A genuine request

A bit of background
Skip this part if you want, it's how I arrived at the platform and what I believed it would do for me. Scroll down, you'll see where to skip to.

I came here to make this my primary blogging platform. It looked easy to use (after I got my head around photobucket and imgur) - all I had to do was write to my heart's content and then find a few pictures to help tell the story. It's even easier now but it was easier than the blogging site I'd been using, hence the delight when I was recommended to come here.

I got it wrong a few times and found a few helpful people who told me to space out my paragraphs, add pictures etc. After that, things went really well and I started earning MASSIVE rewards. The day I got more than $20 for a post - WOW!

Pretty soon this site overtook FB as my 'go-to' site first thing in the morning. Not long after that, I started getting messages of 'where are you?' over on FB and I knew Steemit.com had taken over.

What do I like best on this platform?

The feedback, the interaction, the advice, camaraderie, critique and helpful people.

I get more interaction on my writing than I have on my blog site (apart from that one time...) I like it here.

I freely admit I'm neither techie nor engineer-minded and technical, complicated stuff is impossible for my mind to process. It really is. I've tried. So the Steemit Whitepaper has, by and large, not been read and the parts I did read have not been processed - I can only guess that I'm not alone in that.

I GUESSED that I'd be ok if I followed the rules - but this is decentralised and there are no rules.

OK, I'll default to general rules of civility. That worked for a long time. I didn't get any bother and I carried on writing to my heart's content.

I had to have a break earlier this year, three months off from writing, blogging and everything I enjoy. It was tough but it was tougher trying to make a return. I'd been away too long. I always used to get like this after the summer break - 6 weeks of freedom and I didn't want to even think about facing the fact that I had to go back to school.

I forced myself to come back and I received a nice welcome. People had missed me, missed my stories. That really made me happy and I knew I'd found a home.

The lifting of the 4 post max 'rule' in one of the Hardforks was quite a surprise, but mostly I stuck to four blogs a day and five on the rare occasion. I stuck to what I know best - fiction writing.

I actually started believing I could make a living on Steemit.com - in fact, to do that, I'd have to take Steem out and sell it and though I got to the point of taking it out, I've since put it all back again - or what I had left after playing the markets. :/

End of background

This is the request part so start reading if you skipped the background bit.

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I've pissed someone off - or a few someones.

After speaking with @ats-david I realised I was wrong in my assumption that my work had been flagged because someone decided it was rubbish - yeah, I can be a little sensitive when people stomp all over work I'm proud of, I'm not alone in that, either.

First, how do I make this right?

Second, what are the 'rules'? - I need to know so I don't go breaking them inadvertently again.

No, I'm not whining, I'm trying to make this all go away by making it right, returning the balance.

When people feel like they are attacked, they either retreat and get out of the way or they fight back.

I believed I was under attack and I fought back but I don't have a big stick of SP behind me to downvote (see, I'm learning) so I used my best weapon - words.

When I found myself under attack from all sides, I used words to counter. That's what I do and I upset people with those words and so more big sticks were brandished and I was threatened with 'death by flagging' (I assume he means downvoting).

Now there's been time to cool off and think, I'm asking respectfully what I can do now?