Why do you think so many users do not understand the meaning of "helpful" and "unhelpful" when voting on answers within open threads?

This phenomenon sets me thinking.. I try to think like someone who clicks unhelpful.. 1. Mistaken functions (these may be funny but they're possible) The up, down buttons look similar to: a. Expand and compact b.

Down with the text “votes� Makes peoples think that by clicking the down, I can see who votes. Something like a “pull-down�

Menu. C. PageUp, PageDown Solution: A thumb up or thumb down may be more suitable; a "confirm" button.

2. Conflict of interest Someone who answers marks down others’ answers, to increase his own chance of getting best answer. Solution: The rights to mark down will be taken away once someone answers the same question; the right to answer the question will be taken away once someone marks down an answer.

You can only choose one: answer and no mark down; mark down and no answer 3. The rights to mark down Sometimes I think the right should come with who pays the money. Why others interfere with asker's opinion, if he pays the $?

Soln: If asker tips the question, he is the only one that can mark down; but he has the right to open the rights to mark down to the community when asking question. If it’s a free question, meaning Mahalo is paying 25c, the rights to mark up and down can be opened to the community.4. Reason unknown why an answer is marked down which leads to further arguments.

Soln: a pop-up window to fill in reason/comment to complete the process of mark down. No reason, no mark down.

This phenomenon sets me thinking.. I try to think like someone who clicks unhelpful.. 1. Mistaken functions (these may be funny but they're possible) The up, down buttons look similar to: a. Expand and compact b.

Down with the text “votes” makes peoples think that by clicking the down, I can see who votes. Something like a “pull-down” menu. C.

PageUp, PageDown Solution: A thumb up or thumb down may be more suitable; a "confirm" button. 2. Conflict of interest Someone who answers marks down others’ answers, to increase his own chance of getting best answer.

Solution: The rights to mark down will be taken away once someone answers the same question; the right to answer the question will be taken away once someone marks down an answer. You can only choose one: answer and no mark down; mark down and no answer 3. The rights to mark down Sometimes I think the right should come with who pays the money.

Why others interfere with asker's opinion, if he pays the $? Soln: If asker tips the question, he is the only one that can mark down; but he has the right to open the rights to mark down to the community when asking question. If it’s a free question, meaning Mahalo is paying 25c, the rights to mark up and down can be opened to the community.4.

Reason unknown why an answer is marked down which leads to further arguments. Soln: a pop-up window to fill in reason/comment to complete the process of mark down. No reason, no mark down.

I just might be considered one of those helpful vote abusers, given that I don't tend to use it with the aim of implying "this is the most valuable Answer in the thread. " I often cast multiple helpful votes in a single thread. I enjoy casting a vote anytime I read an Answer that inspires me with interesting ideas, a well-defended point of view (whether I necessarily agree with the author's opinion or not), great research ... heck, once in a while I cast a helpful vote just because someone made me laugh.

The helpful vote is a way to say I appreciated the quality of the Answer. To me, the serious voting takes place once the thread is closed--here is where I feel it's time to become critical and look for the best of all the available answers. I'm still pretty new to Mahalo, but in the time I've been here I've noticed that often when a Question involves a controversial topic, people are more likely to vote for Answers that reflect their personal opinion.

I chalk it up to human nature that people who feel very strongly about something are moved to do that, and objective evaluation kinda goes out the window somewhat. But I think it's something else entirely to take it a step further and click the "Unhelpful" button just because someone is presenting information that doesn't agree with a user's personal beliefs. When I see an unhelpful vote cast, the general vibe I get from it is the person who cast it is saying "I negate you" at the very least, and often it seems to further imply "I really don't like or respect you, so I'm just lettin' you know" as a message to the person who posted the Answer.It feels like an attack, whether or not that should be the case.

To me, the presence of those votes puts a cold mood around the entire atmosphere in the question, even when the discussion moves past any direct consideration of it. On the Mahalo Answers Etiquette page, the guidance given on unhelpful votes is, "When you do vote 'unhelpful' it is recommended that you explain why you voted that way, the goal of the 'unhelpful' button is to help users understand the standards we share here on Mahalo Answers." So that's the Mahalo official take on it, but personally I still feel not at all inclined to use the button as a means to enforce standards of quality.

I'd be more inclined to refute the person's argument with an alternative Answer, or a comment asking them provide supportive materials to back up what they posted ... maybe they could turn their poorly presented Answer into a helpful one. To address a post I found genuinely abusive or vulgar, I'd be more inclined to hit the "Report" link.

