Reputation: (was: The Scale & Little Green Dots)

[JustAskJulie]

We have instituted a post rating system. Some of you may be familiar with such systems on other forums you visit (often called a reputation stystem). Here it will be "Thumbs Up / Thumbs down". This should be used to rate posts, if you see a post you think is a really great contribution to a thread, or a post that is exactly the opposite click the scale you see on the left side of the post under the posters username, from there you can give the post either a thumbsup or a thumbs down.

For each poster rated posts affect their overall reputation on the board - thus the little green squares that you will see under their username on individual posts. When you mouse over the little green square(s) you can get an idea of how people around the board see that user based on the value of the thumbs up or thumbs down they have recieved.

The value of each thumbs up/thumbs down is determined by a combination of 3 factors from the person who left it (how long they have been a member/ how many posts that user has and how many thumbs up points they themselves have accumulated).

Individual users WILL be able to see the comments you leave (good or bad) however they will not be able to see who left them. I am keeping a close eye on this system to hopefully avoid abuse.

If the reputation you've been left shows a blue color it means that it neither had a positive or negative impact on your overall reputation level (the user is either too new or does not have enough reputation of their own to be able to affect yours).

Comments are only required to be left if the user is leaving you a negative reputation (this would be required even if their negative reputation had no actual impact on your overall score).

I think that's the bulk of what you need to know. if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Beyond that, everyone can feel free to use the system to give feedback on what they see.

Please do not let this preclude your use of the "report this post" feature to report inflamatory or spam postings.

[JustAskJulie]

Please note the above change of information, I was a little mistaken as to what I had understood. This is all still pretty new to me as well and I'm learning as I go.

[JustAskJulie]

I've had a couple of questions about this. You can rate as many posts from a single user as you like, HOWEVER, you have to rate posts from at least 10 other users before you can rate the same user. So if you rate a post from User X, you'll need to rate posts from 10 different users before you can rate another post from User X. This is a type of checks and balances in the system to keep people from just rating their best buds posts over and over again.

[prettylady]

AHHHH!! Now I get it.
When I read the subject line I was not thinking about what we see on the computer, but rather what we might find in a play situation.....What do you do when you play partner has scales and little green dots. Not sure there is a shot for that one.
Your friend,
Prettylady

ps, I am scale and green dot free.

[prettylady]

How do you see the comments? I see I have little green dots, how can I find out where and when I was rated.
Just think, I may have said something constructive.
Your friend,
Prettylady

[JustAskJulie]

If a comment was left (it is only required on thumbs down) you will be able to see it (but not who it was from) in your User CP. If you click User CP, somewhere on that main page it should show you your 5 most recent thumbs up/down and any comments associated (as well as what post it was in regard to).

[SW_PA_Couple]

Well, it's been in use for a few weeks now and I'm not sure I like this post rating system. Although the people who deserve green marks have received them. a couple of the people who give the most diplomatic and insightful advice at this bulletin board have somehow earned big red dots. All I can think of is that some sourpuss decided to inflict a punishment for no good reason because his or her pride was wounded by a remark.

Michael (Up at 6 am on a Sunday -- couldn't sleep)

[rpu3]

Originally Posted by SW_PA_Couple

Well, it's been in use for a few weeks now and I'm not sure I like this post rating system. Although the people who deserve green marks have received them. a couple of the people who give the most diplomatic and insightful advice at this bulletin board have somehow earned big red dots. All I can think of is that some sourpuss decided to inflict a punishment for no good reason because his or her pride was wounded by a remark.

Well, what is diplomatic and insightful to one might be very poor advice or commentary to another.

Sour grapes, however, is an inherent risk to the system and your point is taken (not that you needed me to agree, but you are correct, and it is point to think about).

I personally have only seen a couple of posters who are in the red zone for this rating system and I don't disagree with the "rating" given to those couple of posters.

