I've been coding my butt off today to implement some kind of rating system. As you can see in all the new threads I have succeeded in doing so (I hope).
The idea behind it is this: You rate a user either positive, negative or neutral. If people have rated a user mostly positive, you'll see a green bar; if they are mostly negative, you'll see a red bar. You can always change your rating at a later date. Simply rate the user again.
When your rating is mostly negative, you are obviously in the danger zone. When your rating drops below a certain point and a minimum amount of users have rated you, the system will automatically ban you.
Right now, the system is in test mode which means that you are not automatically banned if your rating drops. However, when I activate that part of the system, the ratings will not be reset. So you better start behaving!
Very Cool! One question - I assume you have to be "logged-in" to rate someone? Can the same person rate someone else over and over again? thereby giving a false rating? Sorry, I guess that was three questions
------------------ 1984 SE - 30800 out of 136840. Being modified!
I know i'll probably get flamed for this but i think this is a very bad idea. People can change IP addys and get there friends to unjustly vote badly for you. Just my opinion but i wish you'd rethink this.
------------------ Dave Gunsul Activities Director Northern IL. Fiero Enthusiasts. 86 GT mod. 85 SE V6 daily driver
I was wondering, how many times are you allowed to vote on one person, will this have a cumulative effect? Will you be able to see a list of who is voting what on each person? Can you include a neutral vote count also? I think this system will put the fear of God into some people.
You can rate as many times on someone as you like. However, they will all be counted as one rating. In other words, if you rate someone again, your old rating will be deleted and replaced with the new rating. So hey, if you feel the need to rate someone a thousand times, by all means do so. You are just wasting your own time because only your last rating counts.
Also, the rating is not connected to ip-address. So you can change your ip-address many time as you want - it won't make a difference.
On top of that, you need to be a registered member to rate someone else. So asking your friends to rate for you on this forum... well, that would work if you get your friends crazy enough to register here (and post a minimum number of messages and be a member for a minimum amount of time so you are actually eligible to vote).
Now honestly, I don't care if people think this is a bad idea. This way, the forum will clean itself up. If you've always been helpfull and never got in any flame wars, you have nothing to worry about. On the other hand, some others should start worrying and clean up their act (you know who you are).
Intriguing concept Cliff. Any hints as to the amount of time/number of posts needed to be part of the rating system? I understand if you do not want to let that info loose. Just curious on how far beyond a newbie a member has to be to get the privledge.
Cliff has done a lot for this forum, he deserves a lot of support, unfortunately a lot of criticizing towards him as well. This is absolutely a great idea to help reduce burden on Cliff's shoulder when people come all over Cliff saying "this user is an ******* " and accusing each other.
Lets hope it is a positive enhancement for the forum.
------------------ AIM: CanadianFiero Project conversion to an aero V6. (85 GT)
I think it's cool. I've been buzzing around voting for people for a few minutes. Good idea Cliff, just curious, once you implement the automatic banning thing how many negative votes does it take to get ousted? Not that I'm planning on making any enemies or anything.
Uh, C.P., none of my votes have taken effect! I made some ratings on people this afternoon, and now I'm at work looking at how they're doing and some of them have the same rating (or no rating) as they had earlier. So I made some more votes, closed my browser, re-opened it and immediately logged in and looked up the same people... they all still had the same rating numbers!
Originally posted by Jefrysuko: When I went to rate someone it gave me this message.
If it happens again, just PM me with the username you were trying to rate. It might be the system has some difficulties with certain characters in someone's username.
Ok, it's hard to respond in all the different threads about this, so I'll just keep it to this thread.
Let me explain once more exactly how the rating system works, with all the new additions and changes from the last few hours.
You can rate a member as many times as you want, but only your last rating will be stored. So in effect, if you have previously rated someone and want to change your rating (or if you aren't sure if you rated a person before), simply rate him again.
This also means that you can't singlehandedly influence a member's rating by rating him multiple times. Changing your ip-address, or relogging into the forum will have no effect.
Rating a person Neutral will in fact remove your rating for that person. So if you rated someone in error (or if you simply want to change your rating to Neutral), just rate him/her again and choose Neutral.
Only members that have been a member for at least 30 days, and have at least 30 posts can rate another member.
The jury is still out on wether to display the total number of ratings, or broken down by negatives/positives.
The "saturation" of your rating changes according to its importance. If not many people have rated you, the bar will be hardly visible. The more people rate you, the more visible the bar becomes.
