Lottery Post Journal

Rating of Topics

I'm sure lots of people have noticed the 5-star rating control at the top of each topic.  Lots of people have been rating various threads, which is just great.

So far the ratings are only shown at the top of the topic, but in the future they will also be shown on the forum page (the page that shows all the posts in a forum), as well as the Active Topics page.  You'll be able to sort by rating, among other things.

The other thing I will be adding is that people will be able to click on the rating and see exactly who rated each topic, and what rating they gave.  That will hopefully put peer pressure on people to not abuse the rating system by arbitrarily giving bad ratings just because they're not feeling happy that day.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with people giving ratings of "poor", but at the same time we all want a system in which the ratings are honest and helpful -- like ratings of books at Amazon.com.

I suppose this is also a way of putting people on notice that I will be opening up the ability to see who posted each rating, so please only provide ratings that you can stand behind.

4 Comments:

  • LOL....

    I shoudn't be telling everyone I was an idiot, but I was....LOL

    I saw them stars, but coudn't put my fingers on it. I left it as a design by you. Lo and behold....LOL

    P.S. Todd, you might see a couple of ratings with no explanation, only because I was testing how it worked.

    Funny thing, twice it was telling me how I rated it, but I didn't remember ever doing that....LOL

    That's when it hit me......

    HELLO..........? DUH????

    Agree....excellent feature.....

    By pacattack05, at 12:24 AM

  • Thanks Todd,
    I think rating a topic is an excellent idea.
    Gives the poster the opportunity to see if their post is worth their time to do it.
    In the past I have made judgement wether to post or not on views and replies to the topic.
    That is why I do not post on the forums much anymore. Like a weekly thread for S.C. which I use to post to almost daily.

    By JAP69, at 8:37 AM

  • Hi, Todd. Good idea. Just make sure I'm always a 10! (blush)

    I have used the rating system a few times, but I only click on the star I select and then it flashes for a second or 2. Usually I post a comment, but not related to the rating system.

    Maybe I simply don't understand Pac's comment. Is there something else I need to do? Also, I think it's a smart idea NOT to let the topic originator rate his/her own thread before the other members. (I was only conducting a test - that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!)

    Regarding the list of names, I guess that's harmless. However, I wonder if it will influence the members. Most people don't like hurting feelings and others enjoy being critical. Will this apply to past topics? By saying "only provide ratings that you can stand behind" are you asking people to post comments on that thread? I just rated a topic "poor" since it didn't make any sense to me, but I posted a comment to the person who started it. I don't know if this is required however.

    I've always liked rating systems, but volume is important to make them work. For example, I've found that 5 star ratings on Circuit City's site help me a lot, but of course 1 or 2 opinions won't influence my decision - 25 will however. Had I paid attention to the 2 stars & all the people who wrote "this is a piece of junk"and not listened to the salesperson, I'd have chosen another DVD player and probably still have a working one!

    By justxploring, at 6:57 PM

  • JE,

    It's really designed as a very simple and quick was to get feedback, so no comments are necessary. If you like, feel free the post a rating without posting a message in the thread. In the future there will be other things that can be rated. (My lips are sealed right now.)

    I do understand that some people may be reluctant to post poor ratings, but all I can say is that I hope people get over that. (I have no doubt that some people won't have a problem!) In my mind, the benefit of posting the names outweights the slight upwards skew that will be present, and like you say, if 25 5-star ratings are posted, that in itself is confirmation of a good topic, whereas no ratings at all tells its own story.

    -Todd

    By Todd, at 10:05 AM

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