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helpfullness

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:20 pm
by s.dot
This probably isn't possible (unless there's a phpbb mod for it)

But it would be cool if guests or users could rate replies based on their helpfulness. Like x out of x people found this reply helpful.

Sort of like on yahoo answers. :wink:

Just a brain fart.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:10 am
by Chris Corbyn
There's a MOD linked to in here for that :)

If it's purely the thread that's rated and has no impact on how we rank users I think it's a good idea, but we'll be shifting to phpBB3 before we make any more modifications I suspect.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:31 am
by s.dot
I was thinking more of a per post ranking. So people browsing the thread from say, search engines, could find the more relevent posts in solving the problem.

Would add a bit of interactivity to the site for non-members, and encourage better post writing for current members.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:38 am
by CoderGoblin
Whilst I agree in theory, one of the down sides to this is the natural tendency for people to avoid "bad reviews". If they make a couple of "bad" replies and get marked for it, their contributions are likely to become less. Over time a group of "elite" answerers would emerge, one of the things I like about this forum is the lack of elitism. It's nice to see so many different people answering topics.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:52 am
by Kieran Huggins
he said "Whilst", MOD PARENT UP!!!!

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 3:05 am
by CoderGoblin
Kieran Huggins wrote:he said "Whilst", MOD PARENT UP!!!!
:?: :?: :?: :?: Lost me :D

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:28 am
by feyd
Karma systems are pretty iffy as far as being implemented to make "cheating" hard-to-impossible. I'd love to install one at some point, but I will need it to be completely accountable by way of a logging system for it.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:27 am
by Kieran Huggins
The algorithm could be tricky, but the end result is kinda subjective anyway. Besides, don't we have some sort of awards thingy?

@CG: It had something to do with Slashdot and comment moderation in general (or our lack of it). I'm not even sure anymore, but it seemed funny at the time! I need more sleep.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:15 pm
by califdon
CoderGoblin wrote:
Kieran Huggins wrote:he said "Whilst", MOD PARENT UP!!!!
:?: :?: :?: :?: Lost me :D
On this side of the pond, the use of the perfectly good english word "whilst" always causes snickers. We tend to equate it with BBC comedy shows. Our bad.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:09 am
by RobertGonzalez
I know this topic has been discussed by the mod/admin team before. It is a good idea, but has its issues when it comes to implementation and accountability.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 12:15 pm
by volka
If such a mod is installed I'd like the possibility of marking posts as "parrot" or "echo" :twisted:
Or (on the positive side) a "I second that" and/or "sounds reasonable" marker.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:24 pm
by JAB Creations
Karma systems can work but you have to tread lightly! For example /.'s karma system is all messed up because (from what I can tell) only their mods can give karma, every time I made a useful post I had 10 year olds insulting me, and then the mods would give me negative karma not only for posts defending myself (with tact) but on the original contribution post! So I boycott their lame (obvious) fan-boy site.

The correct way to implement any sort of karma system is as much as I hate their site (and the default icons) ...well I can't remember the name of it...but even when you check Google cache the "accepted answer" is blocked by "give us money" essentially...but the O.P. should be able to at least note once who's post was helpful to solve the original question.

Then there is the issue of multiple questions per thread! So what I would propose is to let them eat pie! If it's a simple straightforward question/answer thread the whole pie can go to one person. If you're working on learning PHP Classes to understand OOP (what I did recently) I could say for example well Everah helped big on one part but since it's an obtuse topic and Everah can't spend three hours on a single reply. So I'd give Everah a piece of the pie.

The only issue is having to figure out how many pieces of the pie need to exist in the first place. We could in that instance make it completely dynamic. A thread with four out of seven questions answered could have an icon that shows four out of seven pieces of a pie in an image showing it's general complexity and how much has been answered. This might be overkill and so you could resort to simply using two halves to represent completely answered, half answered, and not answered while still giving a piece to every useful answer.

The only gray area would be if someone attempts to help out though even though they spent half an hour working on the post they don't get a piece of the pie. In which case it might be better to keep the pie hidden initially until the question has been fully answered.

Gah, well this went on way longer then I wanted...it might not even be a reasonable approach. Anyway /. sucks! Go devnetwork! 8)

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:50 pm
by feyd
That sounds like it's more management than most users will likely want to take on.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:51 pm
by JAB Creations
Right, so instead one could create a "answered" or "unanswered" for threads and if the O.P. gets the answer they needed they can mark the thread as answered.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:04 pm
by califdon
JAB Creations wrote:Right, so instead one could create a "answered" or "unanswered" for threads and if the O.P. gets the answer they needed they can mark the thread as answered.
This sounds like the best option to me. Ratings systems are just asking for abuse. Another forum I use has "reputation" points, but they mean absolutely nothing, because a few people engineer "games" to swell their scores (I've seen > 20,000). It would definitely help to mark "solved" threads, though. If we do that, I'd suggest making it fairly obvious for O.P.'s to see how to do it, and it should be emphasized on every page that it's their responsibility to mark it when appropriate.