Raising personal ratings

[toby]

When I first became aware that each of us has a rating under our name, mine was already -6! I guess I must have annoyed someone, or two.

Then there was a discussion of these ratings, and some kind souls raised me to zero. Not quite a super hero, but better than -6. The effect of the discussion was to pique my desire for approval and recognition. I guess I have low self-esteem. (Tone is lost in email messages; this paragraph is facetious.)

So, who wants to ente into a mutual admiration society for a few days? I'll rate you highly, you return the favour; we both end up looking like fine people.

 

[Leon]

So, who wants to ente into a mutual admiration society for a few days? I'll rate you highly, you return the favour; we both end up looking like fine people.

Be like an honest Canadian now and avoid abusing the new rating system.

It is there so new users can see who is helpful and giving good advice and who is not. If you help people with something of value, you will eventually get good ratings and they will be well earned, not cheated.

 

[toby]

Easy for you to say, given your rating.

For the record, though, my suggestion was tongue-in-cheek.

 

[Karlshammar]

The rating system is not very good as people can rate on personal feelings instead of on the actual quality of the information in the posts, but there is no way around that. At least it's better than nothing.

 

[toby]

I wonder whether it's better than nothing, Karlshammer.

There is so much inconsistency built into the system that one can never place too much importance on it. Three days or so ago I was -6. Today I am 0. Did the quality of my comments improve a lot in the past three days? Probably not.

Why was I -6 in the first place? Did I annoy 6 people, or one person who made a point of downgrading me 6 times?

Without knowing these and many other facts, we don't know what to make of the rating. I think you are a splendid fellow who makes lots of useful suggestions, yet your rating is lower than a few others whose contributions have been confined to offering good wishes. The latter may make the recipient feel good, enough to give the congratulator a "good" rating, but the information supplied is largely absent. So, we'd need two rating: one for touchy feely sentiments, the other for useful information. Etc.

And if a contributor has a bad day, and gets rated "poor" by a few people, but the next day offers great advice, can the poor rating cause others to ignore his great advice? Or, should we evaluate each post on its own merits, and forget the rating?

On balance, I think we're better off without the distraction of the rating.

 

[Karlshammar]

Thanks for the kind words, Toby!

I agree. Rating on sentiment is very, very bad. I went from 8 to 0 in ratings in a day or two because I said that it is a violation of the law to omit information on immigration forms, while everyone was "poor you"-ing the person who had done that. Same question: did my knowledge or advice degrade at all during this time? No, not at all. But my popularity with the "good feelings for everyone" crowd sure did, and hence I went down to 0.

Of course, as with everything else, advice here is caveat emptor. Perhaps we are better off without a rating system, as it can lead people to trust rubbish or disregard good advice when a reputation has been built or ruined based on raters' personal feelings.

 

[Leon]

I wonder whether it's better than nothing, Karlshammer.

There is so much inconsistency built into the system that one can never place too much importance on it. Three days or so ago I was -6. Today I am 0. Did the quality of my comments improve a lot in the past three days? Probably not.

Probably they increased because you were complaining about it and people felt sorry for you. Yes, it's not a perfect system but in time when people get used to it, they'll likely only rate when there is reason to and your ratings will be a bit more normal.

I am a member of another board with a rating system and there you can rate each post separately, that is, you can see the score of each post. If I see that a post has gotten a negative score without a reason, I can help to fix it but here you can't, you only see the overall ratings of the user so there is no way of knowing why a certain poster got a negative. You could have 6 negatives because you are being stalked by someone, it could be that you made 6 posts that somebody didn't like or it could be that you made one post that 6 people didn't like. Maybe it would be a better system if 1 post could not get more or less than a 1,0,-1 rating. It would not fluctuate so much anyway.

 

[tgchi13]

Thanks for the kind words, Toby!

I agree. Rating on sentiment is very, very bad. I went from 8 to 0 in ratings in a day or two because I said that it is a violation of the law to omit information on immigration forms, while everyone was "poor you"-ing the person who had done that. Same question: did my knowledge or advice degrade at all during this time? No, not at all. But my popularity with the "good feelings for everyone" crowd sure did, and hence I went down to 0.

Of course, as with everything else, advice here is caveat emptor. Perhaps we are better off without a rating system, as it can lead people to trust rubbish or disregard good advice when a reputation has been built or ruined based on raters' personal feelings.

I think you and I may have been the only two who said that the action had been illegal. They thought your use of the word criminal was harsh but my saying illegal meant the same thing. And in the end, the post was deleted.

So yes, especially in that instance your rating was gravely hanged based on touchy-feely and not the quality of the wisdom. Sometimes people need to hear things up front without all the wrapping paper to understand what they've done. She admitted that she knew that (in regard to her application) she had lied and was about to be refused.

Your rating will return Karl because the advice you provide is thoughtful, topical and useful. I also know there was a window where the rating system allowed karma action every 10 minutes and so it may have been one person who reduced your rating very quickly!

 

[Karlshammar]

Thanks, Tgchi13! I appreciate it.

Your rating will return Karl because the advice you provide is thoughtful, topical and useful. I also know there was a window where the rating system allowed karma action every 10 minutes and so it may have been one person who reduced your rating very quickly!

 

[commonwealth]

Don't worry about rating, few look at contents but you are doing an excellent job helping others- Keep it up!

 

[rupeshhari]

this thread is making me laugh. thanks to the OP for putting it up.
Toby, you get +1 from me for making me laugh.

 

[Suin]

Thanks, Tgchi13! I appreciate it.

it's better not to pay any attention to the ratings here not to get upset - you know how many thanks you get from people - that's the best rating ever.

 

[toby]

The funny thing is, a few people bumped me up to 0 from -7 or -8. Then when I was away for a few days, I came back and I had been reduced to -1 !! I guess someone objected to my absence? It wasn't anything I said, because I didn't say anything.

Since we donlt have a common understanding of the criteria for rating others, the ratings means nothing, and almostv certainly are being applied inconsistently. In my opinion, its better to have no rating system at all than a flawed one.

 

[nicholas30]

Its more like a TV game show now. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rupeshhari]

The funny thing is, a few people bumped me up to 0 from -7 or -8. Then when I was away for a few days, I came back and I had been reduced to -1 !! I guess someone objected to my absence? It wasn't anything I said, because I didn't say anything.

Since we donlt have a common understanding of the criteria for rating others, the ratings means nothing, and almostv certainly are being applied inconsistently. In my opinion, its better to have no rating system at all than a flawed one.

They must have rated you down because they missed you. You should be honored that someone got upset just by the lack of your presence.

But since you are back and we are happy, I am going to bump you up one. I am sure the person who took you down, will bump you up too. So you should be +1 as soon as that person bumps you up as well.