I appreciate this information. I wish I could counter the flag, but I cannot. I will upvote your comments instead.

Flags aren't just an attack on the rewards of the authors of flagged content, they are attacks on the VP of upvoters. Don't bother countering flags. Instead upvote comments or other posts by those flagged, so your VP isn't dissipated by the flags.

I see this change to curation rewards as essentially without merit. Bots are just programs, and can be programmed to work around any rule. The reverse auction just disadvantages actual people, who are inconvenienced. Bots don't tap their feet waiting to vote.

I am becoming discouraged that Steemit might overcome the financial manipulation that is causing user retention to remain dismal, and corrupt content creation by making it merely a vehicle for profiteering.

FFS, people, if you want to mine crypto, mine crypto! Don't corrupt social media by turning posts and comments - and curation - into nothing more than printing presses for cryptocurrency.

Thanks!