Perhaps your answer really is wrong! If you continue to get only bad ratings the likelihood is that it is. The experts tend to come in and give it a positive rating if they don't agree with the negative comments that have been left. Perhaps your answer is not explained as well as you thought and your raters have misunderstood what you are trying to say. Perhaps your answer is correct but doesn't answer the question as stated. Perhaps you are right but have stumbled on a controversial topic and you have been rated down whereever you have made statements that they do not agree with, however true. Perhaps you have given a little known but correct answer so people, knowing the conventional answer, assume you are wrong. In this case try editing your answer to contain links from unbiased websites to support your answer. If you have been rated down, avoid the temptation to submit another similar answer to the same question, you'll hurt your ratings further.

I have three possible reasons why folks do this. Maybe the raters don't believe you. Try providing a link to an authoritative site. The rating scale doesn't provide an 'I hear what you say but I disagree with something in it' option. The only alternative is to rate as 'incorrect/somewhat useful.' Sometimes the raters object to the subject, not your particular answer, and that's how they make their opinion known; this is particularly true in the 'Religions' category. It's not particularly effective, though, as those who downrate become known for it and their credibility suffers. -- At the time when this question was asked, the rating system was different from today's system. It consisted of 3 choices 'helpful/correct', 'somewhat' got you 75% and 'not helpful' got you 50%. Your overall rating was the sum of all your ratings, unlike today, when a negative rating will affect the score for the answer, but not the overall rating of the user.

Your starting point should be to look at the comment the rater has left- this should give you a clue. Often negative raters are just trying to help improve the site, they may have given you some advice to improve your answer- if they've asked for a better explanation, some scientific proof, or statistical evidence- give it to them! They may well upgrade your rating if you do. This also helps improve the site for everyone. Don't automatically assume that all bad ratings are malicious in intent- most aren't. Often you can raise a "somewhat useful" answer to a "useful" one, just by adding a little extra info. Also, re-read the question and your answer. Check you've answered the question that was asked and not one that's subtley different (I've mucked up doing this at least once!). Also check for typos such as leaving out a crucial "not" which may alter the meaning of your post. Check your answer is easy to understand as well, you may need to re-phrase it, or improve the grammar (I've read many answers that I'm sure have a good point but are very poorly written). Even if the fault is on the part of the rater (e.g. they seem to have mis-read the question), its worth pointing this out politely in a brief edit- moderators sometimes even remove negative comments as a result of this. You may have come across a controversial category such as religion. Some of these ratings you can do little about, but its worth remembering you stand a lot more chance if you use neutral, rather than agressive language- be polite and don't enforce your beliefs on other people, and don't attack others- if you must point out errors and flaws, do so politely and intelligently. Don't state matters of belief as facts- pre-fixing your answer with "From a Christian viewpoint..." (for example) goes a long way, and reads much better than THIS IS TRUE BECAUSE I SAY SO. If someone does take unreasonable offense at your answer- and editing to a more neutral view, or adding an explanation doesn't help- don't try and argue them down- they're unlikely to give in, and may well go round rating down all your other answers out of spite. Its not common, but I have seen it happen. Accept that you can't win them all, and move on. Bear in mind too, that not all users are regulars- if their bad rating remains they may not be aware of your update. This is pretty much a lost cause. Not many users have 100% ratings and even some of the best answers have been rated down in these categories. WIth purely factual answers, if you get an unexplained bad rating, it's worth checking your facts, making sure you ARE right, rather than just thinking you are. If nothing else you can then add your source material or proof to your answer to back it up. Be warned that info copied and pasted from another website usually doesn't hold much sway- after all- how do you know that THAT website isn't unreliable? Use weblinks to provide extra information for those who may be interested, not to "prove" your answer. Don't copy or paraphrase information from wikipedia- we all know its there and have probably already looked. Finally, in advice type categories (e.g. relationships) try to consider what would be most helpful to the questioner- give advice, not a lecture or opinion. If a 12 year old girl asks if she should have sex with her boyfriend and you answer "No, you're too young", this is undoubtedly true- but undoubtedly completely useless to the poor girl asking the question. Try to be more empathetic and always give reasons for what you think, this isn't "telling people what they want to hear"- it's considering what advice would be most likely to encorage them towards the correct action. Draw on experience and real situations where you can. Remember that ratings are based on being "useful" rather than simply "true" and this holds particularly true in categories where questions are more subjective. Hope this helps.