Ratings System on community.ni.com

[ColinAE]

I would like to know your thoughts on the ratings system on community.ni.com.

I recently posted news on the site regarding this ratings functionality, and I would like to know what people think about the ratings system.

Should we use the statistical mean method, or a simple, arithmetic mean?
Should we have ratings at all for the community code?

Feel free to email web.community_at_ni.com for feedback as well.

[Ben]

I advocate dropping the ratings completely!

1) The example code is FREE. If someone tries it and they do not like, they loose nothing.

2) The ratings can undermine the comeradre (sp?) of the User Community. Out here in the "real world" I am competing against other integrators who COULD trash my examples and then use the ratings of my examples as an arguement not to hire me.

I will not contribute to a forum that puts my job in jeopardy!

Just my thoughts...

What do YOU think?

Ben

[Ray.R]

I agree with Ben,

The rating system is .... *** what's the politically-correct word for joke ***  ....  euh... 

Let's just say it need improvement.

If you do want to have a rating system, then how about giving ONE simple star.  If a user finds the example useful, then gives 1 star.  If no one finds it useful, then no stars are given.  The star says "thank you", not "Oh this is fantastic or great or soso or bad". 

Let's avoid "Star Wars".. 

JLV (aka. D-V)

[Conseils]

I suspect that BEN could use an alias, but his point is valid. I for one would look deeper and never trust any one that rubbishes someone else’s product or people, they are always hiding their own deficiencies. But then I guess I am in a minority here and Ben is right to look beyond the immediate. That's unfortunately one of the down sides of using a personally identifiable handle on a public forum.

In my opinion there is no right way that will be entirely suitable. If you are looking for that one example that no one has looked at for 10 years, it could be the most 'high tech super tweak' example on the board but if you need it I am sure you would be extraordinarily pleased to find it. How does one compare an example such that; to one which although downloaded every day by 'newbie’s' simply shows a technique to auto index an array?

Each has its own purpose.

Most people (myself included) are not necessarily in a position to critique something properly or appropriately, what's are the correct criteria? Style, speed, efficiency (there's another list), documentation quality, usefulness..... et. al.

Ouch...... guess I have been hoisted by my own petard

[Ray.R]

Bruce Ammons has a fantastic idea.  Hopefully he won't mind if I share it over here.

"Give a star if you like the message, otherwise don't.  Messages with lots of stars will stand out as especially worthwhile when browsing, etc.  It won't be as insulting to not give a star as it is to rate a message as a 1."

So the star rating takes on a different twist.  Only a single star is ever shown if at least one rating is attributed.  When placing the cursor on top of the star it reveals how many ratings it received.  Or display a numeric next to the single star.  This eliminates any...  unfortunate events.. 

Message Edited by JoeLabView on 05-23-2006 03:13 PM

[chilly_charly]

Forget about the multi-star rating. Definitely.

This has already been discussed several times on this forum. Even if, like most of us here, I enjoy receiving stars, I must admit that if taken seriously this would be a rather childish attitude. Everybody should understand that their value is faint, as is the notoriety that can be gained through the contribution number.  As long as you remember that this is a game and only a game, everything is fine, but beware becoming serious...

Recent events have shown the futility of the present rating system. I hope that NI will either abandon it, as suggested by Ben, or adopt JLV (our star heroe...) proposal. I would prefer this second solution since there is no possible negative interpretation of the rating.  Let's keep the fun and reject any other stupid move.

Of course this will give Molly some additionnal work, converting all these 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to straight one stars. But I'm sure that this is a mathematical operation that even Ben, our math disabled bear, could achieve (humm... not sure yet...)

Hmmmm...

Ben ? Do me a favour please.... Just rate this contribution with a single star. It will shine more brilliantly than any 5 stars constellation.

Message Edité par chilly charly le 05-23-2006 09:29 PM

[Ben]

"

Ben ? Do me a favour please.... Just rate this contribution with a single star. It will shine more brilliantly than any 5 stars constellation.

"

Sorry, no can do!

I am a "one star virgin". 

Never done it and I don't plan too.

Maybe someone else can help out.

Ben

[JeffBoettcher]

At first I felt that this thread was getting tainted by opinions jaded by a recent incident where a certain active forum member was effectively sabotaged by someone maliciously finding hundreds of their posts and rating them with one star.

Then I began to think more about it, and realized that in fact, if I like someone's post, I give them 5 stars, and only on rare occasion have I rated a post in any other way.  This is effectively exactly what is being suggested, and I like it too.

[Conseils]

I guessed as much from what BEN was saying, perhaps therefore that you need to normalise the ratings given by each user!!! as well as the statistical treatment indicated.....?

So if say I give always 4's (FOR EXAMPLE!!!) then you move these to the board average for a top rating?

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
    Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)"

[Ray.R]

Hi Jeff,

No.. This thread is not about an incident.  We're brainstorming on the ratings system on community.ni.com, are we not?

The idea is to encourage people to share code.  I'm not sure if a star system is required..  But if it is, I proposed that it should be kept simple.  Everybody has an opinion about everything.  And rightly so.  However, it should not become the star glutton game that is happening elsewhere...  😉

I'm like Ben.  Unless the post is absolutely rediculous, then it gets a 5 or NO Star.  I can't recall ever giving a rating of 2, 3 or 4...  I wonder how many other people have this binary value ( 0-star   OR   5-star ).

Sorry CC, I'm not the one to pull an 1* on you either  😉

R.