There is no sure fire way to avoid the assholes and maintain good ratings. I have been rated "spam" for completely factual, non disputable answers. What I used to say was, just keep giving good answers, and the plusses will outweigh the minuses. Let's face it, I have over a thousand ratings and a negative or two won't affect my overall rating and in the long run, the people I have really helped are worth more to me than any rating I could get. But I get tired of the trolls too. What I have now decided to do on these occasions is edit the answer to be extrememly offensive, therefore the answer and all ratings associated with it will be removed from my profile. Sound chickenshit? Damn right it is, but so are the B.S. ratings and this is the only way I know to fight back. Edit: Yes Carmella raises a good point, but you will also notice, that with the 1100 plus answers I have given, I have only done this a few times. To be rated as "spam" for saying that I have made friends on AB will elicit a big F***Y** every time. The mods are pretty good and if the spurious ratings are removed I will edit my answer to remove the offensive comment. If an answer with 6 positives and one spam is removed for being offensive, the mods obviously didn't think it useful enough to keep.

I've found that when you truly put thought and time into an answer that most of the time whoever asks the question appreciates it and will give you a good rating. Every so often, I like to really research an answer and give a lot of useful information, sources, and links to answer a question. Also, When you address certain questions in an unbiased manner then you usually won't make any enemies or receive bad ratings by people who think "I don't agree with this answer". Some advice that has been given in the past is to stay out of certain topics (like the religion section) to avoid receiving bad ratings from people who have other beliefs. Just remember that we are all here to help!

Okay. My turn. I mean't for this answer to appear here, but ended up using it on another question. but it applies to both so here's the link to it: Never mind, I decided to repost it here in case the other question is removed for some reason. So here goes: I have left comments on down ratings and have had my ratings sabotaged by someone going into my profile and pulling up my answer list. Only they didn't leave comments when they did it. Some people seek retribution when you down rate them, and if they know who you are, they go after you. Now, I downrate and may leave a comment at a later date or vice-versa so the answerer doesn't necessarily know it was me. Sometimes I leave comments and down rate at the same time, if I know the user is a pretty fair player. Sometimes I downrate and leave no comment (especially if I think the answer is just so ridiculous that anyone with an ounce of common sense wouldn't need an explanation). Sometimes I leave what I hope is a helpful comment, with no downrate (I do this a lot with new users). Don't have a lot of trouble anymore since using this strategy. And at least I feel I may be helping the answerers who actually have common sense.

Ratings are not that important really, as long as you answer as well as you can. I tend to make the fact I don't care about ratings very clear. People should respect your answers, but if they don't, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Yes, it does get annoying, but there is no sure fire way to get people to stop rating you down.

These are points that I have mentioned before in one of my other answers. These will help you maintain good ratings. 1. Do not go out of your way to answer questions that are about someone's opinions, for example, the religion section. People will all have different views and if you don't get it just right or say something that upsets anyone, you will be rated harshly! 2. If you get one 50% or even a 75% you may not have to worry. It is just if you get a lot of these in an answer that may bring you down. If this does happen, edit your answer to the point where you know that people will see that it is very useful, because the bad ratings may catch on and then you will keep going down until you have a very low score on that answer. 3. It is always better to answer a question that you are well educated in or know a lot about. It will look good if it has been thought out by someone who knows what they are talking about. I have answered a question that I didn't know very much about and it didn't end up so well. Sometimes you can never tell how a certain answer will be rated, but if you stick to these and other tips, you have a better chance to get good ratings.

who cares, speak your mind. Most of them on here don't. Don't care about ratings, just care about what you really think if it helps someone

