+/- and reputations poll, what do you think?

[MRTom]

So we've been doing this +/- experiment for a while. What do think of it? Vote and comment!

[MorganEA]

I feel like some people use it for the wrong reason, if they don't like someone they give them a bad vote even if it was a good post.

[DMD123]

 
Seems like some hold a grudge or something. We really dont need a reputation meter.

[dwarfpike]

It's a good way to mark a post as bad without leaving commits that would lead to a flame war, bad feelings, banning and post derailment ... ie if you can't control yourself enough to call someone keeping a 10 inch oscar in a 10 gallon tank an idiot, then just a - works.

But over all, meh. Maybe because I'm too old for facebook, but I never got the whole like thing.

[fishNAbowl]

I am down with some sort of rating. If someone pops in trying to sell stuff I won't make a purchase from someone that's either a day new, or a 0 rep. I'm just saying....

It isn't FB, true. I would still be here without it but EVERY forum has some sort of participation counter.  I know our forum is local and doesn't have the international support so it's not super huge but when selling and buying it would be nice to have a rating system.  

If we where to refine this is would probably look like a post counter under your user name and the rep counter used primarily for people who buy/sell. Having both under your avatar would be key. If someone answers a question, or something. You look over and see this person has 10,482 posts this pretty much tells you they have been in the hobby a few years and their comment is knowledgable (for the most part,hah). Your trying to buy something and they have a rating of 2/100% you may want to use more caution than buying some thing from someone that has a 186/100%. The whole 'negitive' / 'positive' thing technically should be reserved for buy/sell.

[dwarfpike]

Yeah, using post counters to determine knowledge can be very deceiving ... on a certain other forum I visit, most of the people with the highest post counts don't really know all that much and those I trust the most and are the most knowledgable have fairly low ones.

[hobbyorobsession]

I dont pay any attention to it.

[fishNAbowl]

I dont pay any attention to it.

  - even on EBAY?

[ShortyKiloGyrl]

I think it is misused as well. Instead of reputation of knowledge I think more people look at it like facebook and they like what someone said or don't like it as opposed to knowledge.

[fishNAbowl]

Yeah, using post counters to determine knowledge can be very deceiving ... on a certain other forum I visit, most of the people with the highest post counts don't really know all that much and those I trust the most and are the most knowledgable have fairly low ones.

This isn't 100% full proof way to determine knowledge. But that is weird to me -  

[hobbyorobsession]

On ebay and other purchase decisions yes, but our system doesn't explain the reason for +/- . If someone has a higher rep, from my view point it seems like a popularity score.

[ShortyKiloGyrl]

 Mmmmmhhmmm

[fishNAbowl]

I think it is misused as well. Instead of reputation of knowledge I think more people look at it like facebook and they like what someone said or don't like it as opposed to knowledge.

True, I've seen this happening. But overall, good ideas, good knowledgeable answers, and neat ideas get the majority . I have found myself giving newcomers that introduce themselves and post their tanks a + for participating. People randomly getting + because of a FB type post seems to be a minority to me. Or I would have gripped about it months ago, lol.

On ebay and other purchase decisions yes, but our system doesn't explain the reason for +/- . If someone has a higher rep, from my view point it seems like a popularity score.

Understood. A refinement would be nice. I try not to see it like that and myself do not rate as such.
I rate new comers for participation. I rate season vets on knowledgable participation and sweet ideas. I will press the + on tank shots and updates for participating. It takes time and energy to take pictures, post, and show off. I appreciate that. Something I wish you would do more , I know you got some sweet tanks Daniel!! SHARE THEM!

[hobbyorobsession]

I also think the forum should think through the process before implementing or getting involved in the moderation of sales or someone's sales reputation. That seems like a big can of worms to open that could result in legal action for the forum if some one takes issue . however there is merit in some other sort of rating system like a "like" or something to that idea to encourage participation.

[hobbyorobsession]

Thank you for the complement about my tanks. I will take some photos and post them today because you asked for them, maybe I'll even clean the glass =)

[ShortyKiloGyrl]

I know for me I dealt with one bad customer from here that I believe got fish for a bad purpose, not for hobby and I saved their name and number so I wouldn't work with them again. I use word of mouth on here now for buying/selling items. Such as fish. If I see it's a person who is commonly on here I trust them alot more. Suck one bad experience made me leary but I don't appreciate fish grown from fry being used for bad purposes. I have not seen the person(s) return to this forum since our exchange was made either, which only rose more flags for me as to their purposes of the fish.

[ShortyKiloGyrl]

Thank you for the complement about my tanks.  I will take some photos and post them today because you asked for them, maybe I'll even clean the glass =)

hehe glad I'm not the only one who does that!   

[lloyd378]

I'm undecided, as even if someone marks the minus symbol , the reputation doesn't go down, making it just a count of likes ( which in my opinion doesn't actually make it a valid check for reputation). For example, someone could post a beautiful picture of one of their fish and have 15 members like it. That same member could also "theoretically" then scam people into buying broken equipment etc..... Which, in my opinion, doesn't paint an accurate portrayal of that person..... So I'm feeling like he current way its set up could just go away, or a modified version might actually be useful.

