The rating system


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If rating a thread is abuse, so is posting a thread. And you could post more than 1 thread, while you can only rate a thread once. Which member privilege is more abused now?

However the act of posting needs a more complex line of thought, also a more public approach. Every new thread or post that is just garbage is dealt with. That doesnt happen with bad ratings.

Posting is not abused because the system to prevent problems is already implemented and works. Not so quite with ratings because is anonymous.

Edited by bauhaus
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But the effect of a bad thread is greater than the effect of a low rating. I mean, if you read the thread title, and it interests you then read it and maybe comment on it.

If you're reading threads just because they have a good / bad rating then that defeats the purpose of a forum and you might as well go on Digg or read an RSS Feed?

Don't get me wrong, this rating system is in no way perfect, but it's not as big of a problem as you make it out to be.

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But the effect of a bad thread is greater than the effect of a low rating. I mean, if you read the thread title, and it interests you then read it and maybe comment on it.

If you're reading threads just because they have a good / bad rating then that defeats the purpose of a forum and you might as well go on Digg or read an RSS Feed?

Don't get me wrong, this rating system is in no way perfect, but it's not as big of a problem as you make it out to be.

It is my opinion that everything should be designed with a "only the necessary" mentality. For me these rating systems and postcounts are not neccesary, uses valuable resources that can be used elsewhere and in the end dont really add to the board experience.

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Posting is not abused because the system to prevent problems is already implemented and works. Not so quite with ratings because is anonymous.

And they should be. If nothing is affected, where's the possibility for abuse? The thread doesn't become unreadable if some jackass rates it low or high. The thread doesn't disappear. The only thing that happens is someone's ego takes a hit.

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And they should be. If nothing is affected, where's the possibility for abuse? The thread doesn't become unreadable if some jackass rates it low or high. The thread doesn't disappear. The only thing that happens is someone's ego takes a hit.

And again, what is the point of having the system if you are asking us to ignore it?

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What's the point of having smileys for that matter? Or being able to use different colors, especially if some may suffer from color blindness, in which a post with different color fonts may make reading the post more of a problem? What's the point of being able to have a signature? Or aligning your signature to the left, right, or center even?

I don't know, to tell you the truth. But people do get more of an enjoyment out of them, I can assure you. Some people rate threads based on how they feel the quality of the thread is. Some people rate a thread poorly because they hate Apple and it simply makes it feel better. Overall, it is for our ENJOYMENT.

If you find no use in a feature on Windows, you... don't use it! I think that logic can very well be applied here as well.

(Heh, if we continue this analogy further, you're on a limited account and removing the rating feature is restricted. Please contact your local system administrator in having this feature removed. Thank you!)

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And again, what is the point of having the system if you are asking us to ignore it?

I'm asking you to ignore it if it bothers you that people use it. People asked for it, and we implemented it.

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What's the point of having smileys for that matter? Or being able to use different colors, especially if some may suffer from color blindness, in which a post with different color fonts may make reading the post more of a problem? What's the point of being able to have a signature? Or aligning your signature to the left, right, or center even?

I don't know, to tell you the truth. But people do get more of an enjoyment out of them, I can assure you. Some people rate threads based on how they feel the quality of the thread is. Some people rate a thread poorly because they hate Apple and it simply makes it feel better. Overall, it is for our ENJOYMENT.

If you find no use in a feature on Windows, you... don't use it! I think that logic can very well be applied here as well.

(Heh, if we continue this analogy further, you're on a limited account and removing the rating feature is restricted. Please contact your local system administrator in having this feature removed. Thank you!)

Avatars and signatures, well, they do reflect the a little of the poster's personality and keep the forum to beign monotone. They have a function. Colors and emoticons help some people to get their point across and to add an emotive context, without emoticons the interpretation of the messages in a forum would be highly off because it's neutrality.

But honestly, do the rating system brings such enjoyment? Well, maybe for some people, I dont know, I cant see the satisfaction in those stars or in those numbers we know as postcounts. Seems irrelevant, even shallow.

I'm asking you to ignore it if it bothers you that people use it. People asked for it, and we implemented it.

Those were the majority? Because in this thread I see more people that dont like it that people than like it.

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I cant see the satisfaction in those stars or in those numbers we know as postcounts. Seems irrelevant, even shallow.

+1

Those were the majority? Because in this thread I see more people that dont like it that people than like it.

They were the VOCAL majority. Anyway, people aren't saying they don't like them, they're saying they don't like them when people vote against them.

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+1

They were the VOCAL majority. Anyway, people aren't saying they don't like them, they're saying they don't like them when people vote against them.

Ok, I got it, I cant win this one. I will just move along then.

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Ok, I got it, I cant win this one. I will just move along then.

Unfortunately, that's true. The only way anyone can win is to make everyone completely happy. You can guess how easy that is.

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What are you trying to win?

A more clean and neutral forum free of a rating system that is devoid of any complex criticism, ergo, any valuable feedback. The only thing, in my opinion, this system accomplish is fuel for fanboys wars and popularity contests.

Unfortunately, that's true. The only way anyone can win is to make everyone completely happy. You can guess how easy that is.

I know you guys have a hard time. But seeing that even some of you at the staff dont really see the point of having such systems I cant but wonder if that is just something to please the childish crowd in this forum. Is that really the kind of people you want in here? The people who argue that their console/browser/or OS is the best and everything else just "sux"?

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The best way to combat the issue for now, is just rate every thread you see in the top that is a 1 to a 5 or something. It will balance things out and make the annoying little user go away. He/she will eventually get tired or caught soon enough.

Some people have nothing better to do than go around rating all threads on Neowin a 1. I hope they sleep better at night knowing that hours of work rating threads a 1 can easily be undone with a few clicks of the mouse.

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I think the OP is making an issue out of a relatively non-issue, maybe there's something better to do than complain about how childish the people on these forums are and a bunch of stars on a webpage.

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Okay, here's the deal on this.

We aren't going to remove the thread rating system as long as we are using IPB 2.x even if they work better on some areas of the site than others.

The main reason for this is that we expect the thread rating system to change drastically on IPB 3.x and there seems to be little point in making a significant change and potentially upset a different group of people just for a temporary reprieve.

We would like to ask you for a few months worth of patience while we await IPB 3.x to finalize and then we can revisit this subject at that time. We've run this way for quite some time now and a few more months should not make much of a difference (I realize that it is annoying to some of you). Hopefully that update will settle this issue and make everybody, most people, somebody happy.

[Thread Closed] (for now anyway)

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