That was a good and well thought out response.   I know what prompted some of Dan's reaction, but I can fully understand your point as well.   You did not get involved in the back and forth heated debate over this issue, and this post is pretty reasonable.   I'm impressed and I "get" what @smooth was hinting at.

I've heard that other people trying to make charts have sometimes been attacked for kind of walking onto your "territory".   This was hearsay, and I don't know if it was you doing it or other people.    By this post I am pretty confused about that hearsay.   If it is true though, that isn't cool.    As to you getting flagged for your posts.   I up voted your posts, not always, but at least a couple of times per week.   That gave you an entire $0.01 if you were lucky.   Yet, I think you WERE also in the backlash of what I see as a problem with the flag.    Powerful people subjectively down voting people like @dollarvigilante because he posts here and doesn't engage further, though before that when he did engage it was because he was talking about stuff other people said before he was here and thus it had no value.    Other people do it because of his reputation outside of steemit and controversy.    Yet it was subjective, and he is responsible for a lot of people coming to steemit.   I know Dan is aware of this, and I suspect you became an obvious center point to illustrate the problem.   I will tell you that even with the flags you still make more than most people, so don't let that get you down.

There is a problem with the way the flag works I believe, and I know Dan is aware of it as well.   The problem is that finding a solution that is not even easier to game so far has not been clear.    

Anyway, this was a good post.  I admire you for not acting like an "ass" for getting flagged.   That is actually quite admirable.   Like I said... you are still doing quite well even with the flags, so please don't let that get you down.

I am anti-flag myself except for Plagiarism, Spam, and Abuse... so I won't down vote anything for subjective reasons.   Though I do know why it is there at the moment, as no workable alternative that cannot be potentially gamed worse has really been conceived YET.

Though some of those that do subjectively flag posts with their powerful posts are also people that like to up vote yours, and their own comments to high value.    I think some of the hypocrisy involved in the justification for why they flag people based upon their own actions might have finally caused Dan to try to do something about it.   From that respect I am glad he did.

You are a decent person I "think" so I think it sucks you happened to be the epicenter of that battle, but fortunately due to the amount you do make you seem to be someone who can be the epicenter and still do quite well.    Other people have been crushed, and not just @masteryoda.   He is who people mention for Dan, yet Dan is not even the most common whale flagger I'd be willing to wager.