Forum Moderators: open
I also read Slashdot daily. I like that the users can rate the post quality, and then I can read only the highest quality contributions. It saves time. I can scan lengthy threads much more quickly focusing on the gems.
Could we build a system similar to that? Maybe just a "plus/minus" option for each post. Presumably, the highest quality posts would get lots of pluses and attract my attention (and others like me). I would find more gems, and spend less time mining.
What do you think?
if i made what i considered to be a quality or worthwhile post, which was then graded as some kind of negative - i'd be a little put out, infact depending on my mood i could be even a little upset, and this would affect my future posting (or lack thereof)
point 2.
peer voting is not always effective, not everyone has equal value as a judge! shock horror!
point 3.
we come here for different reasons, some to pick up a vague concept and then work with the idea, others to get very specific help with a bit of code, for others the value of this place is merely a sense of belonging in the otherwise lonely world of working alone, etc etc the resasons go on.
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my considered view would be - no thanks to voting: although your point is good and i think the concept behind the idea is sound, i think it could be better addressed by us all taking responsibility and writing decent titles and descriptions if we start a thread.
For me, WebmasterWorld is about sharing knowledge and helping each other out just for the sake of helping. It's about creating and contributing to an atmosphere where any question can be asked and lots of smart people will try to answer, not because they're on an ego trip, but because they want to help.
I'm afraid "post voting" would quickly change that atmosphere and cost WebmasterWorld one of it's top benefits: it's not only a place to get great info and advice, but a friendly place to get great info and advice.
cEM
There's one IT forum out there where the original poster indicates whose solution they picked and that person gets points...gimme a break.
No offense, but that particular forum (EE?) works in a different way than this one. Here it's more of a community, people talk nonsense, ask questions and notwithstanding the general topic of each subforum, it's fairly unstructured - over there it's more of a answer database. Experts get awarded for points which they earn for 'answers', not general comments. When I have a technical question I don't know the answer for, nor I can't seem to find it on a search on G, that's where I go to, and that's exactly what I get. The point system provides for (different degrees of) incentive , where a really difficult topic might go unanswered elsewhere.
I think it works great over there. Like I said, it's not a community though.
Having said that - regarding the 'voting' maybe this could be implemented for 'higher' level users. Anyone sticking on WebmasterWorld for 300 posts or so probably see this as a home and thus have some sense of ownership as far as the quality of the posts or whatnot.
To compare to the Everquest example (which I know nothing about) - does the voting system work for anyone with an account? that is definitely asking for trouble. (not to mention the crowd over there is a lot less mature than the folks here)....
I think a voting system, the specifics of which need to be sorted out, would help summarize the content of all the forums. Perhaps it's a user specific page, that once we're logged in, we can go to this page and see the top voted articles, much like the 'recent posts' function.
