I don't give unhelpfuls for two reasons:

One, because they don't matter; and

Two, because on some level, every comment is helpful, if only to identify the author as a lathe-turned moron.

It could be useful. Now don't get me wrong here. I believe in being somewhat outrageous, but really, what use is a statement that gets 12 unhelpfuls and 0 helpfuls?

ORIGINAL DATED 01.01.2007: To a certain degree, it would help others to know our proclivities beforehand, what each one of us is all about in this respect, the "where we're coming from" tendencies in each of us, so to speak. UPDATE OF 02.18.2007: It might be too late to change anyone's mind but the concept seems to have been misunderstood. The 'helpful/unhelpful' ratio: a) would not have revealed to whom a member awarded either the 'helpfuls' or the 'unhelpfuls'; therefore, there would be no risk for any RIA member to become any more or any less popular with anybody; b) would indicate only the proportion, as in 2148/562 (or 562/2148); c) would enable anyone interested to fairly ascertain the response proclivity of any member(s), instead of relying on perception or conjecture; d) could not impact adversely the reliability status of members with good standing or credentials.

Is this sorta like each reviewer's batting average or something?

The potential problem with this, as I see it, is that it could turn the whole thing into a popularity contest. I am fairly new here, but it seems that some of the unhelpfuls are a subliminal "I don't like you", "I disagree with your politics", etc. 

UPDATE: I was too new here to be commenting on this in the 1st place I guess. Stand corrected.

. . . does this mean

a) a ratio of helpfuls/unhelpfuls I've received for all my reviews,
b) a ratio of helpfuls/unhelpfuls I've given out, or
c) a ratio of helpfuls/unhelpfuls I've given to particular reviewers?

In any case, there's much too much stuff already crowding the pages; my vote would be to simplify things by cutting the fat where it can be done, not adding stuff like this.

Nah. Sometimes I want to be able to say something completely stupid and not care if I get "unhelpfuls" or not. It takes all the fun out if you have to try too hard.

Plus hate will follow those with a high ratio...

Popularity-games will ensue. . ."wahh-wahh-my-ratio-isn't-helping-my-self-esteem" will ensue. . .who cares?

I have mixed feelings about adding info on the number or ratio of helpfuls and/to unhelpfuls. On the plus side, it would be nice to know whether a member even goes to the trouble of flagging comments either way so as to know whether or not to give this type of feedback to those members. Someone who has left thousands of reviews should have a fair amount of these clicks for others. On the other hand, there's nothing necessarily wrong with being a tough audience to impress (i.e. a relatively low ratio). I for one am probably somewhat high on the unhelpfuls due to so many "Bush sucks" and "Black Sabbath are gods" type of reviews though I also give a lot of helpfuls for truly informative comments (notwithstanding my disagreement with many of them). The bottom line is that with any kind of data, the utility of same is directly related to the good faith of the person using it.