Display of user ratings on main site

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Display of user ratings on main site

Downsizer Forum Index -> Site guidelines, Announcements, Problems and Suggestions

Do we want user ratings?

Yes

20%

[ 1 ]

Yes - but block their display on the home/front page

40%

[ 2 ]

40%

[ 2 ]

Total Votes : 5

Author

Message

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 8:14 am Post subject: Display of user ratings on main site
Each article we publish can be rated by users and this displays even on the home/front page. What do we think of this? jema Last edited by jema on Wed Nov 10, 04 8:19 am; edited 1 time in total

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 8:18 am Post subject:
I'd vote to block them on the front page, it seems to me like the sort of feature that would be a prat-magnet (unless there's some safeguard against multiple voting). Even then, I think it clutters things up.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 9:23 am Post subject:

I think it's interesting to know every now and again which are the more and less popular articles so that we can try to improve things, but we agree (may husband and Ay...well, not hub but you get the point) that the ratings aren't the most effective way of doing it.

So I'm up for getting rid on the front page at least, and potentially even on the articles themselves, unless as Sean say you can fix it so that eg only registered users can vote, and that only once?

On the same note is there any way of provoking proper feedback? For example, if there's an easy way of including a "contact the author" form or just a link to PM so that people can give genuine feedback or ask questions that might be used for future articles or updates.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45715
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 10:04 am Post subject:
Agree, get rid of them, and a PM/email to author feature would be good

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:01 pm Post subject:
Will see what I can do then, confess that I asked the question without checking how easy the answers are to do jema

Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:06 pm Post subject:
Its not something I'd thought of to do - vote for an article, so I'd ignored it to be honest. Its hard enough writting something ( I'm struggling to do something at the mo, not a natural writer) without thinking its going to be so publicly judged. Now its been pointed out that its there, it would put me off from contributing to be honest. So do get rid of it!

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:10 pm Post subject:

the fiddlesticks crew wrote:

Its not something I'd thought of to do - vote for an article, so I'd ignored it to be honest. Its hard enough writting something ( I'm struggling to do something at the mo, not a natural writer) without thinking its going to be so publicly judged. Now its been pointed out that its there, it would put me off from contributing to be honest. So do get rid of it!

eh vote NO then! at the moment the democratic mandate is against you, but I am inclined to think quite strongly if potential authors are likely to be put off, we need to recognise that view.

jema

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:13 pm Post subject:
If they stay on the main site, but not the front page, would it be possible to move the rating to the end of the article?

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:17 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

If they stay on the main site, but not the front page, would it be possible to move the rating to the end of the article?

Removed from front page.

It would be possible to move the voting to the end of the article, but it is not possible to do without a code change, which runs into my general question, is the benefit of doing this great enough to make upgrading a pain, as all such changes would need to be redone?

jema

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:20 pm Post subject:
Probably not then, but as an ignoramus in these matters I don't know how much work would be involved.

Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:22 pm Post subject:

have voted now, sorry a bit dozy this morning, read the posts to try and understand what it was all about and then posted before voting. I'm probably just an insecure writer, so if no one else is bothered about being voted then do keep it if its a problem to change. Just not sure what purpose it serves. Being able to contact the author and ask questions is a very good step though, makes the author accountable and is constructive too.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:25 pm Post subject:
We may be in hung for sheep, hung for lamb territory here, seems to be quite a strong view on contact the author, and that change will effect i'm sure the same file where a change would need to be made to place the ratings at the bottom of the page. jema

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:29 pm Post subject:

Well you might as well do both. My view is that people will notice the rating, without noticing how many people have rated the article: if they are going through a set of search results they may not read stuff on the grounds that 2 or 3 people thought it was useless. e.g. I wouldn't find my stock-making article very useful if I found it somewhere, but that doesn't mean there isn't an audience for it. If a small one

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 12:34 pm Post subject:
Well I am just asking on the mambo forums about making the feedback change, no point in working it out for myself if it has been done already. jema

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 1:02 pm Post subject:
Well after some thought and feedback I have changed my vote, which is a tad nefarious but I hope you will forgive me. We need to avoid any form of discouragement to contributers. jema

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