No, I will not tell you who rated you negatively or positively. Even though I am able to see that, I will not give out that information. If you suspect something fishy, just email or PM me - I will check the ratings.
Yes, you can rate me negatively. And no, that will not have any effect on your chances of being banned.
Yes, you can rate yourself. This is intentional and part of any democratic process.
Ratings in threads reflect the rating at the time of the last post in that thread. Similar to your number of posts. So one thread may show 10 people have rated you, while another shows 20.
No, I will not manually override the automatic banning. Sending me a PM or email with "I'm sorry Cliff, I will behave from now on" will not work. You should have behaved from the start.
The only time I will override an automatic ban, is when your rating has obviously been tampered with.
The system will warn you when you are nearing the critical point for automatic banning. The red bar will start to flash. If you see that happening in your rating, it's time to clean up your act.
The reason I've implemented this? Izza simple! I get a lot of emails from people that ask me to ban others, but I will not ban people because only 2 or 3 people want me to do so. This way, people have an anonymous way (to others then, not to me) of voting someone "off the island". Also, this will work much faster. A troll arrives? He can be banned within hours. Even in those rare occasions I'm asleep. And since he (or his troll friends) as a new member isn't allowed to rate, there's nothing he can do about it.
And like I said, I want this forum to be as much self moderating as possible...
Edited for spelling
[This message has been edited by Cliff Pennock (edited 09-13-2002).]
Originally posted by Cliff Pennock: [B]Ratings in threads reflect the rating at the time of the last post in that thread. [B]
You might want to state this in the box that pops up after you rate someone. I can see people thinking that their vote didn't take and reloading the page over and over again.
I'd be curious to know what I've done to get a negative rating already. I don't know who I've offended, but it leaves me with a bad feeling about this rating system right out of the gate. To put things in perspective, I've been selling on eBay for nearly two years now. I've bought and sold approximately 300 items and I have a total of ONE negative feedback. That was because I jumped the gun and prematurely left negative feedback for what I thought was a deadbeat bidder, who, in turn, left me the ONE negative. (I learned my lesson on that one.)
I kind of agree with Dave. I don't think the current version of this system is a good idea. (Although I agree with the theory of a rating system.) If we could see who has rated us, it would be a little better. Then at least we would have a chance to point out possible shenanigans to you, Cliff. As a programmer, I can appreciate the work you have put in on this, but, as it is now, this system is just begging to be abused.
Let's face it. We're all grown-ups here. If we feel someone truly deserves a negative, we shouldn't have a problem putting our name with the rating. It would also give us a chance to factor in the rater's rating. I'll use eBay as an example again. On their site you can see the feedback rating for someone who has rated a Seller, for instance, as negative. If you see that the rater (Buyer) has a very poor rating and the seller has an otherwise good rating, you can probably justify factoring out that Buyer's feedback. (Especially after you read some of the comments that they also allow you to leave...) Some people are just out to mess with others. At least on eBay, you have a chance to see that for what it is. You can get more info on the rating and take it with a grain of salt if you'd like.
Finally...think about what deserves a negative rating. If someone is a smart-ass in one of your posts, you might give him/her a negative rating. Another member, however, might not take it personally and might give it right back, while getting some enjoyment out of it. He/she might reserve negative ratings for a deal that 'went bad' because they didn't feel they got what they paid for. Others might leave negative feedback if a new user keeps asking questions about topics that seemingly have been covered repeatedly or are off-topic, while others might realize the person is a newbie and might politely point out that there is a Search feature and an Off-Topic Forum. Now we all know that there are definitely a few people who deserve to be booted off here, regardless of the criteria. I'm not saying we shouldn't have a way to accomplish that. My point is, without the supporting detail behind a rating, what good is a rating system
Sorry this was so long. Once I get started, I can't shut up.
[This message has been edited by kru (edited 09-13-2002).]
[This message has been edited by kru (edited 09-13-2002).]
[This message has been edited by kru (edited 09-13-2002).]
Seriously, the system will stay as it is. Yes, you got one negative rating. There are almost 6000 members here. If you are worrying about people thinking negatively about you because you got one negative rating then, well, you catch my drift.
I value people's opinions. It comes from running a business. I'm sure you know all about that. If I've done something to offend one person, I want to know who it is and what I've done, so I can fix it, if necessary.
I've been accused of being 'wordy' before. Maybe that's grounds for negative feedback in some people's minds...
JUST BRING IT!
Very good idea!! 
AIM: CanadianFiero