[Denizaari]

I like the +/- idea but I agree that it's baseless. Anyone for any reason can like or not like a comment or a picture. I feel that this type if rating system should not be used to determine knowledge or reputation on the forum. Moreover, how many +/- were given out for comments in this thread...hmmm. Makes ya wonder... Just kidding, I'm not stirring the pot.

[fishNAbowl]

I liked seeing how many posts I did (was a feature of this forum in the past) That was kind of cool. Just for myself.
The +/- thing is mainly for me to try harder to be nice, haha! Since Cory has purchased this forum he's changed things up here and there trying new post counters, this rating system. I kind of like them, it adds kind of like a boost for me to participate and to see how high I can get a score or "rating" I guess. For myself I miss them when they are removed.  

@ Lloyd378, kind of a negative way to look at it but you have a valid point. Some could say I frequent this forum quite regularly. I've noticed what your saying to be true, yet this type of rating doesn't carry the individual member far from what I have seen. The individual may receive  1-2 + for a picture but for me if I click into a post and the OP has already gotten a + I won't give them another unless it is truly deserved. I think the limitation of only being able to rate twice in a day helps with 'overrating' as well.

@hobbyorobsession, I didn't think of that... Could being sued really happen if a member kept getting negative scores?

[MRTom]

To the forum or someone being sued, it isn't like the forum is making a promise either way. The forum isn't even calling the rating a feature. I think the only realistic way to look at the ratings and +/- is:
a. When I'm reading through a thread, a particular comment was liked by a few people so it is green.
b. Reading said thread, a particular comment got some red, look out for a possible flame war (this is handy for them mods and us trolls)
c. Reputation: x = This person has made x comments that people have bothered to highlight.

It seems like any conclusions drawn beyond the three observations above are inferences made on theories we may have about the data and should be made by individuals for individual use only. (i.e. using reputation for sales is an individual decision and not something the forum is officially guiding.)

Also, if you wanna know how many posts you did, go to the statistics page in your profile! As of writing, you have 1706 posts Chad... your numbers are skyrocketing this vacation week! Keep it up!

[hobbyorobsession]

I believe if they had a way to claim that the review process negatively effected their business in some way possibly. or a libel suit.

[ShortyKiloGyrl]

A little bit of a side branch off of topic but would hate to start a whole new thread about it.

Is there a way to put a button at the bottom of threads like the "stop watching this topic" option to take you back to the top of the page so you can quickly without scrolling through all comments to get back to the "forum" "portal" "gallery" button banner? I've seen this option on other sites say "top" or "back to top" and it was very nice option that I frequently used.

[pbmax]

Now that I'm at risk of no longer having the highest non-moderator rep (this means YOU, fishNaBowl, IM WATCHING YOU!), I don't like it anymore.    And I totally wasn't keeping track either...

I use it for nice photos, good topics, good information, stuff like that. I think some folks in this thread are taking it a little too seriously.

[cichlid-gal]

So we've been doing this +/- experiment for a while. What do think of it? Vote and comment!

I think you should have stuck to love it or hate it for this as a "meh" vote gives the forum nothing to work with. It's a more difficult decision to say "love it" or "hate it" than to simply say "whatever". You know me...black and white...white and black...Just saying   

[bassetman]

100% Meh.

[cichlid-gal]

100% Meh.

LOL      

[MRTom]

Actually, the Meh is telling us something interesting: what % of users are actively concerned about this either way One way to look at it is that we can project slightly more than half of folks won't mind if there are changes made or not.

[KaraWolf]

exactly MRTom :)I think it's interesting and nice to see people giving kudos to those with pictures or really good advice but I've also seen the red used and I'll actually reread the post to try and figure out why the heck someone would dislike it. Though usually I conclude it was either a missclick, or someone has a grudge :/ I don't personally use it because I can't decide just what post most deserves it! There is so much good advice and pictures here. That and - both doesn't actually do anything to rep points and I feel terrible even thinking about raining on people's parades. even little thread parades. Along the lines of "if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all" Unless it's misinformation, in which case I try really, really hard to nicely say, hey that's not what I heard might want to fact check against this other thing.
EDIT: That and I got used to +/"liking" to being the lazy mans way of saying that there is awesome, or keep it up your doing great.

[jrmakawoody]

Why not just have a "thanks" button to push whenever a post is helpful or interesting. "Such and such member has 0 thaked posts...or such and such member has 132 thanked posts"

[pbmax]

Why not just have a "thanks" button to push whenever a post is helpful or interesting.  "Such and such member has 0 thaked posts...or such and such member has 132 thanked posts"

Yup - the facebook approach of like without unlike is generally the nicest way to go, especially since some folks like to over-use the - button.

xda-developers (phone and tablet development) uses the "thanks" approach and it works very well.

  

[MRTom]

There's a lot of good +/- feedback going on. One catch is that we're limited by what the host (FF) will do. That is, we can enable and disable the feature. More complicated changes could be tackled if we undergo a big forum move to a new host. Just another tidbit to consider.

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