I decided to post this as a second answer for two reasons: 1)so it will show up on the recent arrivals page. 2) It isn't really an answer, but my reasons for why I think ratings do matter, and therefore, why learning how to deal with abusers can be important. In some respects, I agree with skinamin. The reason I asked this question, is because I have found AB to be a good testing ground for discovering how to reach a level of influence in certain internet communities in a meaningful way. Ratings are somewhat of an indication of whether one is influencing the community as a whole, and whether that influence is considered positive or negative by that community. Notice, I said "somewhat". How reliable the ratings are is dependant on the rating system (and I just noticed today that AB has changed the way ratings are displayed), and the make-up of the community itself. I began to cre about my ratings on AB because I noticed over time that most people on AB are here to help others for the right reasons. Not for fame or fortune, but simply to help. I feel the ratings do reflect how well-meaning people feel about each other. There are some "useless" elements here, just as on any website. That useless element can cause ratings to drop for the wrong reasons. New users come to sites like this to find and share knowledge. A lot of them would like to believe that the ratings they see displayed are accurate reflections of whether to trust other user's information. Like it or not, opinions play a major role in whether we think an answer is accurate, or useful. "Accurate" and "useful" are not necessarily the same thing. Unfortunately, we all rate answers as either "useful" or "not useful" based on our opinion at times. There are cases when accuracy is indisputable. A good example of this would be if someone posted the question: "I have a Mac running OS8. How do I rebuild my desktop?" If someone posted the answer: "Rebuiding your desktop is unecessesary, because Windows rebuilds the desktop automatically every time you log on", that would be an inaccurate answer, since Mac OS8 has nothing to do with Microsoft Windows, and therefore the answer is not useful. Most of the time though, accuracy is not so clear cut. When this is the case, we cannot help but for opinions to play some part in our answers. The more opinionated our answer is, the greater chance we take that ratings given that answer are going to be just as opinionated, whether they are positive or negative. I don't think there is any escaping the fact that since opinions are a large part of the answers and the ratings, a user's popularity among others is definately a huge part of their overall rating. Some users are concerned about their ratings as a reflection of their popularity. Some users (myself included) would like to think that what they know as common sense, is also considered common sense among other users, and their ratings reflect whether that is true. I think we all want to know that we are surrounded by people that think of us as useful to have around. Ratings reflect whether AB users think we are useful. People who are firmly grounded in what they think is accurate common sense, and find themselves amoung those who, for the most part, disagree with them, tend to find another group to hang out with. Some, like myself, try to figure out how to turn those opinions around, hopefully in an attempt to become more useful to the community, and not in an attempt to become, or pretend to be, someone they are not. Unfortunately, there is another type of user that a lot of us are all too familliar with, whose idea of what this site is for is very different from most AB users ideas. Some come along with a chip on their shoulder looking for contention, arguments, and trouble. Misery loves company, and it also loves to infect those who don't have it. These are the Trolls, who have nothing better to do than spin doughnuts on our virtual lawns, and throw rocks through our virutal windows. They will do anything to make a decent person look bad, because they either do not have the knowledge, or the will, to make themselves better. They try to tear down to prevent themselves from looking as bad in comparison. So, a new user comes into AB looking for advice on whatever, and sees a user with a lousy rating that is only that way because of some vindictive little good-for-nothing, but the new user doesn't know that's why the rating is low. Now that new user starts discounting information from the low rated one, loosing out on perfectly good advice. There is a lot of lightheartedness on AB, and I think that's good, and necessary. But there are also very serious issues dealt with here. Ratings can, and do matter when serious situations are presented. For those of us who wish to post questions of a serious, and sensitive nature, and also for those who wish to answer with serious answers, ratings most certainly play a part. That's why I think it's important for this question, and it's answers to remain available for a long time to come.

Oops! not use to the new format! Missed the comment button. please ignore.

It is definately a hard task that we have all had to deal with but we all have seemed to manage. There was a time where "trolls" were destroying the the AB community but I think people have wised up a bit. Definately a good way to avoid abuse is to pinpoint the offender an alert the site moderator by using the feedback link. Stay positive and don't be discouraged by unjust ratings. We will all be here to back up any unjust negative ratings.