They think they own the site and they 'decide' what is acceptable or not. They believe they are morally superieor when infact they are imbeciles. They ask no questions and post no answers, instead they spend there sad lives watching like hawks for some remark that offends their pea-sized brains. If they were not on AB they would be peeping from behind their curtains all day and getting annoyed with the world. They are nothing but brainless scumbag fascists.

It can be a pain in the backside I agree. I wish there was a simple answer but that just isn't possible. People down-rate for many different reasons. Some have the greatest intention while others intentions are lame at best. You should be aware that many members lack understanding about the whole rating/point system and how it works. The little boxes at the right side of each question and answer that says rate question/answer are not your points. They are ratings only. Positive ratings ONLY create points and are added and placed in your point total (found on your summary page). Once you make these points they are not taken away. You keep all you earn. The only people who can remove points is the staff member which I personally have never seen it done. The down-rates will not remove a single point. All it does is causes that rating number to change. Ratings are nothing but a way to say how popular your question or answer is. I would say helpful but because many do not know how to properly work the system it becomes abused. The only person the down-rates hurt are the ones giving them because every time they down-rate it lowers their percentage rate. You may ask why then do we have a down-rate. That is a very simple answer. It is placed there so we members feel we have some kind of control in our judgment of knowledge. The thing is, yes it looks bad to see those negative marks show up and no one wants to think their words are not helpful but it does keep those who cause problems on websites like these busy from doing any serious damage. I suggest not worrying over down-rates and find the enjoyment the site has to offer. Make a friend - hell make 100 friends. Have some fun and a laugh or two. Let those who have issues play with the useless button which keeps them out of our hair.

Good question. I have thought about that several times. I can see it on "Educational" answers that have factual answers and someones answer is NOT educating...but on the conversational ones...Seems like 'taking points" is 'counter productive'. You probably get less honesty..because SOMEONE might NOT agree with you. If you don't agree with someones answer just 'DON'T give them a point'..

Some people simply feel very threatened by an opinion different from their own, and waste no opportunity to try to convince THEMSELVES that these opinions are unimportant, and can be safely ignored.

Some people get extremely irate when someone has a different opinion then they do, but since there's no logic to argue behind either opinion they skip trying to make you see things from their point of view and just get angry with the - button.

Take a few moments to read -Chief Wanbli's- profile, which devotes considerable time and effort to your issue and others. In my opinion, it's enlightening and worth the read with your AB question and others. When you see his "handle" --he's not shy in here :-)-- just click it on to his profile.

The only people that understand the negative ratings are those that are judgemental enough to go around downrating others opinions just for the pure pleasure of the little bit of power it gives in their sad little lives. Look at the positive percentages and you can tell who are the people that are giving most of the bad ratings.