With new users joining the site every few minutes, I think one of the best things that would help would be to force a comment be written for the unhelpful vote to be cast. There could be a minimum length of text required. Will make people think about whether something just doesn't interest them or is really unhelpful to the questioner and the spirit of the thread.

I have noticed an epidemic of answers voted unhelpful lately. It is rather annoying and if I notice an answer or question voted unhelpful or uninteresting I will vote for it to kind of cancel it out. I myself am guilty of overusing the helpful button and I stay away from the unhelpful button.

I've maybe used it twice since I joined which I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. :) I'm not sure why it has gotten worse but it does seem like an attack not only on the person but on the whole Mahalo site.

Some people just vote unhelpful just to make their answer at the top. Some people vote unhelpful to get their names noticed. It happened before too.

Some good members stopped because of that. Everybody has to remember that we are a group of people in Mahalo getting a good time with the answering. If somebody is abusing the system, it should be notified to the staff immediately.

Also, when you are the victim of the unhelpful vote, send a DM to the voter and ask for clarification. I believe, it will make that person think before hitting the button the next time.

I think it's because a lot of new users to Mahalo don't read the site guidelines or the Answers Etiquette. They could be attracted to the thought of making easy money and they just vote on things to get points. That way, they don't have to bother with fact-checking answers or anything like that.

They're not thinking about how what they do might affect the other user's BA percentage. Maybe Mahalo should consider restricting the ability to vote helpful/unhelpful to certain belt levels to be sure that the practice will be done responsibly.

In my opinion, the unhelpful button is not used properly, as you have said some users may have misunderstood what its all about. Being new maybe the reason or part of it, as the other answerers stated, but when I was new to Mahalo never had I voted unhelpful to any answerer because I respect the opinion of others, if answers tend to go in a different direction the comment button is there if one wishes to agree or disagree or if one needs a more elaborate answer. The Mahalo Etiquette is a very important guideline to bear in mind before hitting any button on this site to avoid misunderstandings.

For a suggestion, when the "unhelpful" button is pressed, a comment must be given as to "why" the vote was made. I would not vote that the unhelpful button be taken out for there are some answers that are really unhelpful like when it is a rude or deregatory answer, for me that is unhelpful. I think the "helpful" buttons have no negative impact, unless the answer is a rude or deregatory one.

I don't know why, but there seems to be an epidemic lately. I've dropped messages to the offenders, I know you have too, and they're not getting it. There's a yellow belt on of Corey's questions who is gleefully running down the page with countless "unhelpfuls."

What chaps my butt is that anyone checking answers who doesn't understand our system won't read the answer, let alone rate it, if they perceive the negative. Now we got two of this little nippers messing with, IMHO, a lot of hard work. Don't think I'll be answering many questions any time soon, because there is no defense against this.

Until this week, I've never had an unhelpful. Ever. Some rules and regs would be most helpful.

And yes, I'll gladly cite the users in question who are misusing this function. Taking a lot of the fun out of Mahalo for me. I'm getting that old Newsvine "here come the trolls" vibe and not happy.

Thank you so much for posting this!

Let me give you a quick and straight answer to this! Because they think that if they vote unhelpful other answers, they will get the tip. That's it!

Simply Vlad.

It is the word "unhelpful" and "helpful" that are the problems...this should be changed like the way most blog or news comments sections are set up....with no words, just a simple vote either "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" I think that would be a more accurate way for people to vote, since obviously it is important to many people to vote a question up or down, and the voting should be anonymous so no feelings are hurt and alliances aren't formed. I would like to vote a lot of answers thumbs down that I disagree with personally...but they are not necessarily unhelpful to the original questioner.

I'm going to agree first that it has much to do with them not reading the site tutorial pages. Perhaps Mahalo should have a step by step tutorial as part of the sign-up process. Granted many would just click through it, but some may read.

After not reading the tutorials they misunderstand helpful and unhelpful to mean "Helpful or Unhelpful..to me. " In essence meaning I don't agree with that, so it's not helpful to me. If you look on similar sites such as yahoo answers the equivalent to help and unhelpful is sort of like a popularity contest.

Generally if your answer doesn't agree with the crowd it gets voted down. Mahalo has done a great job of staying neutral. When unhelpful voting in particular is used as I agree or don't agree it's generally commented on and balanced by users or staff.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.