Rating comments

Post by Ho » Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:41 am

MonMotha has added a new requested feature to the rating system. You now have the ability to leave a short comment with your rating. Simply type your comment into the field when you are leaving your rating and it will be displayed on the rating results page for that post.

Pheadra · Post by **Pheadra** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:45 am

I just noticed that....welll lets see how it goes! *sits and waits*

Post by Ho » Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:50 am

I've been noticing quite a few rather dubious ratings lately. I'm hoping that people will use this opportunity to justify their actions which otherwise appear to be abuse of the system.

letshavetea · Post by **letshavetea** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:12 am

its going to start a lot of flame wars....

think about it because lets say someone doesnt like my post... hmm here is an example

"Mortal kombat is the best game ever"
so someone will rate this comment a "BOO" and say in the comment thing "I dissagree mortal kombat is a very good game but i think donkey kong is better"
then the first guy will get mad and call the donkey kong fan a "stupid head" and it will just escallate from there...

but yea... lets hope it doesnt get out of hand...

SoDeepPolaris · Post by **SoDeepPolaris** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:12 am

letshavetea wrote:its going to start a lot of flame wars....

think about it because lets say someone doesnt like my post... hmm here is an example

"Mortal kombat is the best game ever"
so someone will rate this comment a "BOO" and say in the comment thing "I dissagree mortal kombat is a very good game but i think donkey kong is better"
then the first guy will get mad and call the donkey kong fan a "stupid head" and it will just escallate from there...

but yea... lets hope it doesnt get out of hand...

In that case, then you have proof that the rating is completely unjustified, and it can be dealt with.

I think it's a really great way to explain, in a CIVILIZED/NONATTACKING manner, why you rated the post.

Post by **MonMotha** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:35 am

Currently, it's not required that you leave a comment (the field can be blank), so if you're afraid of inciting a flamewar over the ratings comments, you *could* just leave it blank. However, it's probably best to just not rate the post if you're thinking things like that, not to mention that ratings without comments may be viewed with more scepticism than ratings with comments.

You're right on with the proper use of the comments. Something like "Personal attacks are uncalled for" is a fine comment, while "XYZ is a poo-poo head" is probably not such a good comment (for the reason stated in the previous example).

Post by Ho » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:39 am

letshavetea wrote:its going to start a lot of flame wars....

think about it because lets say someone doesnt like my post...

Yes, this is a possiblilty I also hope does not come to pass.

Disagreement should be the start of a discussion. DISCUSSION, not flaming. Disagreement does not have to include conflict. The discussion and/or resolution of a disagreement can often be a source of learning, understanding, and knowledge.

The comments are a result of suggestion as well as a hope on my part that people will justify their ratings. As I mentioned, I have been seeing a lot of suspicious rating activity going on lately. This will give you a chance to justify your actions to the community, me, and the rest of the moderators. Otherwise, some activities may be seen as ratings abuse and you could lose your rating privileges.

In general, I don't feel that posts should be rated up or down simply because you agree or disagree with someone's opinion.

I think up votes should be for things you think add value to the site or that you enjoyed and want to see more of. Down votes should be for things that you found offensive or harmful to the community.

But these are just my opinions. I am open to other opinions and hope that the rating comments will be a way for people to voice other reasonable uses of the system.

However, I will give one guideline about ratings to keep you out of trouble (Gatekeeper should be thrilled

):

Ratings are to be given based on the post you are rating NOT the user who posted it. DO NOT rate a post up or down simply because you like or dislike the poster. The rating should be based on the content of the post itself.

Mosh_Mosh_Revolution · Post by **Mosh_Mosh_Revolution** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:18 pm

I honestly think that this is a good idea.

I don't like giving somebody a bad rating if I can't at least give a quick explaination as to what part of what they wrote I found offensive. Likewise, I'd always wanted to be able to give somebody kudos when they say something profound or funny.

Perhaps this will cut down on my post whoring a little. n_n

Great idea, guys!!! =D

Fuzakeru · Post by **Fuzakeru** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:02 pm

letshavetea wrote:its going to start a lot of flame wars....

think about it because lets say someone doesnt like my post... hmm here is an example

"Mortal kombat is the best game ever"
so someone will rate this comment a "BOO" and say in the comment thing "I dissagree mortal kombat is a very good game but i think donkey kong is better"
then the first guy will get mad and call the donkey kong fan a "stupid head" and it will just escallate from there...

but yea... lets hope it doesnt get out of hand...

Yes, but at least we will all know that the bad post was given simply because the DK fan is a stupid head. The satisfaction of knowing . . . ahh. Or perhaps not. ^_^;
The system is more than likely being abused, I don't know personally much about the abuse because I hardly ever use the ratings anyway, but at least perhaps this way we will know why the abuse is there. -.-???
It's a shame really because the system could have been, I still hope it will be, a really great idea. I give the comment option a thumbs up and a monkey.

RyogAkari · Post by **RyogAkari** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:12 pm

I'm really a fan of the rating issue and wish it was implimented in more forums that I associate myself with.

There is a problem though, being that very threads are rated. In fact, most of the threads that are rated are Ho's and Mon Motha's and they don't depend on ratings to advance in level!

(assuming that I am fully understanding how ratings work, which could be that I do not).

I know that it's not something that Ho or Mon Motha can fix. I would just simply ask that more people rate posts. Be it good or bad, feedback is important.

LikeableRodent · Post by **LikeableRodent** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:22 pm

RyogAkari wrote:There is a problem though, being that very threads are rated. In fact, most of the threads that are rated are Ho's and Mon Motha's and they don't depend on ratings to advance in level! (assuming that I am fully understanding how ratings work, which could be that I do not).

That's because they tend to make the best posts. *shrug*

RyogAkari wrote:I know that it's not something that Ho or Mon Motha can fix. I would just simply ask that more people rate posts. Be it good or bad, feedback is important.

I personally only rate posts if they're exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. If they're just mediocre posts I don't really bother. From my perspective if posts aren't getting rated enough then it's merely because most of the posts are pretty bleh and don't really go either way in any significant direction.

Post by Ho » Wed Mar 30, 2005 7:48 am

I agree with LikeableRodent in that ratings should be given for exceptional posts and that most average posts should just remain unrated. I even said as much when I first introduced the rating system. (In fact, now that I look at that post I realize that I actually set forth some guidelines that people were later looking for.) Most posts are just there...they're not really good, not really bad. They're just a part of the normal flow of communication. One of the ideas of the rating system was to draw out the posts that were really good and recognize the people that were making them. Rating average posts starts to dilute that.

The topic ratings are derived from the ratings that the posts they contain receive. I've been noticing that this is not always a very good indicator of the quality of the overall topic. I've seen several topics that seem to have very inflated or deflated ratings based upon isolated incidents that occured within them that do not necessarily reflect the nature of the rest of the thread. I don't know that anybody really decides to read or not read a thread based on these ratings, so I might just not display them since I question whether they have any real value. Comments?

Original Sin · Post by **Original Sin** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 8:59 am

I don't think the ratings for the threads themselves are really that important. As you said, they aren't really a good indicator of the quality, so it seems rather pointless to display them if they're really that misleading.

LikeableRodent · Post by **LikeableRodent** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 8:20 pm

I also agree that the ratings for the actual threads shouldn't be displayed, as they don't actually give a good representation of how good the thread itself is. As was said before, it's too easy for one or a few bad posts in a thread to bring down its whole rating.