Is it necessary to rate negative your respondents?

I do not rate every response to my discussions but only those that merit it. I think that to rate everyone detracts from the whole system, so it should be used with discretion. Also I can rate someone positive, even if they hold a contrary view to mine, but they will have presented their opinion very well and so it is the response which merits it. The same applies to a best response in my opinion, it is just that, i.e. the best response, whether or not the person agrees with me. :) Yes I have rated a couple of people negative, but they were spammers who repeatedly responded to my discussions (and probably others too) with long jokes that had nothing at all to do with the discussion. I also reported them to myLot and suspect that other members might have done the same, as those people are no longer here at myLot. As far as I am concerned negatives should only be used if someone is abusive in their response or if they spam as mentioned earlier. A different opinion is not a valid reason to give someone a negative and it is awful to think that people will give that on the basis of a different opinion. It is interesting to note that there have been many discussions started about star rating/reputation going down here, but often the same users actually take a rise again the next day. I am not sure why it is happening, and it might have nothing at all to do with a negative rating, but generally that is what the perception is. I am more inclined to think it could have something to do with the quality or brevity of the response or the discussion contents rather than anything else. If someone responds with a "yes I agree you are right" type of thing, then there will be some sort of formula myLot has to detect these things. I do not know this for a fact of course, and it is my opinion only because I do not think that so many people can be giving negative ratings.

I haven't rated anyone negatively. I have often wanted to though when they reply with a rude remark. I just step back and think how I would feel if someone rated me negatively. I try to respect all responses that are given to me. I just don't understand why some responses I have gotten when I first started out, had to be rude ones LOL. Oh well, I said to myself. I just forgot about it and moved on. Maybe mylot sees those rude responses also.

I am known to give a + to everyone.. unless they are hateful unkind and off topic but even if they are off topic .. I am reluctant to give a minus, negative, because they could have misunderstood the question. So I am like you and I don't like putting negatives down..I usually give the plus sign;)+

I neither rate positive nor negative but thinking right now to rate positively to all responses which i got for my questions. I agree with urs point of view and think that we should never rate negatively to anyone as it affects others reputation and we ouself'll surely feel bad when someone'll rate us negatively.

I like my rate"+" for their star going up for any ideas, and I don't want to see my star going down.