Yes, someone might mark something as not helpful on occasion while on their phone. It happens. Hopefully people notice it and fix it right away. Others may be marking as not helpful on purpose for a variety of reasons.
Other sites use rating systems(1-5) but I don't think that would be helpful in our case. That's why we elected to go with helpful/not helpful as it also gives some directly when someone asks a question and they want to designate an answer but don't know which one to choose. Or when the person who asks receives answers but never comes back. It gives the others who read the answers a sense of what others find helpful and what they do not.
No points are taken away for something marked not helpful. Even if I wanted to there is no option for me to take away points. I frankly don't think that it would be valuable to do so as it isn't constructive and could lead to people gaming the system by marking certain things helpful and other things not helpful to create point gaps for their own benefit, to . Additionally there isn't any notification option for not helpful. I'm not really sure how helpful it would be to send everyone a notification that someone has marked something not helpful and would only spread negativity, at least in our usage of the site. Furthermore if someone is new to the site or not confident in themselves and then someone marks something as not helpful either on purpose or on accident then it might be really damaging for them to be notified about it and worse yet if the whole thread or even group or everyone subscribed to a sub-community like Community Help. The features of online communities are mostly designed for product/services support and online collaboration. They're not designed with health improvement as their main purpose. No matter the platform there will always be a bit of bending and molding done to try to fit the functions to the goals of the site.
As to why you can't see who marked something as not helpful. I'm guessing that they wanted people to feel as though they could be honest when something wasn't helpful. For product support related communities people can let others know if they try a solution but it doesn't work so then others can get a sense that it worked for 3/5 people who tried it. This will help others who read the post determine what solutions they will try. It will also help other point to a possible best solution if the person who asked a question does not come back to designate a correct answer or it may help influence the original asker what the correct answer is if there is some question and there seems to be multiple correct answers.
For some, like myself, if I got multiple not helpful designations I would probably try to improve my response. Knowing who marked it as such might be helpful if they're willing to give constructive feedback but I don't think I need to know who the person is to work on improving. Again not everyone is this way and I think for some, if they knew who it was they might get defensive for themselves, defensive for others or simply be hurt. The anonymity of marking something not helpful has both its cons and its pros.
The not helpful cannot be turned off. It's part of the helpful function and the two cannot be separated from each other. Even if it were, I am not sure I would do so. Yes, sometimes the helpful function is used when the like button should be used instead (Helpful Answer vs Likes – What’s the Difference?).
With anything, there will always be a way to game the system. Hopefully people don't but I know they do. In most cases they do so for short periods of time. If I notice it, I do reach out. Many times the behavior stops but sometimes it does not. If the community notices the behavior this is where it can get ugly.
I'm sure there is a way for me to find out who has a higher rate of not helpful answers. However, I don't know of any function on any community platform(I've used several in the last 15-20 years) that will flag someone who marks not helpful frequently. In some cases it could be someone gaming the system but it could also be someone who is really thorough in their testing and is just trying to seek out the best answers. Sometimes answers are just not helpful and should be designated as such either because they were not well thought out/constructive or the solution simply didn't work. When a person starts trolling a community with off topic or hostile responses some members respond directly or indirectly with a not helpful designation rather than marking as abuse and this often feeds the frenzy rather than helping the moderation team get control. Thus the phrase was likely coined, "Don't feed the trolls!".
In summary, I can't tell you why things were designed the way they were designed as I don't know and there isn't really a sole person to ask and the community was designed to be used with different types of communities. I could ask but it's unlikely that person who designed it is still around to answer the question. I can speculate only based on the norms of the communities I've managed and participated in. Hopefully, I've provided more insight as to why things are the way they are. I do think it's great that some people would find it valuable to get constructive and feedback but not everyone is open(giving or receiving) to that. I'm glad some are open to feedback!
Great discussion/question!
Mark
EX Community Manager
EX Community Admin Team
