Rating posts

[Murdoc]

Primarily to Neowin administrators

First off, I'm not much of a poster; I like to come to Neowin to read news, reviews, and for troubleshooting issues that come up. With a user base of 55,000+ members, any problems that I may have on my systems have most likely occurred before to others, and thus others' experiences with such issues make my solving them easier.

Over the years of reading the forums, seeing them expand and such, I have noticed that out of a serious thread, there are not so many serious posts. Say I?ve got an issue installing SP1 for Office 2003- there will probably be a few threads on the issue, but only a handful of actual useful answers, most other members posting their feedback, criticism, or something random which does not belong.

What I propose is a system of rating posts. It wouldn?t apply to all posts in Neowin; certainly this idea wouldn?t pertain to the general discussions, but more of the technical/help areas. I think I?ve seen this before on other sites, though they were not forums but more like guides. A simple scale of five stars, five for helpful, one for least helpful, would make searching for solutions a lot easier and maybe even more efficient. A member would click on a thumbs up for helpfulness, or a thumbs down for not, and based on the overall response from other members, the scale of stars would represent the worth of the post. A member would only be allowed to vote once per post of course. I already know that this would take a lot of coding for implementation, and might not be compatible with Invision?s forum software.

I?m not sure if this has ever come up before for discussion; I did search for it with nothing relevant coming up. Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestion. I hope I?ve posted this into the right category; I couldn?t find a sugA simple example:ple example:

_____________Was this post helpful?ost h(Y)ful? --- (Y) / (N:star:>:star:g:star:r:star:r:star:r: :star: :star:

[Lee]

vBulletin has a thread rating system and not many users use it. I think it's quite pointless. Although ratings for Reviews would be good. :)

[Fred Derf Veteran]

We (well, they actually) are waiting for IPB 2.00

[Datalore]

I think thread ratings would be great if users would just vote a thread as a 1 instead of posting something like "this thread sucks" or "use firefox".

Like that's gonna happen. :rolleyes:

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I think thread ratings would be great if users would just vote a thread as a 1 instead of posting something like "this thread sucks" or "use firefox".

Like that's gonna happen. :rolleyes:

We could trade in all of our post ###### for karma ######....

[Chode]

Problem is that if someone posts, for example, a query on Opera then it is likely that Firefox fans will rate the post down.

Same with Windows/Linux, ATI/NVIDIA, Gay/Straight, etc

[Murdoc]

Problem is that if someone posts, for example, a query on Opera then it is likely that Firefox fans will rate the post down.

Same with Windows/Linux, ATI/NVIDIA, Gay/Straight, etc

I don't argue that everyone has to think a certain way, but that "report" button on the upper right of each post could come in handy in such situations.

[WishX]

We have a rating system. The bottom of my signature. :D

[Chode]

Has your thread been dubbed Brilliant!™ yet? Try harder.

lol

a joke on the rest of your sig.....

[b3ta]

We (well, they actually) are waiting for IPB 2.00

(Y) Great idea - cant wait for iPB 2.0!

[Murdoc]

We have a rating system. The bottom of my signature. :D

I'm sorry, but the voice of one critic among thousands is nothing more than a drop in a wave. To successfully rate any post, the community of it's readers need to decide.

Anyway, that?s a good idea to make people try harder to make intelligent threads though I doubt that it would work in a community of Neowin?s size.

[Bearded Kirklander]

I don't like the idea. It may just become a popularity contest. I am for leaving it as it currently is. :)

[Banzai]

if we did do it, it should only be in like the windows xp forums and support forums not in the gerneral forums

[configure Veteran]

I don't like the idea. It may just become a popularity contest. I am for leaving it as it currently is. :)

It's already a popularity contest with the post counts.

[Chris Allen Veteran]

^ heh, so true.

[Lee]

I didn't think IPB 2.0 has a rating system? And I'm running the thing! :s

[Bearded Kirklander]

It's already a popularity contest with the post counts.

You know, I think it would be cool if we did not have post counts posted. Maybe just as a test for a month or so. Just to see what happens. I'm curious how that would all shake-out.

Don't suppose that is a possibility, is it?

Thanks,

BK

[dunkin donuts]

why "test" it?

just kill postcount and be done w/ it.

ppl think that postcount shows how much you give to a community but that's complete BS. there are plenty of users w/ 2000+ posts and majority of them in Jokes forum :/

leaving only "Joined" date will make long time lurkers with 2 posts look more important than they should be.

so either eventually implement karma system or

replace "posts:" with "posts per day:" and "joined:"

[Tropical Dream]

I don't think it's a good idea,

people will not rank every single post they see. :no:

I agree that many post within an important thread are useless,

but everyone puts his own bits and piece.

Add the pieces together and you'll solve your problem :yes:

[Bearded Kirklander]

why "test" it?

just kill postcount and be done w/ it.

ppl think that postcount shows how much you give to a community but that's complete BS. there are plenty of users w/ 2000+ posts and majority of them in Jokes forum :/

leaving only "Joined" date will make long time lurkers with 2 posts look more important than they should be.

so either eventually implement karma system or

replace "posts:" with "posts per day:" and "joined:"

So we could get rid of all 3 - Post Cout, Date Joined and Member Number? I guess that kind of makes sense. Wonder if NeoBond is down with that idea?

[Tropical Dream]

So we could get rid of all 3 - Post Cout, Date Joined and Member Number? I guess that kind of makes sense. Wonder if NeoBond is down with that idea?

this is not a good idea at all!!

people want some motivators to post

and these, although not the best, are good motivators.

It would be a bad decision to remove them

[Bearded Kirklander]

this is not a good idea at all!!

people want some motivators to post

and these, although not the best, are good motivators.

It would be a bad decision to remove them

It was just a little suggestion. No harm, no foul. :)

This is one of the few sites that seems to actually encourage people to post alot. I really like it in part because of that. (Y)

[Boffa Jones Veteran]

I love the way it is as the community as it is is a good community, i think it shoudl stay the same other than maybe adding on a karma system which would be cool.

[Tropical Dream]

what's a karma system?

[Bearded Kirklander]

what's a karma system?

Basically, if you make good, useful posts, people vote that you are on the good karma side and your posts tend to get more "credibility" and "appreciation". Often allowing your default number to be above Zero. The higher your rating, the higher your number. Some others can set the filter to 1, 2, 3, etc. if they want a higher quality of post. They can choose to filter out those who have a Zero or -1, -2, etc., which tend to be those with bad karma (bad rating). So basically, it's like a default ignore filter for low quality posters.