"There comes a time in every man's life when he's consumed by the desire to spit on his palms, hoist the black flag and start cutting throats." - H L Mencken.
Perhaps that might be just a touch excessive.
However, on Steemit 'hoisting the flag' that is Flagging is analogious to 'cutting throats'....or as has been said, the nuclear option.
Just a touch overkill I'd say.
Back in the day, when many of you reading this weren't even an evil gleam in your daddy's eye, us truckers had our own way of expressing our selves regarding how we felt about service in ...
It had to do with tipping.
Every TruckStop had a Cafe. A common 'Mom 'n Pop' in those days was one diesel pump, MAYBE a gasoline pump, and a dirt parking lot. The building usually wasn't much. At minimum it had a fuel desk where the fuel was paid for and anything bought in the 'convenience store', which ranged from minimal (cigars, coffee, and soda-pop) to fairly elaborate (tools, clothing, etc). The Cafe typically had a 'counter' with bar stools , where the truckers sat who wanted to gossip while they ate, and several tables where the ones' who weren't so sociable sat.
I very rarely found a Cafe that served bad food. I mean, really, the most popular meal was breakfast (served 24hrs) and how hard is it too cook an egg?
So the difference was service.
A good waitress got a tip, the better the bigger. A non-so-good waitress did not. A BAD waitress got a penny or three.
Waitress purely hated to get a couple of pennies for a tip. I've seen them fly into a rage and start throwing things.
SO...me being an old (retired) trucker I've decided to implement something similar when voting.
100% means I, personally, am interested in the topic and thought it was handled well. Less than 100% means I liked it less well. Around the 50% area it means 'you have every right to say that, you did a good job, but I'm not particulary interested in the topic, but you need some recompense for doing a stand up job'....less than 50% means less so.
1% means I don't agree.
1% is not a Flag.
It doesn't harm anyone.
It's damning with faint praise.
It's a penny tip.