Star Ratings need to go


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As a rule the people that take enough time to rate a topic are going to have a strong opinion one way or the other so I think simplifying the ratings from a "1-5 stars" to a digg-style "thumbs up/down" might work.

I like this idea. With the thread star system, one lone asshat rating a relatively neutral topic 1 for various reasons (most likely hating on the OP) carries the same visual weight on the topic listing as a very poor topic with 10 people giving it an unanimous 1-star rating. Simple thumbs up/down solves this. Unfortunately the only place where this system falls flat is Movie Ratings.

I also agree with user ratings: its most prominent use is getting back at others (I've done this to less than a handful of people, that's only when their attitude comes off to me as very poor). However I cannot agree with publicly revealing who voted you up and down for reasons Audioboxer mentioned. Right now you can have a rough idea who voted you down by monitoring your recent visitors list frequently.

In the past a couple members also suggested a publicly visible karma system, as seen on other boards. It could be useful to, for instance, determine future MVC candidates based on their karma level, but will be abused to hell and back in warzone sections like RWI and (sometimes) Gamers Hangout.

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I also agree with user ratings: its most prominent use is getting back at others (I've done this to less than a handful of people, that's only when their attitude comes off to me as very poor).

This is one use that gives the star rating system a bad name.

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User rating is the worst, because you're only gonna rate someone badly if they've annoyed you, you're not gonna give everyone you come across a rating. Thus, I have a 1 star rating on my account for some minor debate a LONG time ago, I am forever tarnished :p

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Hmm. Maybe there should be a karma system instead of stars in a user's profile page, and strictly there so readers would have to show up in their page (and thus count as a "visitor") to vote up or down a person.

If a person has -50 on their page, they should consider leaving Neowin. :p

Thus, I have a 1 star rating on my account for some minor debate a LONG time ago, I am forever tarnished :p

Not anymore :p

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Hmm. Maybe there should be a karma system instead of stars in a user's profile page, and strictly there so readers would have to show up in their page (and thus count as a "visitor") to vote up or down a person.

If a person has -50 on their page, they should consider leaving Neowin. :p

Rm I think it's time for you to leave :shiftyninja: :p. J/k.

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Taking away anonymity is the biggest way to put off bad voters - Especially any bigger board members who're voting threads down discretely. I'm sure at the end of the day they'd value their reputation more than being found out a jackass. I don't believe we're just seeing cases of newbies voting down, there's probably some larger members doing it also.

But that then takes away the purpose of the system. Its suppose to be to allow you to vote as you feel it reflects the person or thread. If people are to scared to vote negatively, then it would be pointless, because people would really only ever give a good full 5 vote, so everyone would end up being a 5.

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But that then takes away the purpose of the system. Its suppose to be to allow you to vote as you feel it reflects the person or thread. If people are to scared to vote negatively, then it would be pointless, because people would really only ever give a good full 5 vote, so everyone would end up being a 5.

The purpose is not to vote based on who's posting, it's to vote based on topic content.

Voting based on who is posting is victimization to some degree, just because you don't like someone doesn't mean you should run around dousing meaningful threads.

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I'm more concerned about the user ratings on profiles.

I think it can have quite a negative effect on self-esteem and is not constructive for the user at all, it's just plain hurtful :D

I'm the sort of person that likes to correct people when I know they are in the wrong (as well as learning about things myself). Since I have become more active in the forums and had debates with people (sometimes intense, but civil, debates :D) explaining to them they are in the wrong just so I am able to inform them and give them some useful knowledge, my user rating went down from 5 stars to 2 stars :/

While it doesn't really matter, I feel quite embarrassed that people see 2 out of 5 stars on my profile when they look there :/ and it's all because users who I reply to cannot admit when they are wrong and get offended if you say they are wrong :blink:

I always admit when I am wrong, even if I was sure I was right, I also do my research on things.

I know it's not too major, but this is one thing that annoys me greatly and makes me want to post less, to be honest.

I do, however, fine thread ratings useful, if users used them properly.

Awww crap, man. I thought the closer to one star you got, the more unique and special one becomes. It's OK, I still love ya! :rofl:

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The purpose is not to vote based on who's posting, it's to vote based on topic content.

Voting based on who is posting is victimization to some degree, just because you don't like someone doesn't mean you should run around dousing meaningful threads.

Hold on, im confused. Are we talking about threads or user ratings?

Either way, it would take away the point. People would not want to vote badly for a thread they actually dont like, because of the crap they would get from the OP.

The same again for the user ratings. People would not want to vote bad, because of the repercussions.

It would take away the whole point of having the rating system, because everyone would either not vote or only vote high.

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I think the system is fine, just because some people are too lazy or ignorant or maybe jerks and go on giving unfare ratings to posts doesn't mean the system is at fault, People are the ones at fault ... IMO you should limit the voting maybe to a certain number of posters depending on the number of posts you have or maybe the Administrators of the site get to choose their own pick I don't know but I think the star system should stay

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Hold on, im confused. Are we talking about threads or user ratings?

Either way, it would take away the point. People would not want to vote badly for a thread they actually dont like, because of the crap they would get from the OP.

The same again for the user ratings. People would not want to vote bad, because of the repercussions.

It would take away the whole point of having the rating system, because everyone would either not vote or only vote high.

The 2-3-4 stars don't exist as it is anyway.

Seriously, hardly anyone will be voting anything apart from 1 or 5 right now. People deal in extremes, if you like something it has to be a 5, if you don't it has to be a 1. The only reason topics end up averaging at 3/4 stars is usually a cluster of 1 and 5 star voting produces an average.

Things should just be simplified to a thumbs up or thumbs down system - Whatever has the most votes is shown.

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Was browsing the General Discussion topic last weekend, someone went to the trouble of rating every topic on the first page 1 star (N)

Are people still gonna say they aren't abused? :rolleyes:

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I think the rating system facepunch used to have is a good one. Different categories for votes for posts. Stats are sown on the user's profile, and you can see exactly who voted who for what.

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The 2-3-4 stars don't exist as it is anyway.

Seriously, hardly anyone will be voting anything apart from 1 or 5 right now. People deal in extremes, if you like something it has to be a 5, if you don't it has to be a 1. The only reason topics end up averaging at 3/4 stars is usually a cluster of 1 and 5 star voting produces an average.

Things should just be simplified to a thumbs up or thumbs down system - Whatever has the most votes is shown.

I dont really see how a thumbs up or down system will change things. People will still bitch about that being abused too.

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I dont really see how a thumbs up or down system will change things. People will still bitch about that being abused too.

It simplifies things and with any luck the majority of the time you'll get more thumbs up than down for worthwhile topics - Seeing as the way things tend to go are a few people rate 1 star which nukes the topic, then maybe 3/4/5 vote 5 to try bring it back up, which takes the average back up to 3, sometimes 4 if lucky.

On a simple system of thumbs up or down, that would leave the topic with a thumbs up and there wouldn't really be any need to go in and micromanage things looking at why it's only at 3 stars.

The people in the jokes and movie forums might not be in favour of the more in-depth system being removed though.

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