A view from a not yet minnow, only a lowly redfish. Upvoting yourself to have your comment visible, a waste of a person's vote power. Human nature most people are going to click to see what you said, just to see why you were downvoted. It's like driving by a car wreck, you have to look. 

The Trending page, I don't see what the problem is here. I look at and view many of the post listed there. I don't care if it is from a whale, a dolphin, a minnow, or an occasional redfish like myself. And yes I have seen all sizes on the trending page, so it is not exclusive to only massive whales. It a source, the fact that most of the post are from large accounts is somewhat of a blessing to us redfish. We look to see what is there that we can learn. Same with going to and looking at the steemit trending post.

Vote buying, that is a self respect issue in my opinion, I don't, and won't use it, but I have no objections if someone want to "Pay to Play". I just mute and ignore the vote scheme bots.,*(and yes I view them as schemes)*, because I believe they serve no real purpose.

Flagging, well it's in the FAQ's page of steemit, pretty much anything goes when it comes to flagging, there are some guidelines, but that is all they are "guidelines" people can vote, or downvote content for whatever reason. The community has come up with a solution that if you feel you are a "victim" of down flagging there is somewhere you can turn to and that is steemitabuse. *(had to use them recently)*, if you feel that someone such as @idontlikeyouropinion is only flagging your comments because you are politely offering a dissenting opinion they will review and take action if needed. 

> • ‎Stop crying reward pool rape and fucking do something.

As your post and many others are doing. Thank you, for being concerned.