what the hell?!!?

Ye' old general discussion board. Basically, for everything that isn't covered elsewhere. Come here to shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, or whatever suits your fancy.
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malcolmboston
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Post by malcolmboston »

Bill H wrote:I'm disappointed. Seroiusly. I habe participated in other boards that have ratings and:

1. Some participants post for the purpose of getting ratings but more problematically.

2. Flame wars start over "you didn't rate me fairly" or "this guy asks questions and doesn't give good ratings" and similar imagined affronts.

I think the quality of this forum would be seriously diminished by a rating system, and will be hugely diaappointed to see one implemented.
:(
from what i understand you dont get ratings for how many posts you make, but rather the quality of your posts, so it shouldnt be a problem
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JayBird
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Post by JayBird »

Bill H wrote:I'm disappointed. Seroiusly. I habe participated in other boards that have ratings and:

1. Some participants post for the purpose of getting ratings but more problematically.

2. Flame wars start over "you didn't rate me fairly" or "this guy asks questions and doesn't give good ratings" and similar imagined affronts.

I think the quality of this forum would be seriously diminished by a rating system, and will be hugely diaappointed to see one implemented.
:(
To be honest, i agree with you, but i don't know how this is gonna work cos it hasn't been discussed in the moderator forum.

Mark
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JayBird
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Post by JayBird »

if we were going for some kind of award scheme, i believe we should have something like, member of the month award.

There is already a phpBB hack for this. THeir name is displayed in the header of the forum.

We could vote who we thought deservered the. I think poeple would vote for someone that helped them a lot recently, so this would be quite fair because the person that gave the most amount of useful help should be voted the Member of the Month.

Example - http://www.survivorfire.com/phpBB/viewt ... orum=138&0

Mark
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Bill H
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Post by Bill H »

but rather the quality of your posts
That's my point:
"I gave him a good answer and he didn't give me a good rating, so don't answer his questions any more."

"I answered his question and he rated the answer a three. It was worth at least a five. It isn't fair."

"I'm answering your questions, why aren't you rating my answers?"

I actually gave up on one forum because of the flaming over points, and the competetion to see who could get the most, just got disgusting.

Of course some people thrive on a competetive environment. I happen not to be one of them. And any environment where scoring and/or awarding of points is involved is going to result in a portion of the membership becoming competetive.

Some people will think this forum is gaining something. I think it's losing something, and I wish I could talk the "powers that be" out of doing it.
:cry:
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Post by jason »

Bill H: I am going to send you a PM. You've been here long enough, and I respect your opinion (well, I try to respect everyone's), but I would like to get your feedback.
magicrobotmonkey
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Post by magicrobotmonkey »

I see Bill H's point... but still, this forum has thus far been much much better than any forum i've ever been part of. Even forums made up of people i know in the outside world can't compete. I think we shold give us chance, but maybe with some restrictions - for one thing, there are a lot of people that just do "stop bys" just to get one question answered and are not necesarily part of the community. These people are the ones I would be most worried about messing things up. On the other hand, most people that hang around a lot don't ask as many questions as they answer, so wouldn't have a lot o chances to rate things. It seems like we would be basing this rating system more on people that aren't around a lot? Unless I just don't know how its gonna work...
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llanitedave
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Post by llanitedave »

The question seems to be "who's doing the rating?" Is it the moderators? Sounds like extra work for them. Is it the members? I see a problem with that:

As a newbie and a slow learner, I envision that 90% of my participation in this forum will be asking questions, with the odd philosophical discussion thrown in. I won't, most likely, feel comfortable answering technical questions for quite some time.

If I, as a member, spend most of my time asking questions and receiving answers, and I rate others based on those answers, then the system would give me a disproportionate influence in how the experienced members are scored. Now, I consider myself pretty objective, but that's only because I'm biased!

Were I dishing out the answers, then I would be rated more often than I rate others.

I see this as unfair to the most experienced and knowledgable members here, in that they would be rated by those least qualified to judge their expertise. I'm getting a lot of good feedback from all you guys -- I don't want to see a system that would discourage that.

So, how the ratings get implemented makes ALL the difference in the world, but it seems to me that there are a lot more ways to do it wrong than there are to do it right.
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llanitedave
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Post by llanitedave »

After reading magicrobotmonkey's post right before mine, I see that he had essentially the same concerns as I -- except he used less bandwidth in expressing them!
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Post by magicrobotmonkey »

Rate Me! That was an efficient reply! heh
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Post by qads »

i agree with Bill H, there was another idea about member of the month (sorry, forgot who it was by), that could work,maybe show "top 10" users or something?
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xisle
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Post by xisle »

I would agree that the Moderator may add a
point to the poster's overall rating, in a case when
a problem is resolved. Other than that, this may cause
unnecessary competition. I view this forum as a
learning/teaching environment.
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Post by 1veedo »

how abuot kudos instead?
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JAM
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Post by JAM »

xisle wrote:I would agree that the Moderator may add a point to the poster's overall rating, in a case when a problem is resolved. Other than that, this may cause unnecessary competition. I view this forum as a learning/teaching environment.
Noted the recent discussions about moderators being/acting "Godlike" on these forum?

Even tho I think it's very much narrowed down to very few individuals sharing these thoughts, a thought on the subject must be made...

Say the mod's would be the ones rating users. Would everyone be comfortable with this? In the future? Would I need to go through my PM inbox each day to deal with various of rating related issues?

Yes, likely us mod's will take the heat and better me than you as it comes with the teritory. But as everyone seems to get involved with these discussions it might polute more than being a good thing.
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markl999
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Post by markl999 »

If it came to a vote, i'd vote against this idea.
The answers on the forums are generally always good and i'm not sure what the benefit would be by directing users towards certain persons answers.
With PHP there's always lots of ways to do something, so all correct answers are valid.
Rather than ask, "What can this feature add to the forum?" i'd ask "Does the forum lack because this feature isn't there?". And i'd say the forums work ok as they are, not sure how ratings would benefits the average user *shrug*

[edit] I also feel you can benefit from wrong answers as much as right ones ;) There's quite a few threads i've read where i've seen a 'progression' towards the right answer, adding ratings to this might blur the process.
Last edited by markl999 on Thu Apr 15, 2004 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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BDKR
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Post by BDKR »

I'm going to cast my vote as a "I think this is a bad idea" also. Bill H brought up some good points. It's only a matter of time before it starts.

Cheers,
BDKR
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