[Open] - The New Rating System

[Camarade_Tux]

Let's not turn MSFN into a popularity contest.

it will turn into that stupid digg site..

Diggs can go to infinity notes whereas there is a limit here, pretty low btw.

Is msfn as big as digg? Do you think best noted posts will make frontpage *automatically* without any human superising it?

As for noting,

http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/...-DVD-Copy.shtml

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.130...es-complets.htm

everything has notes.

Would you find good programs on softpedia&Co without any singles appreciations? Maybe that high marks don't make everything but it avoids you losing time goind through bad apps (here bad means doesn't simply mean bad but also old, high-priced...). And if you easily find what you are searching for, would you also had 3 years ago when you knew less about computers and software?

edit: as far as I'm concerned, msfn is not a forum for me and other tecchies; it a place to help other people with basic knowledgs about computers while sharing with others who are more technology-aware.

I haven't first contributed to forums (tech or not); I first have read them and it's important to have something clear which is not that easy with msfn's long topics (more than 50 pages with 25 posts per pages...). Take wikipedia for example: how would it be wihout all these links to other articles*? People would read far less articles and learn less. MSFN has one of the most incredible source of information I've ever seen and this is reflected in msfn's pagerank** but many things don't get the highlight they deserve.

* I really appreciate the "similar topics" thing at the bottom of the page. =)

** create a topic wait one day and you're on google's first page of results for not so uncommon keywords.

Edited July 4, 2007 by Camarade_Tux

[jcarle]

I think there are better ways to solve the problems then with ratings. Ratings don't apply here. This isn't a software download site, this isn't a movie review site, this isn't a popularity contest, it's a discussion forum. Just like Wikipedia serves knowledge and doesn't use ratings, nor should MSFN.

Rating individual posts means rating what people have said, and that should have no place here. Rating entire threads (which I suggested earlier) is better, but still isn't a great solution. Threads that have no valuable content (a discussion of say AMD vs Intel ... again) could be rated 5 stars and be the most irrelevant item, when other threads such as a complete analyses of Price vs Performance thread may get rated 1 star and get completely left out.

Again, MSFN is a forum and as such should not have ratings. If finding valuable information is too hard because there are too many threads, a different solution should be taken. Enhancing search options to limit, for example, searches to include only results from Stickies. Creating an FAQ section listing popular topics and forums. Creating compilations of threads and turning them into MSFN guides. Those are solution, not ratings.

[Martin L]

I agree that the rating system like it is now is not working good. If someone hates one or another he/she can just rate that once replies 1 out of 5, which is NOT good.

Again, MSFN is a forum and as such should not have ratings. If finding valuable information is too hard because there are too many threads, a different solution should be taken. Enhancing search options to limit, for example, searches to include only results from Stickies. Creating an FAQ section listing popular topics and forums. Creating compilations of threads and turning them into MSFN guides. Those are solution, not ratings.

That sounds good indeed, but i am sure that you realize that this will cost a lot of time plus it has to be done by people who know their stuff, not by bystanders (or how do you call that in english? people who have no knowledge about something). Plus i think that unattended.msfn.org is already pretty much what you mean right?

PS reason why nothing happens atm is that xper is on vacation and i cant do it

[jcarle]

Well, in a sort of way, yes. Adding the option to search threads that are marked as stickies only is not very complex for someone who knows SQL, PHP and this board software.

[xper]

Post rating feature removed for now. We will see what can we do when i'm back.

[ripken204]

Well, in a sort of way, yes. Adding the option to search threads that are marked as stickies only is not very complex for someone who knows SQL, PHP and this board software.

ya, it is simple to do, but i would never do it b/c i don't like the rating system