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You will see ratings for StartupNation community members along with their profile or posts. These ratings may help you decide if you would like to start a dialogue with a certain community member, and perhaps how much merit to place in his or her posts.
Joel,
Is there a way to find out why we received the rating, and maybe why they rated us that way? Maybe that will help us if we get a low rating, to sharpen our expertise. And if we got a high rating, it will help us know what we did right.
Just a thought.
Yeah, The rating thing. It`s a bit strange. I mean what if somebody gives me a 1 because they don`t like what I said. Does that affect how others feel about me? Is it designed to make people stay on their toes so that they don`t offend--a way to shame people into behaving appropriately?
On the other hand, short of being vulgar, belligerent, or just plain rude, what reason would their be to give somebody less than a 5 rating.
Taking it yet one more ridiculous step, I could argue that nobody is perfect and therefore will not receive higher than a 4 from me (I`ve had a few teachers in my life like this)
And then there is the example where people just have the number 1 clicked repeatedly without being looking at the 5 (best). "Hey you`re number 1!" That`s a good thing right? Wrong! Yes I saw this happen to a member.
So what am I saying anyway? I think it`s a bit confusing and difficult to determine what the rating says about a person on an indivudual basis except that it can be considered whatever it is, it is definitely negative.
Excellent viewpoint Jonese. Every forum goes through growing pains and while a rating system carries weight for many forums, say we were voting on a photo or a joke or what have you, the point is that you are at that point voting on the content and not the person. Unfortunately it`s the person here that will carry the weight of that rating and it becomes permanently attached to their image within this forum.
Joel, This my favorite forum----> www.remotecentral.com These guys have been around for awhile and they have it down perfectly. They have thousands of posts monthly (if not weekly) and an excellent interface.
I have seen others but this is the most successful one I have personally come across. Perhaps it`s because they are a bunch of technogeek perfectionists, I`m not sure. One thing they do not have is a rating system. At Remote Central, it`s mostly like the wild west where you battle it out for your honor and if things get ugly you call in the sheriff. (You already have the "report abuse" button so you have that angle covered.
RC does have the number of posts listed and some level of rank shown under their name which does carry with it some level of respect from lesser ranking members but we all know that you can always have that one dingbat that just wants to have the most posts and will post just to post. That however is the exception.
So my vote would be to drop the rating system, keep the post numbers and institute a rank that reflects forum participation and not whether a particular member`s post was useful to you on a high level (good) or low level (I would have to assume means bad).
I disagree. I like the rating system. Anybody that know what they are talking about has the qualifications to decide if we know what we are talking about. So far 3 people like what i have to say, but i don`t know what i`ve said to make them pleased. My biggest concern is only that it would be nice to see exactly WHY we were rated positively or negatively. IE: it had been mentioned that one user thought that a number 1 rating was the best. If we knew WHY they rated the person the way they did, maybe the rest of the community would see the error on their part and not think negitively on the poster.
Yahoo Answers has it and it works pretty great for them. The main difference is you earn points for just answering, and a lot of people go in and answer foolishly just to gain points and the others come in and tell them off, also to gain points, but mostly, to tell them the first group that they are idiots. (StartUp Nation has it displayed as activity points.)
Each question is rated. Each answer has the ability to be chosen as `best answer`. After the question has been resolved, the community has the opportunity to vote a thumbs up or thumbs down on the best answer. On occasion the asker does not choose a `best answer`, but sends the qustion to a vote, then the community votes on it, and chooses a `best answer`.
Hope that better explains what I mean. Keep the rating system, just tweak it like ebay and yahoo answers, so we know what we`ve done right or wrong.
To give you a little sneak-peak of what the future holds for the StartupNation Community rating system.
We appreciate the comments and will use these in shaping the community!
CPS, You are making my point for me. There is no way to know the reasoning behind the ranking short of asking people to explain themselves, but then by doing so you are removing the annonymity of the voting system. But still that is not the point either......Let`s give an example shall we?
EXAMPLE #1:
Billy Bob asks a question about where he can go to get help with his web site. He`s looking for a company that fits his budget and will still do a decent job.
Reply#1 suggests that he look into Company A because he used them, they were affordable and he thinks they would do a good job for Billy Bob.
Reply#2 suggests that Billy Bob would be making a big mistake going with Company A and suggests Company B because even though they cost a bit more than Company A, Company A has been known to put out sub-par work on occasion and Company B has had to clean up Company A`s mess at times.
Reply# 3 Tells both repliers 1 and 2 that Billy Bob need not go to any company at all and informs him that with the change in his pocket and a little time, he can use this great new software and have his problem solved in an instant.
Now let`s say Billy Bob liked Company A because they fit his budget and he thinks that his project is easy, couldn`t be messed up, and he doesn`t want to get into the whole web site design thing. He looked at Company A`s web site and they looked perfectly fine to him.
Now let`s say Billy Bob decides to "rate" and he wants to be fair for the people that were kind enough to offer some kind of solution. Billy Bob gives Reply #1 top marks because that`s he chose that one as the solution to his problem. Reply #2 he gives a 3 because that guy told him to spend more money which is what he was trying to avoid and he gives Reply #3 a 2 rating because he had the nerve to tell him to do it himself (what kind of solution is that! Billy Bob thought that was crazy!)
So looking back, what does it mean? Well nothing really. Reply #2 and #3 were both acceptable answers but now they have been given ratings lower than best because Billy Bob felt that he needed to reward the answer he liked best and thereby reinforcing a tendency to come up with solutions that suit his needs.
Repliers # 2 and #3 are left wondering why their rating went down when all they were doing was trying to help a guy.
And here`s the kicker........what would it have meant if Billy Bob gave a "best" rating to everyone across the board? Nothing at all. It`s meaningless...It means thank you for your answer but I am still going to do what is best for me.
This cannot be compared to Ebay, a selling forum, where money passes between members and each person is held strictly accountable for their performance in a non-annoymous environment. There, your actions mean something and carry serious consequences that will affect your ability to do business. Yahoo answers, in contrast, is a novelty and I disregard that comparison completely. This is a serious forum for entreprenuers seeking real advice that may change their lives. The vast majority of people taking part in these forums will be honest and constructive and should in no way be squelched. An abuse system is in place for loudmouths and contradictory charlatans. They should be dealt with on an as needed basis.
While this forum remains in BETA I hope that others will voice in their opinion about how a rating or point system would best be instituted in an effective manner.
To cap my response I have to address CPS final sentence. He/she said: "Keep the rating system, just tweak it like ebay and yahoo answers, so we know what we`ve done right or wrong."
Who is to say what is "right" or "wrong" ? It`s just not that black and white and there is a lot of subjective content that has to be considered essential to the process.
This is a place for people to freely bounce ideas and solutions off of each other. There should be a lot of back and forth. A certain amount of conflict that ultimately leads to a resolution can be a very good thing.
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