Please shut-off 1-start - 4-star ratings!

[Ray.R]

We have to pepper you with 5-star ratings on this one Christian 😉

What you wrote is so true..  Labview has evolved so much from being a purely scientific / engineering / test language to something used in hobbies that the forum has also changed. 

I wanted to talk about such a situation (multiple posts) and this one came up (nice timing / example)..  🙂 

What I had in mind was the ability to merge all these posts into a single one.  But as you pointed out, the origins of the posts may be different, which renders that idea useless...  I had not thought of that.. 😞   That's because I only use 1 portal to this forum...

Interesting reply indeed because it support's Ravens' reply:

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@Ravens Fan wrote:

I agree that the original message should not be able to be rated.  The exception would be for things like nuggets, or a good thread conversation started.  For ordinary questions, the first question should not get rated.  I often see 5 star ratings on a one sentence ordinary question.  And it will be for someone who is new to the forum, thus they get rated a Proven Member.  A  1-star rating for a question is generally uncalled for as well.  The exceptions being that the person is particularly rude in their question or asked the same question in 4-5 other thread starts.  Particular if they got help in those messages, but didn't like the answers so they think they should ask again.

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Where I disagree is that if you cannot rate a question, then that would apply to everything, including nuggets, etc..

Looks like we all agree that any rating below a 5-star is undesirable.  Even if the question is not clear..  Or not well posted, Or multiple posts... Mostly because we do not know who is posting, and why so many posts!! 

WELL SAID ALTENBACH!!!

If we read past posts in this thread, we could have rated those posts with a single star and given a reason that the question was too ambiguous and multiple posts...  AFTER reading Altenbach's post, it is obvious that that would not have been an appropriate action.  NOW... I ask.. When would it be approriate to give a 1-star rating?  It appears the answer is never.. if that is the case, then the solution is obvious... >> Shut down the less than 5 star rating system <<<   (it even says so in the title  🙂 )

[RavensFan]

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@JoeLabView wrote:

What I had in mind was the ability to merge all these posts into a single one.  But as you pointed out, the origins of the posts may be different, which renders that idea useless...  I had not thought of that.. 😞   That's because I only use 1 portal to this forum...

Interesting reply indeed because it support's Ravens' reply:

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@Ravens Fan wrote:

I agree that the original message should not be able to be rated.  The exception would be for things like nuggets, or a good thread conversation started.  For ordinary questions, the first question should not get rated.  I often see 5 star ratings on a one sentence ordinary question.  And it will be for someone who is new to the forum, thus they get rated a Proven Member.  A  1-star rating for a question is generally uncalled for as well.  The exceptions being that the person is particularly rude in their question or asked the same question in 4-5 other thread starts.  Particular if they got help in those messages, but didn't like the answers so they think they should ask again.

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Where I disagree is that if you cannot rate a question, then that would apply to everything, including nuggets, etc..

Looks like we all agree that any rating below a 5-star is undesirable.  Even if the question is not clear..  Or not well posted, Or multiple posts... Mostly because we do not know who is posting, and why so many posts!! 

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My comments were more to the nature of what first questions should be rated.  I agree that there is no easy technical way for the forum to distinguish between the particular types of first posts and only allow certain types to be rated.

As for ratings, everyone desires a 5.  A 4 isn't so bad.  But, a 2 or 3 is pretty much meaningless.  What kind of message was just "so-so" to the point that it deserved a rating, but wasn't anywhere good enough to get a 4 or 5?  And there are instances where a 1 could be considered worthwhile, but it is pretty much just a punitive score.  JoeLabView, your links earlier were ones where the questions almost deserve a 1. 
If they were a little worse, they could be considered rude.  But definitely a case where someone wants to keep pounding on the door hoping to get something given to them.  But even if they were given a 1, it would be meaningless to them.  As seen by all of those links, they never came back in any single of them to give more of an answer.  This was more of the duplicate poster situation I was talking about.  I don't think someone who accidentally double posts, or posts into 2 different messages boards deserves a bad rating of a 1.

[Ray.R]

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@Ravens Fan wrote:

As for ratings, everyone desires a 5.  A 4 isn't so bad.  But, a 2 or 3 is pretty much meaningless.  ......  JoeLabView, your links earlier were ones where the questions almost deserve a 1. 
If they were a little worse, they could be considered rude.  But definitely a case where someone wants to keep pounding on the door hoping to get something given to them.  ...  As seen by all of those links, they never came back in any single of them to give more of an answer.  This was more of the duplicate poster situation I was talking about.  I don't think someone who accidentally double posts, or posts into 2 different messages boards deserves a bad rating of a 1.

