hey all,
i will chime in a bit here.
until this thread, i've not ever personally gotten an IM about people having a concern with the "rating" part of the forum. (nor the team that i am aware of) and we usually seem to get IM's when people think something is not "fair" or "wrong" etc. to me that's part of a community, each person does their part and some like to make sure that no one is being harmed. etc. (and why we encourage ppl to go privately first as so so so much can be resolved that way!!!)
as far as the rating system in this forum, i barely use it and considering how many posts and members we have, if you look at most people's reputation ratings, they are 0 or very few. it's not a feature i think is used very often.
that being said, i think it's context. if one reads the "reputation" and sees a good or bad, they will interpret it their own way. AND they will also see who gave it, and how it was given, if it was "personal" or about a "view". etc.
in SL, one thing i learned LONG ago, which i hope i can pass on here is, if i "believed" everything i heard that was negative about other people in SL, i'd not have ONE friend. period. NOT ONE.
also, feedback is just that, one person's experience. if we as humans choose to judge a person by ONE thing one time, then that is sad for us as people do change all the time... and, being able to see "negative" ratings also can give insight into who was rating etc.
if i saw a rating "this person is a real jerky jerk idiot and should be banned, and don't listen to them" that would say MORE about the "rater" to me than the person they were rating.
if the same person wrote "i don't agree with this comment, and find it to be against what the community holds" or something like that, then, that just tells me a bit of info about that topic, etc. one is "blaming" one is "owning their feelings".
if there are instances in this forum, (that some of you seem to know about) where you think the ratings are being abused and not conforming to our community standards, can you please drop us a note about it as it would be impossible to click thru every user
thanks! and we do appreciate you all discussing things, it's not always easy and that is part of life
callie.