That's what happened to me, as well. Some whale decided Haejin was not worthy of posting on SteemIt and started attacking not only Haejin but also anyone who supported him.
I had pretty much gave up on SteemIt because of that episode of bullying.
However, for some reason, Haejin decided to upvote my posts and my reputation was restored, so now I am giving this a second chance.
Hopefully it will be better this time.
Hope you have a good experience here :) I love steem.
Your story makes me have a bit less disdain for whales. But I'm not a huge fan of anyone that upvotes their own posts to trending.