Rating a thread

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Original post by Marmin Suggestion: Sometimes, when threads have become really large, it's hard to estimate if a thread is useful or interesting. Therefore, a simple rating (1-5 stars) could be useful to get an idea of how the thread is appreciated by readers. And to indicate, in a simple manner, the quality of the thread, or to simply see if the users liked it or not. I've seen it on other boards, and it seems to work well.

I second that.

I have never seen a forum for which a system like that has been helpful. Do you have any links or even anecdotes on how this has been helpful in the past? In my experience, one in perhaps two dozen threads will be rated, and then by only one or two members. In those cases, the rating system tends to not give you any helpful information. The number of users willing to rate needs to be fairly high for it to be worthwhile.

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Original post by Ezbez I have never seen a forum for which a system like that has been helpful. Do you have any links or even anecdotes on how this has been helpful in the past? In my experience, one in perhaps two dozen threads will be rated, and then by only one or two members. In those cases, the rating system tends to not give you any helpful information. The number of users willing to rate needs to be fairly high for it to be worthwhile.

For an example, have a look at stackoverflow.

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Original post by Ezbez The number of users willing to rate needs to be fairly high for it to be worthwhile.

That is true. But the problem is, I think, that on other boards (where they have the system) most members don't know that they can 'rate' a thread, or they are not used to it. That's why only a few rate it and the rating gets distorted. If most members know that the possibility exists, they might rate and the rating becomes more significant.

IMO for ratings systems to actually be used, they have to not annoy the user.

It would have to use AJAX magic to submit the rating to the user doesn't have to reload the page.

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Original post by phresnel Quote: Original post by Ezbez I have never seen a forum for which a system like that has been helpful. Do you have any links or even anecdotes on how this has been helpful in the past? In my experience, one in perhaps two dozen threads will be rated, and then by only one or two members. In those cases, the rating system tends to not give you any helpful information. The number of users willing to rate needs to be fairly high for it to be worthwhile. For an example, have a look at stackoverflow.

Minor addition: They rate the OP and each answer, not the thread as whole. Personally, I would prefer such a system

The next version of the site plans support for "tagging" threads. This feature is broad enough to allow for this feature, for example interesting could be use to tag good questions. It remains to be seen exactly how this feature will be implemented.

I don't like the idea of rating threads, although I think the idea of somehow rating an individual response is a good idea. Posts like this. Per-post rating in conjunction with more wiki integration would allow for detailed, accurate responses to be promoted to a more prominent position.

These can then be more easily linked to in future discussions, which may go some way to alleviate the ever present problem of the same questions popping up time and again.

One of the problems with our current setup is that the good posts like the above can be difficult to search for, yet there are too many to make them stickies or add to the forum FAQ. We rely heavily on the posters themselves making them easy to find, for example both ToohrVyk and jpetrie (among others) both have blogs which make their posts/articles easy to find and link to. Use of the site wiki would also allow for such posts/articles to be amended if they begin to go stale as technology moves on.

I track relevant topics via the forums functions. I have proposed addition of a page that lists topics by number of people who track them some time ago.