People are abusive here =P

'jerk' and 'coward' are normal words in any dictionary. Are you telling me they aren't? Also, I don't go about 'reporting' people either, as I think that is cowardly behavior as well as attempting to get people's posts removed 'because you don't like them'. Yes, it is probably impossible for ONE rogue user to damage someone's reputation but that doesn't mean a little group of people consistently going about rating someone down based on one thing they disagreed with isn't. There's no other way to explain a significant drop in a specific topic over a week's time lol.

Besides they have a right to negatively rate someone for any reason they want. The ToS states otherwise. You are not supposed to be willy nilly rating whatever you want based on whether you agree or like someone's name or don't like someone's name or they posted about something you hated. Yes, I posted this in the hopes I would see what other people had to say about this but it was really more of a call out to the people who actually DO this kind of thing - negatively rate people just because they disagree or like you said - because you think anybody has the right to negatively rate anybody they want for any reason they want. The thing is - the ToS DOES state otherwise. I suppose you could interpret it to mean you can do whatever you want but it's clearly disrespectful to others and NOT contributing to quality discussions here. I'm not like some people. I'll call out a hater - virtually, face to face, whatever. It solves the problem quicker than ignoring it and lets them know you know and you're eventually going to do something about it.

I suppose I've never bothered to check the ToS. Perhaps it does say that :) So, do you really think you can stop people from giving negative reviews?

It's not the matter of stopping negative review or ratings. It's a mater of abuse. People have different views about things and some are curious and brae enough to ask and discuss those things with other people. what mylot gives us is the freedom to express ourselves. However, the negation rating system proves that you can get back at people without even given a good point for rating them negatively. The rating should only be used for the protection of mylot community. But it doesn't happen all the time. If you feel to disagree with someone over a certain topic, it's better to join the discussion and talk about it. Not just rate negatively because you feel and think that the topic starter have anything personal against you or anyone.

I never negative people unless the post they make is completely and totally off topic, not in english, or defamatory and offensive towards not just me but anybody who comments... or if they are trolling and stealing things like avatars or pretending to be someone they aren't to gather information and annoy users. It's just frustrating to see so many people who still have TIME to be petty monsters.

Yes, controversial discussions and random various opinions make for GREAT discussions! I am pretty active in some hot button topics like politics and religion as well as large ones like 'life' 'parenting' and 'relationships'. I don't know what kind of sick joy some people get from doing things like this, it must benefit them SOME way or they wouldn't keep doing it lol. You're right too... it makes NO sense to give someone else a negative rating because you don't agree. Someone else tried to say 'maybe the discussion is not good'. If it garners a LOT of responses and multiple comments under each one and there are a variety of opinions, then yes, it is a good quality discussion and it contributes positively to the environment here, regardless of the difference of opinion. That's what people should remember here! The big picture, not 'hmmm... i disagree with you, I don't like you, I'm going to rate you down'.

It would be nice to just remove it... stop tempting the people who hit it due to disagreements. If they do it once, they'll do it 100 times and they don't care who they wreak havoc with. Very few negative ratings are actually legit for the reasons the ToS state they should be given.

The way I see it If someone doesn't agree with what you right a person has the right to rate negative. I just want to make a correction to your statement, mylot specifically tells us to NOT rate negative just because someone has a difference of opinion here. http://www.mylot.com/o/faq/faq17.aspx#3 What if I disagree with someone? Should I give that post a negative rating? Absolutely not! In fact, if you disagree with a post, but still feel it positively contributes to the discussion, you should rate it positively. Rating quality content negatively will hurt your ratings overall. Remember differing opinions and viewpoints tend to make for the most interesting discussions.

So If i don't agree with the post I should just let it fly Yep, just let it go. You could give your opinion on the subject either in a comment to a response that has been provided that you don't agree with or you could leave a response. You should however not rate it negatively just because you don't agree with it. if I feel that it does not contribute I should mark it negative Yes, although this has been debated a little here too. Basically I would say that comments that make absolutely no sense in a discussion would qualify. Much more difficult to say with a discussion. I look for several things, and most would point to if it violates the guidelines then it could be marked negatively. I have no idea how people look at that FAQ, obviously looking around the board and some of the stars here, more people rate negatively, than actually admit to. I agree that it's really impossible to know who's marking you negatively. I think what happens is that someone is rude to another because of an opinion and the discussion gets heated, while the two that are going back and forth others are reading and may be marking one or both negatively, they each in turn think it's coming from the other guy. Mylot states that one rogue user can't cause that kind of damage, so unless members have little posse that they call into play it's simply the mylot community marking negative for behavior, not for opinions. That's my thoughts. Of course there's also the possibility that members who have read the guidelines are marking negatively because they don't agree with the opinions of others.

Okay all this does is create more for me to say... So If i don't agree with the post I should just let it fly but if I feel that it does not contribute I should mark it negative? That could be thousands of posts in here. But of course that is a FAQ and not a TOS. What I want to know is with the next post it clearly states that they will not post results so how can someone honestly say that someone is marking negative on them? It might be that their posts just aren't that good unless I am wrong there too??

When people get into a flame war I think maybe it IS justified to freeze the discussion so no more fire can be added lol.

Yep. Get rid of one, two more show up. We need another planet to ship people.

Yes - if you look at your rating number within a specific topic, say you are 259 out of 584. If someone rates you negatively, especially consistently, you may notice a few days later that now you are 303 out of 584. It takes longer for you to lose your star rating but the other rating is quick. I don't think there should be a negative option either, because it DOES get abused, and generally by the same people, either ones who just get off on it, or users who haven't read the ToS or THINK it's okay to negatively rate due to difference of opinion or 'not liking what you said'. Not liking what someone said doesn't equal 'not quality response or discussion'.

I agree with you too how would a discussion starter know if he/she is rated negatively? To tell you honestly I seldom use those buttons.Why? sometimes I forget to rate and that is because I am enjoying participating to discussions.

lol!

If the ToS states people will get banned for rating down because they disagree AND THEY ACTUALLY GOT REMOVED AND BANNED, then perhaps it would stop happening. It is annoying to have the ToS state 'it is not appropriate nor acceptable to rate someone else negatively simply because you don't agree with their viewpoint or like what they have to say' and then when someone DOES do that, to NOT have them reprimanded with removal from the site. We just need a few people made examples of and then I guarantee it would happen less.

Yes... it IS annoying, isn't it? I don't understand it either, yet it happens. Some people have no scruples, no conscience and don't care if they use personal reasons to screw over someone else. However, the ToS states people should not do this. It is my sincere hope that people who do this often eventually get tossed out of this site for being petty useless users who contribute nothing here. Nobody can provide me any proof that rating people negatively contributes in a positive way to the atmosphere at mylot

I too hope such type of people will be banned from Mylot. Otherwise, rating someone negative just because of different opinion, is the most immature thing any person can do.

Reporting specific people whom I suspect would be just as petty and rotten as those people 'namelessly' rating me down lol. I don't want to report them, that's sinking to their level. I want THEM to grow up or get caught by admin abusing the ToS and not following it. I don't put up with tattling from the kids, and I don't tattle. I'll point a finger at you though if I caught you stealing cookies