Hi all,

I wanted to let you know that I've added a new feature to the site.  This new feature will allow you to "Like" and "Dislike" any post that is made in our forum.  The idea behind this feature is to allow users to give anonymous feedback about any post on our club.  It also keeps track of the amount of feedback any member receives and counts it against his/her reputation on the site.  Previously we only had the "like" button.

 

To use this new feature, simply look for the above graphic at the end of every post.  Green (up arrow) is "I like it", and Red (down arrow) is "I don't like it" feedback.  Hope you enjoy the new feature !

Mike

 

22 hours ago, Mike said:

 How can this help?  Users may think twice about starting flame wars if negative ratings bring their reputation down.  Take my profile for instance, if I started posting a lot of negativity, my reputation score would go down.  Likewise, if I post a lot of positive information that helps other members, my reputation will go up.  The old system didn't account for negativity, it only rewarded positive behavior while allowing negative behavior to go without judgement. 

 

And that's why the Dislike button is a double edged sword that can be perceived as a tool for good or a weapon for revenge.  By reducing Likes, it can deflate the reputation of someone who is a positive contributor to the forum.  For example, if I had a mad on for siteunseen, I could give his past posts five undeserved Dislikes a day and drop his stellar 600+ Likes rating to -50 in a few months.  I see that possibility as more damaging to the health of the forum than an occasional flame war that can easily be nipped in the bud by a fair minded moderator.  I will now step off my soapbox and slide it back under my desk.  

Dennis

That's a great point.  I just ran your "Reputation" down to 147 from 149 and back up just by clicking on two different posts.  In this thread.  The more you post, the more at-risk your reputation is.  One single person can make another look like a total arse.

Edit - and it won't tale a few months.  Just a few minutes.  Edit 2 - Never mind.  You can only give "Reputation" 5 times a day.  I tried to binge and got a message.

Edited October 9, 20168 yr by Zed Head

42 minutes ago, psdenno said:

And that's why the Dislike button is a double edged sword that can be perceived as a tool for good or a weapon for revenge.  By reducing Likes, it can deflate the reputation of someone who is a positive contributor to the forum.  For example, if I had a mad on for siteunseen, I could give his past posts five undeserved Dislikes a day and drop his stellar 600+ Likes rating to -50 in a few months.  I see that possibility as more damaging to the health of the forum than an occasional flame war that can easily be nipped in the bud by a fair minded moderator.  I will now step off my soapbox and slide it back under my desk. 

Yes, this is a double-edged sword because the same can be done for a positive rating.  I think the idea is to continue posting helpful information in order to keep your reputation high.

Frankly, I don't see people using the reputation feature on every post.  Since there is a limit on the number of ratings per day, it's typically used moderately throughout the day.

And lastly, this is a trial to see how this feature benefits the site.  If we find that it's not helpful, I can always go back to the simple "like this post" feature we had without much programming (it's a simple choice in the admin panel).

Round and round we go...

Interesting that this thread only has comments from the people who you'd expect to get lots of Up arrows.  And the Down arrow guys stay away.  Maybe it's working!  Leave it and see.  It will be the battle of five votes per day!

1 hour ago, Zed Head said:

Round and round we go...

Interesting that this thread only has comments from the people who you'd expect to get lots of Up arrows.  And the Down arrow guys stay away.  Maybe it's working!  Leave it and see.  It will be the battle of five votes per day!

Here's a perfect example of why such systems are open to misuse. Exactly who are your Down arrow guys"...? You already made your mind up, didn't you?

Take a peep in the mirror. There will be a "Down arrow guy" staring back at you. If that's what you want to see, that is...

I understand Mike's desire to maintain a positive discourse, can the moderators weigh in on the comments rather than handing users bully sticks?  We've already demonstrated an inability to manage our internet egos.

 

 

I don't think this combined positive-negative feature benefits the site and I think you should put it back to the way it was with the simple "likes" button.

 

Why? Because I think the "likes" system fosters a "quality of posts" measuring bar. I believe that in order for a post to "earn a likes" from someone, the quality of that post has to be above a reasonably high bar. In other words, I think it has to pass a litmus test of sorts in order to go over that bar, and this change lowers that bar and dilutes the results.

 

Keep the 'likes". Keep the names visible and don't make it anonymous.

 

Maybe entertain the possibility of adding a "do not like" button as a counterpart to the likes. I'm no social media expert, but I would guess and hope that the bar for do-not-like would be correspondingly low and would not be used often.

 

My semi-related top level feedback would be to concentrate on system changes that make the response time of the site faster and resist complexity that detracts from that. I don't need bells and whistles. I need simple, intuitive, and fast. I just logged in and it took fifteen seconds for my screen to come back. During that time I opened other web pages on other sites and they opened instantly, so it's not my data pipeline.

What worries me about the Dislike feature is it can create two camps in the forum. You see that on Youtube where two start it and their friends all start liking and disliking the two. IMHO it's an extra feature we don't need.

Btw, Im seeing a "Like" guy in the mirror and the glass is half full.. There is enough negative crap in the world already.

Hey guys, looks like there's an overwhelming response (and some good healthy discussion against the negative rating) so I went back to the original "like this" feature.

Thanks Mike. And thanks for all you do here.

i see the likes are back, but the names aren't showing. Was it intentional to make it anonymous?