Member's "confidence" factor

[jandg]

Originally Posted by intuition897

I've seen this member rating system used on other boards, and it has turned into a circus. People threatening to "red flag" another member, people giving negative ratings to others without fully reading the post, or just to spite them. It became a weapon. Now we have some pretty good people on here, and I doubt it would be used as such, but I have to wonder if it's just one more "moving part" in the machinery that isn't actually needed, or worse, just one more moving part to maintain and worry about breaking?

Having been on the flaming hot receiving end of a "rating" system, I agree with intuition897. Best to leave things alone, and use your own best judgement.

[Amanda69]

The problem with opinions is they are just that opinions. No one here I am sure can claim to be an absolute authority on all things related to swinging or relationships.

We can offer advice based on our experiences and nothing more.

A rating system would not be able to take into account that wealth of experience or ability to communicate it.

In addition every poster has pet issues and flaws, if you had someone rated highly and they suddenly started posting an opinion or advice on something that others did not agree with...what do you do? You already set them up as some sort of expert, now will you say to everyone sorry, he/she/they don't know what they are talking about here?

[sereneiders]

Originally Posted by Amanda69

The problem with opinions is they are just that opinions. No one here I am sure can claim to be an absolute authority on all things related to swinging or relationships.

We can offer advice based on our experiences and nothing more.

A rating system would not be able to take into account that wealth of experience or ability to communicate it.

In addition every poster has pet issues and flaws, if you had someone rated highly and they suddenly started posting an opinion or advice on something that others did not agree with...what do you do? You already set them up as some sort of expert, now will you say to everyone sorry, he/she/they don't know what they are talking about here?

Good point (another one).

[JandT_Elkhart]

First I apologize for not reading the entire thread but I figured I'd add something (hopefully new).

I frequent a VERY large car board (17,000 members) and we have a "User Rating". It's a free plugin that you can get for vBulletin. Easy to install.

People can give user ratings HOWEVER they MUST post "x" number of characters in a comments field before it is accepted by the software. I believe they have it set for less characters for Positive, and more characters for Negative, therefore it makes the "giver" give a good reason for a negative.

It also notifies the recipient that they've received a rating.

So if a user sees a "gibberish" comment or something that just doesn't make sense, they can petition the Admin to remove it, which is easy.

Everyone on our board was VERY wary about this when it was initiatied, however it has been VERY helpful (and it's important to have a high rating because if you are giving advice on how to fix a car...)

I am friends with the main Admin and he says it's been a breeze to administer and there has been little or no problems with it.

[EvilMJ]

One thing I would like to point out is that 40 people responding to a troll's comment isn't something that we should try to stop. Even a troll posting can be a vehicle for providing information that you may not have anticipated, you can learn from even the strangest posts. Sometimes it helps people have a good laugh or blow off some steam, or get to know the quirky sense of humour of others on the board.

I think most people learn pretty quickly who is genuine and who doesn't have a clue what they are talking about, it comes out very clear in their posts, it is up to the reader to take what they will from each piece of advice. If someone crosses a line they are warned, if they continue to cross that line they are banned. So far this system has worked well.

However I think it is great that you are trying to come up with new ways to make the board experience a postive and meaningful one.

Oh one last thought. I personally would not be comfortable with a rating system and would most likely stop offering any sort of advice, insite, information or comments if I felt that someone was going to be grading me. Either you like what I have to say or you don't. I wouldn't want to speak my mind, only to have someone give me a negative grade for what I have to say.

Swinging is a very personal experience that is varied and unique to each person. How do we determine who gives the best advice? What I feel is swinging may be different to the next person, does that make them more comptent then me to offer their advice? So who is a gets a higher grade - the guy who tells it like it is, or the person who is more eloquent in their speech but doesn't want to hurt any feelings and tries to be everyone's friend?

In my own opinon swinging is too subjective to try and put some sort of rating system on it. I agree with rating the threads and allowing people to use their own judgement on whoes advice is best. For every one person that doesn't have the authority to give advice, there are always three more behind him that do.

[sereneiders]

JandT,

I was thinking of something like that, I am able to figure out several ways to prevent the missuse of such a feature (I am a programmer, so I know when something is feasible), but I am not aware of the available plug ins.

My expectation with this thread was to get to know the drawbaks these mechanisms already have or may have as to define a set of desirable or mandatory features that would be required to prevent them, and later on look for plug ins fitting these requirements or state the requirements for a proposal.

Unlike a technical forum where there are well know factors to evaluate, here people provide advice based on their experience and mindsetting, which makes the evaluation way more dificult.

It should be clear enough WHAT should be included and WHAT should NOT be included in the evaluation, and here we have a more important problem to address. From the response I got in this thread, either I failed to transmit this, or the entire issue is too arousing as for the readers to understand it, and if this happend just with a proposal, I hardly believe we could manage to transmit a premise in such a way that it the purpose were understandable, even before thinking about the deliberated missuse.

In the othehand, if we weren't having this premise transmition problem here, I believe there are ways to prevent the deliberated missuse and handle the objections given.

Anyway, it seems the consensuated oppinion is that a ranking system isn't required, and this is enough for me.

EvilMJ, thank you for your kind comment. I appreciate it.

[Sweet_Candy]

Originally Posted by EvilMJ

One thing I would like to point out is that 40 people responding to a troll's comment isn't something that we should try to stop. Even a troll posting can be a vehicle for providing information that you may not have anticipated, you can learn from even the strangest posts. Sometimes it helps people have a good laugh or blow off some steam, or get to know the quirky sense of humour of others on the board.

I think most people learn pretty quickly who is genuine and who doesn't have a clue what they are talking about, it comes out very clear in their posts, it is up to the reader to take what they will from each piece of advice. If someone crosses a line they are warned, if they continue to cross that line they are banned. So far this system has worked well.

However I think it is great that you are trying to come up with new ways to make the board experience a postive and meaningful one.

Oh one last thought. I personally would not be comfortable with a rating system and would most likely stop offering any sort of advice, insite, information or comments if I felt that someone was going to be grading me. Either you like what I have to say or you don't. I wouldn't want to speak my mind, only to have someone give me a negative grade for what I have to say.

Swinging is a very personal experience that is varied and unique to each person. How do we determine who gives the best advice? What I feel is swinging may be different to the next person, does that make them more comptent then me to offer their advice? So who is a gets a higher grade - the guy who tells it like it is, or the person who is more eloquent in their speech but doesn't want to hurt any feelings and tries to be everyone's friend?

In my own opinon swinging is too subjective to try and put some sort of rating system on it. I agree with rating the threads and allowing people to use their own judgement on whoes advice is best. For every one person that doesn't have the authority to give advice, there are always three more behind him that do.

Dito EvilMJ, well put and very eloquent. Yes I'm one of those who tells it like it is and uses few words to convey my thoughts.