There has now been a full revision of the Blog Rating scheme. This is a synthesis of all our past iterations, and the feedback received so far. Previously, there was discriminatory marking - Admins were given the ability to award +/- 5, and the rest of the members +/-2 The predominance of negative ratings for some posts, resulted in anguish and controversy. Other schemes were suggested - to make it like Google (+1) or Facebook (like/dislike). Such schemes were considered too generic for this site.
Thereafter, the system was made more uniform - everyone was able to award a +2 for posts they liked - negative ratings were removed. This system had some drawbacks - with the inability to award negative ratings...
more... for bad posts, the system turned bland and the enthusiasm to award positive ratings depleted as well, and there was little activity with ratings.
The new system represents a subtle psychological shift, and represents a summation of all our past efforts. It was pending completion for some time, lacking something. Our Admin Pradyu provided the key missing ingredient yesterday, providing an emotional spur to make it into a full implementation. Thanks Pradyu and other members for the feedback and suggestions.
Salient features:
1. The word rating/voting is not used anymore. These are opinions. Everyone has a right to their opinion and need not offer an explanation for the same.
2. The Positive opinions are - Thank you, Great and Funny. Among these, only the "Great" opinion is somewhat of a judgement. The others are personal feelings of the person expressing the opinion, and cannot be debated. For example, a questioner is thanking the person answering his question. The "Great Comment/Question" also gives us the ability to applaud for example, a very brief one-line question by an anonymous guest that may have spurred a long and useful discussion. In the previous system, great questions were seldom acknowledged. Only the answers were rated.
3. The Negative opinions - BP & Insult - are deeply personal feelings and cannot be debated or contested by others. Bloggers may not complain that they are receiving a lot of "BP" opinions. For example, if there is a controversial comment against members of a particular railway zone, or if there is a comment against a certain member/admin, they have a full right to express that their BP is getting raised on reading that comment. Same goes for "Insult". These are personal feelings and these opinions only say what the reader is feeling. There is no judgement on other aspects of the post.
4. Scores: There are no explicit scores. Scores work in the background, and are never displayed. You can only see how many people find the post useful or are thanking you and so forth. The only purpose of the score is for getting the Gold Star. A total background score of greater than +20 gets a Gold Star. If a comment gets +21 or +101, it makes no difference at all. You will still just see the same Gold Star. Similarly, there are no negative scores. Whether a blog gets +19 or -100, it still has the same exact status. The background aspect of scoring is just to find out if a comment has received a total aggregate of > 20 or < 20. That's all. Nothing else makes any difference.
5. Breakdown: "Thank you" and "Great" are highly positive opinions, and receive a background score of +5. "BP" and "Insult" are highly negative opinions and receive a score of -5. "Useful" & "Funny" get a score of +2. These invisible scores are only to find out if a comment gets an aggregate of > 20 or not.
The new system works equally for all members and Admins. Members are being given the chance to say "Thank you" or complain that their "BP is getting raised" - they are not awarding marks or judging anyone.
Once again, thanks everyone for the suggestions and feedback.