Rating A Thread

[Rattlesnake Gal]

On occasion I see a place to rate threads, but it does not show up on all of them for me.
Is this option on all threads or just some?

[BroadHopper]

Thanks for pointing this out. I was going to go back in rate mcdude's latesy thread but the rate thread tool do not appear! :eek:

[upthesaukee]

It seems that the rating may be a random type thing. I searched the "FAQ" section for rating and came up with this:

You may find a small menu on thread pages which allows you to 'rate this thread' with a number between 1-5.

Casting a vote for threads you view is entirely optional, but if you think that the thread is superb, you might rate it as a 5-star thread, or if you think that it's unspeakably dismal, you might choose to rate the thread with a single star.

Once enough votes have been cast for the thread rating, you may see a set of stars appear with the title of the thread in the thread listings. These stars reflect the average vote cast, and can allow you to quickly see which threads are worth reading if you are on a very busy forum with a lot of threads.

Hope that helps a little, RG. I'm sure Don will have some pearls of wisdom for us soon.;)

[webmaster]

The thread ratings seemed random because they were enabled for all the forums except General Discussion. I did this by mistake since at the time I meant to disable the thread ratings on all forums. They were rarely used and almost every rating that was given was 5 stars. It just seemed like the ratings didn't mean much when used so little.

Since you brought it up RG I've turned it back on for all forums and made one other adjustment. From now on at least 2 members will have to rate a thread before the ratings appear in the thread index. That should give more meaning to ratings when they do appear.

Ideally everyone will use all the ratings instead of just 5 stars although I understand why members are more likely to use the ratings to give a strong approval then an Average, Bad or Terrible. Whoever wrote this software was pretty negative giving us Bad or Terrible as the only choices below Average. I'm going to have to change that in the next few days and make the ratings less harsh.

I also have the same concerns about the ratings in PhotoPost. Almost all ratings are 10s! With a scale of 1 to 10 available I would think that good pictures should get a 6 or a 7, an excellent one a 8 or a 9, and a 10 should be reserved for only the most amazing, astounding shots. Oh well, again I realize why we are most likely to say "I love it, I'll give it a 10" and not bother to rate less notable pictures. That may be why the rating system hasn't seemed to work well in the Forum or PhotoPost.

Well, it's on now and maybe since it has been brought up in this thread it will be used more often.

That's all the "pearls" I have for tonight. :) Good night.

Don

ps I give this thread 4 stars. ;)

[Rattlesnake Gal]

Thanks Don.
You are correct that most ratings on PhotoPost are 10’s, even when the pictures aren’t perfect. I am definitely guilty of that. My ratings were not just how good a photograph was, but also how it made me feel. Often I just comment without a rating, not wanting to offend a person with less than 10 stars. Perhaps now that you posted a guideline of sorts, we all can adjust our rating styles and not feel that we are being hurtful with something less than a 10. Thanks for the insight. Hopefully this will get us all on track.