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Thanks for the reply Raven!

This type is discussion is good and needed if we are to redefine the ratings system.  Now I'm not saying I agree or disagree with your comments 😉  I look at it as food for thought.  And that's what this entire thread should be for now..

A rating system of 0-to-5-stars has to include 2 & 3 stars.  They do seem meaningless.. and how does one justify such a rating?  Well... maybe we need to look at the movie industry and see how they rate good / bad movies..  (more on this later)..

I don't know about the reason why the person posted several times..  Actually, nmost were for occular devices and one ecg..  I doubt very much that it was posted by some 10yr old.  We might be tempted to give 1-star ratings to these posts.. but that person is obviously new at this forum and would not understand what these stars mean..  And probably wouldn't care at this time.   I remember reading posts from a newcomer which were rather rude and arrogant (fisrst 10 posts).  They even talked about other subjects within a given thread (hijack)..  That same person then became a top-notch contributor to the forum...  (probably has a 4.8 avg). 

As Altenbach mentionned, you don't want to give bad ratings to a newcomer because they may not like this forum because of it.  Heck, some people with >500 posts (or >100) stay away because of 1-star ratings..  So regardless of what we think, it appears that no one likes to receive the 1-star (except for tst in one post!).  Well. I must admit that occasionally, I deserved the 1-star rating because the answer was not even in the ballpark.. I read the question was too quickly, and a bad answer was given.  I laugh at those 1-star.. it was deserved...  So... as in the movie industry, is there a need for a rating system from 1-star to 5 stars?  Before we answer this... let's consider the following:  I've seen on numerous occasions (not that numerous...maybe <10) people like Dennis K receiving a 1-star rating for a perfect answer.  I've even seen one this spring where someone mistakingly gave a 1-star then appologized because the wrong key was hit.  Heck, I've done that myself (the screen cuts off part of the rating box and I hit the rightmost one on the screen which turned out to be a 1-star (D'OH!!!).  And no way to edit the rating..  {Usually seen when large pictures are shown}..

If I were to visit / review the first page of this thread, I'm sure this came about because of ratings abuse..  Now ratings abuse is a completely different topic than what we've been discussing in the later part of this thread.  It occurs when someone targets a single individual and gives 1-star ratings to a whole bunch of posts.  So, it is no longer evaluating the quality of a post...   And it seems to me that is why this thread came to life..

[MRedRaider]

In all honesty, starting out in the forums can be a bit intimidating.... I only have some 24 ratings, so even a few bad or misinterpreted posts would be like a slap in the face. I want to participate in the forums more actively, but I also want to maintain a rating that shows some sort of credibility within the community.... I am all for a "say something nice or don't say anything at all" mentality, we are all volunteers right? How about a "kudos" type system where we just say Thanks to people for contributing?

[Ray.R]

Well said Matt  🙂

We all contribute to this forum..  and agree with your post.

Thanks!

😄

[Ray.R]

Here is an example of someone giving out 1-star ratings for good answers.  http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=269755

I suspect that the person who gave the ratings is the one who asked the questions, but the answers didn't ... well suit... euh.. didn't provide the desired answer.

The funny part within this thread is that the person asking the question thanked both individuals who provided answers.. Yet, they both got 1-star rationgs when asking for further details.

This is another example of why the 1 to 4 star rating system is not appropriate.  They should never have gotten 1-star rating for trying to help out this new member.

I didn't fix the ratings (yet) so that people could see that while the person asking the question thanked the people trying to help... somehow the thank you affected their overall star average..  (shame!) 😞

Actually, MattH you & parthabe got the 1-stars... I'm sure they'll change soon.. 😉

Message Edited by JoeLabView on 09-06-2007 08:30 AM

[MRedRaider]

Thanks for pointing this out. I went ahead and gave parthabe a 5-star contribution, but that only gets the posting to 3 stars... sigh.

[altenbach]

I have also seen replies that were factually correct, but received a low rating because the person did not like the answer (e.g. "you need to purchase the application builder to do that").

[Ray.R]

I agree Christian... 

They almost need a star-police... 😉

😄

(now I picture Ben with a police outfit and the whirly cap giving out 5-star tickets... LOL!!)

LOL!!

😄

PS:  Matt, told you the ratings would change soon enough!!  😉

Message Edited by JoeLabView on 09-06-2007 01:00 PM

[Ben]

" Ben with a police outfit and the whirly cap giving out 5-star tickets... "*

I used to do by handing out warning tickets (posting advisories) but the task was beyond me and interfeared with my ability to answer Q's.

Ben

*What I could use is another emoticon that looks like the IT guy from Jurasic Park I going "No No No" when they were trying to log in.