I've been saying this since I was first trolled.

This is a really good idea and I fully support it.

If anyone accuses another person of downrating them, they need their heads examined. This is rude and bad practice to try to determine who trolled or negged you. This is not a game show where millions of dollars are at stake and it is not a hospital where lives hang in the balance. This is supposed to be fun and it's important not to stress over a few knuckleheads.

This would only be fair if we also had to leave a comment to say why we were uprating them too. And doing that would just take too much time for everybody. But what might work is if we could have everyone's activity visible so you could see just how many points everyone is giving, though that might make people uncomfortable, too, rating both ways. And the staff has made it clear that they want everyone on here to feel happy and involved. Maybe it wouldn't be such a used site if people knew every little thing they did was visible. We do like some privacy after all. I don't know what the answer is. I say, just let it happen. People will downrate for the silliest and best of reasons, in their minds. It doesn't affect your point total, only your percentages and either of those are really meaningless. They don't win you prizes or get you out of jail free. They just are.

This is a great idea! If your gonna downrate someone they should at least know he reason behind it & hear your view...

YES!

I think it used to work that way, but started wars.. check with jodie shes the expert...

Yes!

no

If it went both ways , leaving points or taking them away .

Pro: opens dialogues between people about the mark down. Con: some people just write dumb answers or make a joke. It would get too personal, too quick. Pro: makes you accountable. Con: People don't like to be accountable. Pro: keeps people honest. con: I could mark you down and use a series of tildes to by pass the system. Take the plus points and minus points and have fun.

Good Lord - you mean we can cash these points in for Money??? Dammed trolls have cost me a fortune! And I used to just chuckle - CHUCKLE!!!! I tell you - over how clever they must feel for all the wrong reasons... ; )

Yes, absolutely. It would also force the person giving out the negative rating to think about their motivation for doing so. The comment would have to have a minimum length though, and it would have to be spell checked as well for real words. And AB would need to add a flag category "false/gibberish reason." if the reason provided was just word salad. So, yeah, so long as the person giving the DR had to explain themselves for giving the DR and could be reported and booted for giving nonsense reasons, all the better.

We have a requirement (which is seldom enforced) that downrates are supposed to be for nonsense or abusive posts; not because one disagrees with the post. Notwithstanding, about 98% of all downrates that I have seen have been for disagreement, or plain spite. But, like you, I'd like to see some rationale for downgrades. It seems cowardly to take a drive-by shot and the run and hide.

No, it wouldn't be free speech then. I do think it is fairer to put in a comment but sometimes there just isn't time or you don't want to start a big fight.

No, because that used to be the way on answerbag aparently but it started many downrate wars so they changed it to be anonymous. Do you always leave a comment when you uprate a question? I know I don't so I wouldn't expect a comment if someone felt the need to downrate one of my Q&As either. The best thing to do if you get downrated is to review your question/answer that keeps getting downrated and check if it is insulting/contraversial/factually incorrect in anyway. If it is then it is inevitable that you get the odd downrate. If you are persistently getting lots of downrates (like 10 or more in a row with the same point level) for unrelated q&a's then it is likely you are being trolled (i.e. someone is systematically going through your list of Q&A and downrating them without even reviewing them then you should report it via the feedback for investigation and turn of your downrates until this has been resolved. However if the odd downrate really starts getting to you then just turn your ratings off for a while until you develop a thicker skin. Inevitably some users will just downrate an opinion they don't agree with and can't be bothered challenging you. They are probably being dicks but then again, I'll bet you uprate questions without saying "yaay I agree with you" everytime also.