Blog Rating/Voting: To encourage higher quality in blog postings, the blog rating system has now been enhanced. As before, you can vote on any blog post by clicking on the thumbsup/thumbsdown buttons on the right side of each blog post/reply.
Guest users are allowed to vote - 1 vote will be accepted from a single IP address. Members/Admins are allowed one vote per person for each blog post/reply.
The following points system is assigned to votes.
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Guest users: 1 point per vote - either +1 or -1 depending on the vote.
2. Members: 2 points per vote - can go either +2 or -2 depending on the vote.
3. Admins: 5 points per vote - can go either -5 or +5 for each vote.
When a Blog Post/Reply gets lower than -10, it is automatically hidden from view. The header will still be visible - so you will know who posted it and when. But, to view the contents, readers will have to explicitly click on a link.
When a Blog Post/Reply gets more than 20 points, a gold star appears to the right.
In the future, this overall rating score vis a vis points will be reflected in the User Profile (just like the Prediction Accuracy metric).
The Delete button will still be available to Admins to remove offensive posts - but these are the extreme cases. The negative rating/hide scheme will take care of the vast majority of cases where the post was disapproved by many, but still did not meet the criterion for a Delete.
The new democratic system is hoped to spur a higher quality of blog posts. This is still a somewhat experimental feature, and further modifications will be made based on feedback.
All Admins & Members, who have had concerns regarding the quality of the forum, are encouraged to vote actively, and thereby control the overall tone and discourse.

@moderator: Entry# 78828
Followup to previous: The Blog Rating of posts will be used to bubble up popular useful Blog Entries to the top, which will be displayed in a new tab - "Popular Posts".
The blog rating scheme is being given importance due to the recognition that all posts are not equal. There are some blog posts which are very well researched, and deserved to be at the top. Other posts are rather casual, and may not carry value, over the long run.
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above grading scheme will ensure that good posts are not lost to history.
Many other ranking schemes of blog posts will also be added to allow readers to quickly get quality information.

@guest: Re# 78828-2
Thanks for the query.
Each person (either member or guest ip address) gets 1 vote per blog post. 1 vote per button pair. To clarify, if a Blog Entry has a total of 5 replies. Then each guest has 6 votes - one for the main entry, and one of each of the replies. The same holds for members/admins as well.
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you vote multiple times, then your initial vote is changed. New votes are not added.
So, if you vote positive, that blog post gets to +1. Then if you change your mind and press the down button, it goes back to 0. One more down get it to -1. Further down clicks will not affect the rating.

@guest: Re# 78828-13
OK, thanks a lot for your thoughts.
All bloggers are requested to actively vote on Blog Posts. This is your chance to have your voice heard regarding good vs. bad posts / concerns about the quality of the forum, etc.
Repeat: Low rated posts are buried, but not deleted. Anyone who actually wants to read such posts can always do so...
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by choice, by explicitly clicking and choosing to view them.
Thanks.