Threads Rating and Fairness

[dakillakm Resident]

I think the ratings are mostly pointless. Rarely do I ever even notice the rating. Plus, one person could rate their own post the highest rating possible even though no one has responded or found it helpful at all while there could be another insightful and helpful post that (let's keep the math low for my non-mathematical brain) 4 people rated 5 stars and one rate 1 star, giving it only a 4 star average, and it now appears the first post is better than the second... If some people use it and find it helpful/pertinent then I wouldn't want to do away with it, but as it is I say just ignore it, there's no way to tell WHAT that rating really means in the scheme of things.

[Tad Carlucci]

I see that on IMDB .. the movie is terrible, but they get the cast and crew to all log in and rate it highly. Which is why I take the "stars" rated with a big grain of salt when I'm deciding if I might be interested in watching a movie.

[Sara Franco]

Yes I don't really take the rating as an indication for anything but some may do.

And yes I complained too about the option to rate your own post, I think it is meaningless and shouldn't be allowed.

[anna Acanthus]

I've just noticed that a thread of mine that someone kindly rated at 5, and someone else knocked down to 3 by some rating troll. And scrolling down the posts i see that it's happened to you Sara and to some others.
When i see a thread at 2 or 3 it's obvious whats happened ; apart from certain cases where a low rating has been deserved, some silly petty person has downgraded the thread thats all, so i guess a low rating means more that the OP is envied and should be taken as such.
Also a 5 star rating means either the person has rated himself or a nice friend has done it, so i do agree that self rating should be knocked out.

So thank you the rating troll(s) you boost our egos

[Sara Franco]

(10-20-2012 01:36 AM)anna acanthus Wrote:  I've just noticed that a thread of mine that someone kindly rated at 5, and someone else knocked down to 3 by some rating troll. And scrolling down the posts i see that it's happened to you Sara and to some others.
When i see a thread at 2 or 3 it's obvious whats happened ; apart from certain cases where a low rating has been deserved, some silly petty person has downgraded the thread thats all, so i guess a low rating means more that the OP is envied and should be taken as such.
Also a 5 star rating means either the person has rated himself or a nice friend has done it, so i do agree that self rating should be knocked out.

So thank you the rating troll(s) you boost our egos

LOL you made me feel good about low rating and I agree with everything you said

---

Oh someone rated my thread about having a new auctions forum section low, now that's really funny as this is not a sale or even a thread that has an opinion, just news.
I will start to believe that someone follows all my threads and rate them low for some reason now that's stroking my ego more

[anna Acanthus]

Yaaay the rating troll struck again, my last sales thread got downgraded a second time, this is really quite exhilarating !! But if it carries on i'm sure gonna need a bigger hat for my head
Must say though i'm rather jealous of you Sara, you seem to have some very dedicated stalkers

[Deer Thistle]

I really don't get the point of a rating system, especially in particular subforums where it's unnecessary and personal bias gets in the way such as the secondary market sim factions which is the most apparent. It almost reminds me of Reddit where people give (or subtract) karma because they like/ agree or dislike/disagree with the comment and not for the real reason karma upvote and downvote is there - for Reddit users to say how helpful a topic is or how much it contributes to the discussion or overall forum as a whole.

Any post that is truly of such importance that warrants five gold stars is most likely already stickied or perpetually bumped to the top of that subforum because it's just that meaningful that people respond on an occasional basis. It's human nature to click the downrate karma button if you disagree with an opinion such as on Reddit, or the five-star button to acknowledge your best breeding bud here on the forum who has created a topic even if you've yet to read that topic's contents, I don't think a lot of people consider what they're doing or are trying to "troll" but just have set views on various topics (and the denizens of that topic) that make them downvote or upvote something without thinking of what the rating system represents and I don't think anywhere on the site is it clear what the rating system does signify. I think as long as there's a rating system in place and even if it's clarified with how individuals should use it properly, there will always be people who upvote or downvote carelessly.

The rating system is unforgiving to accidents as well, and all it takes is one accident to discourage someone and ruin their topic's rating. What I find problematic with the rating system is something from personal experience and is extremely frustrating, and makes me agitated when I do so. In the past, I've misclicked the rating when I'm on my iPhone and it's very easy to hit one star instead of five stars when I tried to upvote an informative topic with healthy discussion, so I ended up doing the opposite of what my intention was and had no way to mend it, I've even downrated my own topic on accident once and had to redo it because I couldn't adjust the rating afterwards. Another instance of this once before I tried to click on topic titles while on my phone (Yes, I love KittyCatS so much that I browse on my phone very, very often LOL) and instead landed on the first star to the right of the title, the one star, which too could account for some of the random downvotes if others experience the same troubles. Why aren't we allowed to correct our accidents that might hurt someone's feelings and make them question their created topic? There's really no reason to not allow forum-goers to fix a mistake, whether an issue browsing the forum on the phone or a simple change of heart.

The forum is the only true place where the KittyCatS community can unite and share ideas without time constraints and I've met plenty of wonderful people from here that I wouldn't have gotten the chance to meet in-world due to our timezone differences, and it's disappointing to think that I may not have met some of these people because they were turned off from partaking in our discussions, or adding their very own discussion topic because someone might disagree and 1-star it - hopefully not out of malicious intention, but because the individual doesn't understand what the rating button is supposed to be based on or treats it as a like/dislike or agree/disagree.


TL;DR: While I love the idea of a rating system, there should be clarification on how it's supposed to be utilized or scrap the idea as anything that is of such importance can be stickied or will end up bumped to the top constantly like Saga's awesome traits collection. I also think that if the rating system will remain intact, that it should allow you to change your rating if you fat-finger on your phone or have other issues such as a change in heart that calls for a rating adjustment.

[Bea Shamrock]

I rate threads that I find interesting - I either rate 5 stars or don't rate at all. Sometimes I don't have much to add; then the rating or the thanks button allow me to show my interest. That's the way I see it and use it.

[Kayleigh McMillan]

(10-21-2012 01:59 AM)deerylou Resident Wrote:  ... I also think that if the rating system will remain intact, that it should allow you to change your rating if you fat-finger on your phone or have other issues such as a change in heart that calls for a rating adjustment.

Yuck Deery! a fat-finger do you eat fries while browsing the forum on your IPhone

[Deer Thistle]

You'd be surprised by all of the errors I've made with my iPhone, not even just with KittyCatS! I have rather small fingers but even that can't save me from clicking a star sometimes instead of a title on a mobile phone, LOL. I hope I'm not alone on this because I'd love to see a system where we can revise our rating. I've always wanted to say something about this but I never saw a topic relevant so I'm glad this was made.

I meant fat finger by these terms: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.ph...id=5531720 Omg, I wouldn't dare eat food right on my phone, yuck!