Thread Rating

[AndromedasWake]

Rather than abusing my awesome power and unlocking the thread about Rep Points to post there, I figured I'd just make a new thread and pollute the internet for fun.

How would the community feel about a rating system for threads, a la Steam Community Forums?

Good idea? Bad idea? Needs more hats?

 

[Prolescum]

Rather that than the previous suggestions; allowing guests to rate them might also be an interesting idea.

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

Well it is a qualitative different concept were you are simply atracting people to popular topics. But I don't know, a bit shady still...

 

[nasher168]

hrmrmrmhmm

My only issue is that it might end up as rating the OP or viewpoint of the OP of various threads, rather than the quality of the discussion in said thread. Unless it said "Discussion Rating" or something similar at the top perhaps, showing that it is indicative of the atmosphere and overall niceness of the thread. For example, I as a forum user might rate the Funny Pictures thread 5 stars because it's pleasant and generally awesome in there. I might rate the current thread on homosexuality more in the region of 3 stars because it was rather heated in there for a bit, but at least seems to be bouncing back into the realm of interesting discussion.

It might be worth a trial period of it to see how it turns out, perhaps. If it fails and falls into the trap I suggested above, then the feature can simply be removed (well, I say "simply". In reality I have no idea how simple or complex it would be).

 

[Netheralian]

I think its a good idea. For the most part, I would imagine, it is something that is somewhat irrelevant to regular users - either you would browse by section topic or if you are like me, only browse the active topics (I really can't be bothered commenting on a topic that was last written in months ago unless there is something of particular interest to add). However, it might be nice to have a quick link to the best threads (even if that only means popular) for new members and part time lurkers (that are interested in being new members) to get a feel for what is going on without doing the hard yards and scrolling through everything.

 

[Pennies for Thoughts]

My only issue is that it might end up as rating the OP or viewpoint of the OP of various threads, rather than the quality of the discussion in said thread.

Nasher168 said it as well as I could hope to. Rating a thread seems likely to reflect on the person who started it at the least, and give thoughtless and irresponsible posters a free pass at most. Forum quality improvement needs to be tied to posters rather than posts, which is why I suggest using information already in hand about who is being frequently muted to assess quality.

I don't think people come to a board like this to mute others; they come to hear what they have to say. But when posters -- usually those who seem to have something to say about everything -- engage in personal attacks, running off on tangents and arguing for the sake of arguing, they are going to get called on it or switched off.

Users can switch the "thread killers" off individually, but not completely because other posters, who we do want to hear from, take up these faux challenges and rebut them. Endless rebuttal, however, can also kill an otherwise interesting thread by turning it into a determined debate between an irresponsible poster refusing to accept that s/he is off base and a responsible poster correcting and re-correcting errors to no avail.

 

[JustBusiness17]

As long as people don't use the typical youtube approach and end every thread with "Please rate and comment", I think its harmless enough that its worth a shot.

The concerns about supporting the opinions of the OP is a little bit of a long shot. People may support the opinion expressed in the OP, but if the rest of the thread effectively refutes those points, it would actually work against the concerns expressed above. I could see threads being under rated based on a dislike for the thread poster's presentation style and/or the thread poster themselves :arrow: But whatever. I'm not going to let a low rating affect my opinion, but I will consider a high ranking as something worth following

 

[DepricatedZero]

well, if it's per-post rather than per-thread that might work. Bit more to track, but more fair I think.

 

[Aught3]

I like the idea. I think rating the OP rather than the entire thread is a valid concern but won't that only happen if the OP is really good? In which case it's probably worth reading anyway.

 

[AndromedasWake]

I like the idea. I think rating the OP rather than the entire thread is a valid concern but won't that only happen if the OP is really good? In which case it's probably worth reading anyway.

That will happen in the beginning I imagine, but then again, that indicates whether the OP is worth reading and responding to or not. As a thread evolves, newcomers would hopefully skim through the thread before rating. Hard to say whether it'll bring a huge improvement, but a top-rated threads option might have discouraged the kind of thing WorldQuest was doing, simply asking questions like "What is it about atheists?"

Can't imagine a post like that would find its way to the top of the leaderboard.

 

[Pulsar]

I'm not sure what the point is. As you say, threads evolve. Sometimes one post can change the discussion and take it into a more interesting direction. A rating system might give some topics a premature death, before they get a chance. On the other hand, wouldn't the highest rated threads automatically be the ones with the most views and replies, making the rating redundant? Also, rating topics would be comparing apples and oranges. And some sections, like the Introduce Yourself forum, shouldn't be rated at all, imho.

 

[borrofburi]

If we have any sort of rating system, it should be one in which users can revise their rating; e.g. I rate a thread 4 stars for the OP, then after about 10 posts it derails a bit into a long disagreement between two people, so now I change my rating to "stay away, you'll probably find it boring" (i.e. 1 star).

A rating system might give some topics a premature death, before they get a chance.

This could happen, though only if a user *only* browsers the forum by thread rating. And really, only if... Wow I just completely lost what I was thinking...

On the other hand, wouldn't the highest rated threads automatically be the ones with the most views and replies, making the rating redundant?

Depends on how the rating system works. The ones on the steam forums, iirc, give preference to the ones with the fewest ratings (it's easy to have 5 stars if only one person has voted). Or are you saying that the "best" threads are the ones with the most views and replies? *Maybe* unique views, but some threads devolve into shouting matches with lots of views and replies, but still aren't anything of interest.

Also, rating topics would be comparing apples and oranges.

This is kind of my greatest concern.

And some sections, like the Introduce Yourself forum, shouldn't be rated at all, imho.

I fully agree.

 

[TheFlyingBastard]

You can assign all the meanings you want to the stars but you know that in the end people who disagree will rate 1 star and agreers will rate 5. It's not going to be about quality; it's going to be about being wrong or right.

 

[borrofburi]

You can assign all the meanings you want to the stars but you know that in the end people who disagree will rate 1 star and agreers will rate 5. It's not going to be about quality; it's going to be about being wrong or right.

Then perhaps we should try it and if this happens conclude it a failed experiment...

 

[Predanator]

How about not rating the "thread" but rate the "topic" or the "potential for the topic to advance"?

 

[TheFlyingBastard]

You can assign all the meanings you want to the stars but you know that in the end people who disagree will rate 1 star and agreers will rate 5. It's not going to be about quality; it's going to be about being wrong or right.

Then perhaps we should try it and if this happens conclude it a failed experiment...

...yes.. Perhaps LoR is the one forum out of the hundreds rating-enabled forums out there where the users don't do that. Who knows.

 

[CosmicSpork]

Ok, now a response from the person who would actually implement this

I've been away this weekend so haven't wanted to reply until now.

I think it might be worth a try. It's likely that anything I implement will have a certain number of settings to try and make the ratings fair (like requiring a certain number of votes before a rating is displayed or something). I'll have a look at what mods are already available and get back to you lot on this.

If it doesn't go well, I can simply turn it off.

 

[nasher168]

Perhaps some kind of post count might be needed in order to vote as well to make sure it's not just some random troll coming on and down-rating all threads? Maybe 30 posts or something...

 

[CosmicSpork]

Perhaps some kind of post count might be needed in order to vote as well to make sure it's not just some random troll coming on and down-rating all threads? Maybe 30 posts or something...

Good idea, I suspect that this will probably be a feature built in already to whatever mod I install.

 

[AndromedasWake]

Any specific suggestions on what kind of post count would be appropriate?

30-50 sounds fair to me, as a member will generally be familiar with the content and layout of the forum by then. Thoughts?