Then again, I'm one of those research dorks (explains why I research in real life) that can't make a decision about doing something or buying something without scads of research and opinion reviews. The personal reviews regarding a trip to a city in Germany or a laptop cooling pad mean something to me. If TripAdvisor or Amazon has a reviewer who is generally viewed as giving very poor advice, then I'm going to take that review with a grain of salt. Same with SwingersBoard, I guess.

Interesting food for thought in any case.

Rebecca
(slept in until 8 a.m.... that's amazing for me as I'm usually a 6 a.m. kind of gal)

[VegasLee]

With the rating system Julie is using it would be very hard for "one" person to punish anyone here.

They have to rate ten other people before they could rate someone for a second time. One negative rating will not give them a red square. For someone to have a red square many people here had to give them a negative rating.

Honestly, for a rating system this is about one of the best and fairest ones I have seen used over the years.

[JustAskJulie]

Originally Posted by SW_PA_Couple

Well, it's been in use for a few weeks now and I'm not sure I like this post rating system. Although the people who deserve green marks have received them. a couple of the people who give the most diplomatic and insightful advice at this bulletin board have somehow earned big red dots. All I can think of is that some sourpuss decided to inflict a punishment for no good reason because his or her pride was wounded by a remark.

Michael (Up at 6 am on a Sunday -- couldn't sleep)

I'm not sure who you are referring to since there are only a handful of people who have moved themselves into "red dot" land and I know in most of the cases where that has happened it is based on a few posts. It is up to each individual to give Good or Bad rating to a post they see. What I have seen with most of those who are in the red is that one or two of their posts have been so bad that quite a few people have given it negative ratings, and while they may have earned a positive or two on other posts it just wasn't enough to negate that one nasty thing that they posted.


So, if there is a user you feel doesn't deserve to be in the red perhaps you need to make sure that you are doing your part to give their posts good ratings. Granted any one user can only rate another user once every 10 ratings (so you'll have to rate 10 more posts from 10 different users before you can rate that person again).

I actually do review all of the post ratings to make sure that the system is not being abused - and that someone is not out there giving negative ratings to a good post just because they dislike the person or vice versa.

[SW_PA_Couple]

Originally Posted by JustAskJulie

So, if there is a user you feel doesn't deserve to be in the red perhaps you need to make sure that you are doing your part to give their posts good ratings. Granted any one user can only rate another user once every 10 ratings (so you'll have to rate 10 more posts from 10 different users before you can rate that person again).

OK, that explains one point. I have seen a little box that says something like, "You have to spread a little reputation around before you rate [so-and-so] again." You are right. This should not be a popularity contest. We should be moved to hit the rating symbol only when we see something that represents remarkably good advice or something that represents remarkably poor advice. And I feel better knowing that you are monitoring the system. Thanks for the note.

M

[redeye69]

I have noticed that I was given a thumbs down and the comment, "pretty ignorant comment" on my thread chat room protocol I fail to see how this was bad advice as I was mainly asking for information and advice on the chat room and stating how it made ME feel, are we not allowed to have thoughts, opinions and feeling of are own and voice them?

[sweet_tna]

Thanks for 'splaining the post ratings and how to access them, Julie. I confess that when I read the thread title, I thought this would be about health/fitness issues, lol.

=)

[redeye69]

I noticed the disappearance of Shelly and Jay since the appearance of the little red dots is this a coincidence, shame I found them entertaining.

[JustAskJulie]

Originally Posted by redeye69

I have noticed that I was given a thumbs down and the comment, "pretty ignorant comment" on my thread chat room protocol I fail to see how this was bad advice as I was mainly asking for information and advice on the chat room and stating how it made ME feel, are we not allowed to have thoughts, opinions and feeling of are own and voice them?

Sometimes it's not about what you say but how you say it... and sometimes people will rate a post based on feeling that you were offensive in how you said something.

You (we all) will get negative ratings along with the positives, it's just the way it goes. Just as you had thoughts, opinoins, feelings of your own, someone else had the same regarding your post (and in that case those feelings were negative). In other cases you have gotten positive and will again I'm sure.