You may have seen a little cute flag at the right side of the comments and posts, or not. This is what is needed for an account to flag/downvote a post or a comment by another user.

Think of flagging as 'reporting' that exists in other channels. This is 'sort of' your defense mechanism in case you get spammed or abused or if you see content that aims to exploit in any way the other users.

In a community based social media platform, like steemit is, where there is no actual censorship and anyone can write / post whatever they like - a flag is at times a much needed & necessary mechanism.

What does flagging someone mean?

When you flag someone, it has effects on the posts rewards (they decrease) and to their reputation (it can decrease)
This depends on the flagger's (is this even a word?) reputation. The greater reputation the person has, the bigger impact is done on the post being flagged.

If you are new in the platform, I suggest that you do not use flagging, or use it wisely or alternatively you can use this link to report the post or the user to the @steemcleaners

What is the difference between a downvote and a flag?

With the current implementation, there is no difference between a downvote and a flag. They are treated the same at the blockchain level.

When is it ok to flag someone?

If you read the steem.center on flagging, it states

In software development, Flag means to mark an object to indicate that a particular event has occurred or that the object marked is unusual in some way. Steemit interface warns that flagging a post can remove rewards and make the material less visible. It recommends some common reasons to flag:

Disagreement on rewards
Fraud or Plagiarism
Hate Speech or Internet Trolling
Intentional miscategorized content or Spam

I would add the reason 'phishing attempt' (even though it should be included under the 'fraud' category above.

In the last few weeks there have been too many phishing and scam attempts in this platform. Sites are being created to resemble just like steemit and account here (some of them without the owner's knowledge) are posting comments asking the users to click on an external link.

Be extra careful about any links posted by other users and do not log-in again if prompted. It will probably not be steemit.

If I downvote someone, how will this affect me?

(a) Downvoting (flagging) similar as upvoting, has similar affects to your voting power. If you upvote by 100%, a 2% Voting Power will be consumed.

If you have more than 500 SP or using a service such as busy.org then you can also downvote with less percentage.

However I think that when you downvote someone, it should be at the maximum effect of 100% - as there is usually a good reason for it.

(b) It could potentially start a 'flagging war' and this person or their friends can come and flag your posts back.

HELP! I have been downvoted, what can I do?

First of all take sometime and think if you actually did something wrong?
This could be anything from plagiarism, to spam comment or even a tag-abuse!
Feel free to ask the person who downvoted (they usually explain the reason with a comment) and feel free to take itto the steemcleaners if you feel you have been downvoted without a valid reason.
You can find the steemcleaners at their channel > https://discord.gg/NjUPeK7

How do I flag/downvote someone?

You just click on the little flag and follow the steps.

(1) How to flag a comment.

All the comments have the flag at their right upper point. You click the flag and proceed.

(2) How to flag a post

You need to go to the blog of someone and there you will see the flag at the right side of every post.

I noticed that you can flag a post even if it is older then days. I assume that this will affect the user's reputation only as the payout has already occurred

Step 1

You click on the flag

Step 2

You select the percentage of the Voting Power used

Step 3

You will probably see the post as 'grey' with reduced visibility. The flag will look with a darker color.

Note

These are screenshots from my very first flag on steemit.
This account commented on one of my posts, and his comment included a potentially dangerous link which even thought it seemed to lead you at steemit, It would lead you to a site called sleemit (which looks just the same as steemit)

It felt great to flag a dangerous post and after I did it, I went over the the discord channel of steemcleaners > https://discord.gg/NjUPeK7 in order to report the user.

When a user gets low reputation, then their posts have no visibility and the users are warned before 'revealing' them.

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Attention!

Flagging is NOT used as a method of disagreeing with what the author wrote or to show that you don't like the topic chosen by the author. Flagging should normally not be done except for situations where the author has deliberately and repeatedly broken the rules of conduct on the Steemit platform.

Please take sometime and read this useful link > https://www.steem.center/index.php?title=Flag

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In case you missed it, please take some time and read my Steemit Guide for Beginners

_{flag icon kindly provided by pixabay}

Thank you very much for visiting and reading my post. Please feel free to ask any questions or post your opinion at the comments.