, distill, and mention what now appears to me to be a reasonable and simple solution.
1) Steemit is a cohesive community.
Most Steemians care about Steemit and its future. Even more care about the feelings and fortunes of other Steemians. Sure, there may be a relatively small percentage of trolls and sociopaths, but they are a minority.
Because Steemians care, tempers flare, small matters loom large, and feelings are hurt. This too shall pass.
2) Changes often have unintended consequences.
Because Steemit is a complex system with many moving parts, any changes made should be modest in scope and made with long term consequences in mind. In other words, try not to rock the boat; we don't want to swamp it.
That's why I believe that "flag evaluation boards," major changes to algorithms, etc. are likely to be overkill, with complications and consequences presently unforeseeable.
3) Some "Steemit Terms" match system actions poorly.
In the immediate case, two "equal and opposite actions" are described by words having radically different natural meanings. The words used are vote and flag.
The word vote has generally very positive connotations, while the word flag (in this context) has generally very negative connotations. Yet, a "vote" and a "flag" are exactly equal and opposite in what they do on the platform (given, of course, that they are activated with the same amount of Steem Power).
4) Payouts are not final until "the fat lady sings."
Steemian 
5) A very few minor changes could result in major relief.
And so, here is the punchline you've been waiting for, three proposed, minor changes:
- Rename "Flag" to "Un-vote" or "Down-vote." Or, instead of vote, have "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down."
- Have a "true flag" with system semantics that match the English meaning, i.e. true disapproval, "abuse," or "wrongness."
- Hide the $SBD payout value until it is finalized. Display some relative indicator instead.
Conclusion:
If I understand the system at all (yes, that's surely questionable!), these changes would not change the system behavior or payout algorithms.
Psychologically, user expectations might be more sheltered and feelings less likely to be hurt.
Functionally, the meaning or semantics of a "Flag" would have to be defined. Would a flag "grey out" a post? Would it alert a "troll patrol" to investigate the content? I don't know, other than meaning that the flagger had observed something truly abusive, a violation of community standards (e.g., blatant plagiarism).
I defer to developers and coders to evaluate whether these three changes are truly minor, as I have no direct knowledge of the internals of Steemit system coding.
FIN
Thanks for your time and attention.
You are why I'm here on Steemit!
I have very eclectic interests and hope, over time, to write about them all.
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