What are the consequences of message ratings, protection and dissapearing messages.

Sometimes a message appears in-game: "Someone has rated your message" and this glance appears on your character. What are the benefits/downsides of someone approving or disapproving your written messages in the game?

There's also an option for protecting messages, how does this work, I noticed that some of my messages dissapeared from my written messages list for a certain amount of time. My guess is that protecting a message will stop them from dissapearing. Though this is just my guess, can anyone verify this?

Solution 1:

Someone approving your message gives you a heal (as well as a warm fuzzy feeling).
When the message pops up, there's a glow about your character that reminds me of the glow you get when drinking, or the glow from life leech effects.
The approval might also refill an Estus Flask use, I'm not as sure about that.

I haven't gotten any disapproving votes yet, but nothing happened from disapprovals in previous games. I suspect that disapprovals on a message may stop it from showing up.

Sources: From experience. Getting whacked, then seeing the "Someone has rated your message" notice and watching my health go up.

Solution 2:

The more dissaprovals the less likely it will appear for someone else to see. There will always be a chance but in my experience once a message has about 8 or so bad ratings you might as well delete it because most people won't see it.