Posted by Harry [NR] on 2/11/06 2:02pm
Msg #96374

Another Ratings Clarification...

The way the system CURRENTLY stands, you are rating the post and indirectly rating the poster. HOWEVER, each person only gets one rating per post (which they can change) and can only contribute a single score, overall, to another user.

What does this mean? If you don't like someone and you vindictively go back to rate a bunch of their posts as negative, it will have no more impact than rating a SINGLE one of their posts as negative. Your ratings will be averaged to form an overall opinion of the person's contribution to the board.

Next, on the positive (or green) side of things... If people were not self-interested and not interested in attacking those with whom they don't get along, they would double-back to rate as positive those posts that are most often referred to (e.g. the getting started post, debt collection posts, etc.).

After doing so, we could have a page that displays the most frequently rated, positive posts. This page - the "green" page - in theory, would serve to answer most questions that "green" signing agents ask that others complain about. Of course, rather than recognizing this potential, people are preoccupied with their popularity and peer perception, which I should have better anticipated.

I will compile the survey/poll results late tomorrow to see which direction most people would like to go.

Harry
Notary Rotary, Inc.

Reply by SarahBeth_CA on 2/11/06 2:11pm
Msg #96378

Thank you for the clarification Harry.

Reply by TitleGalCA on 2/11/06 2:12pm
Msg #96380

***After doing so, we could have a page that displays the most frequently rated, positive posts. This page - the "green" page - in theory, would serve to answer most questions that "green" signing agents ask that others complain about***

Now, THIS is in direct answer to many, many posts I've seen about having new signing agents have their own 'start' place on the forum. It's NR's answer to an ongoing request, which to me seems like a proactive response by the owners of the board.

***Of course, rather than recognizing this potential, people are preoccupied with their popularity and peer perception, which I should have better anticipated.***

Yeppers! At first glance this seems to be true. But, hang on...with some tweaking, it could be a great feature.

I'm thinking of Amazon, and the reviews that people post. I do know that there are friends of authors who plug the book and there are enemies of authors that trash it. The same can happen here, but I like that feature of Amazon - it helps me make decisions in buying a book, just like this feature (with modification) can help me decide what I want to read.

Then again, maybe it can't be used for anything other than a popularity contest, and having the feature itself is a distraction.