The problem with an anonymous rating system is that it's non-constructive, and those being down-rated never know why. It's better, IMO, not to hide behind a rating system if you want to criticize someone, but just to tell them in a constructive manner why you think their thread sucks.
Parallax wants to encourage newcomer participation in the forum, but newcomers might be discouraged if they think they're appearing on the Gong Show. This isn't Reddit or Slashdot, but a company-sponsored forum that needs to be as inviting as possible to present and potential customers.
I'd say set Required Thread Rating Votes to Show Rating to 10,000 or more, if possible. IOW, the rating thing needs to go. I feel that it's more disruptive than constructive.
Just check "Allow Thread Rating Vote Changes" to "Yes".
I like the rating feature because I can rate a good thread and be able to find it later. It also gives a good opinion of "Should I read this?" if it has high ratings, then great. Granted, there are some people who could misuse the system.
I think it's unnecessary overhead, contributes to page clutter, people will rate posts based on their personal interests and not mine, and no stars are needed at all. Delete them. If they are kept, definitely stop people from rating their own threads. A better use of space is to use flagging if you think a particular post is worthy to you. Aside from flagging your own posts which is possible now, I don't know if it's possible to flag other posts. Is it a feature that can be enabled?
I'm in two minds about a rating system.
One the one hand what we have now is pretty pointless even if it were working correctly. As it stands a thread containg a trival question and an incorrect answer can be rated with five stars and may remain that way for ever as no one would be bothered to rate it down again.
I have a bad feeling about rating things down anyway.
One the other hand scientific types have peer reviewed journals exactly so that noise and gibberish can be filtered out. On top of that there are prizes for you if you write enough good stuff, Nobel for example. So the element of competition is there at all levels.
It would be great for those new to the Prop to be able to pull up a list of all time best threads so that they can see what is really possible with the prop.
Perhaps rather than rating threads directly there should be a "thread hall of fame" containing links to those star threads.
Comments
Maybe low ratings would discourage irrelevant, trivial and/or self-aggrandizing posts...
Parallax wants to encourage newcomer participation in the forum, but newcomers might be discouraged if they think they're appearing on the Gong Show. This isn't Reddit or Slashdot, but a company-sponsored forum that needs to be as inviting as possible to present and potential customers.
-Phil
Some more active moderation would help with this too.
Rich H
I'm probably late to the party since Jim answered, but just in case. . .I found the attached settings in the Admin Control Panel:
Maybe this pertains to the confusion, does it?
Let me know how you would like it to be configured. We can experiment freely.
From Jim's response it seems like we need to get the upgrade in place.
Thanks,
Ken Gracey
I'd say set Required Thread Rating Votes to Show Rating to 10,000 or more, if possible. IOW, the rating thing needs to go. I feel that it's more disruptive than constructive.
-Phil
I like the rating feature because I can rate a good thread and be able to find it later. It also gives a good opinion of "Should I read this?" if it has high ratings, then great. Granted, there are some people who could misuse the system.
One the one hand what we have now is pretty pointless even if it were working correctly. As it stands a thread containg a trival question and an incorrect answer can be rated with five stars and may remain that way for ever as no one would be bothered to rate it down again.
I have a bad feeling about rating things down anyway.
One the other hand scientific types have peer reviewed journals exactly so that noise and gibberish can be filtered out. On top of that there are prizes for you if you write enough good stuff, Nobel for example. So the element of competition is there at all levels.
It would be great for those new to the Prop to be able to pull up a list of all time best threads so that they can see what is really possible with the prop.
Perhaps rather than rating threads directly there should be a "thread hall of fame" containing links to those star threads.