No more balls - for now

CSR_Admin

Administrator
Staff member
Mar 10, 2004
5,113
I am going to remove the user rating system until I can figure out a better way to implement it. Since some members are not able to take it seriously other members feel it is actually detrimental instead of helpful. So its gone. I have literally not received one PM or pressure from anybody either way about this. I had my personal doubts and talking to Wesley realized he had his doubts too so its best to just turn it off for now. If anybody has a good idea for how to roll it out differently next time please post those ideas in the Suggestions section.
 
I feel so little.:lol::smt043:lol: Sorry could not help myself.

I think you did the right thing Jim & Wes, It did not appear to be working.
 
I was just curious why you felt it was working previously but at this point you don't.

Doug
 
Now I can say it since I don't have any balls to take away. I don't care what anybody says, the system wasn't working like it should. Yesterday I saw a spammer with 3 posts, all junk yet 2 green balls. Today, a newb with 2 posts and 2 balls. Many shot up overnight from 2-3 to 6+. Glad to see it gone. SB
 
I was striving to achieve my goal of 2 balls. I think eventually I would have made it. Now I am just another eunuch and I don't like that either.
 
I am going to remove the user rating system until I can figure out a better way to implement it. Since some members are not able to take it seriously other members feel it is actually detrimental instead of helpful. So its gone. I have literally not received one PM or pressure from anybody either way about this. I had my personal doubts and talking to Wesley realized he had his doubts too so its best to just turn it off for now. If anybody has a good idea for how to roll it out differently next time please post those ideas in the Suggestions section.

Thanks ... I was uncomfortable being called "an unknown entity" :grin:
 
If anybody has a good idea for how to roll it out differently next time please post those ideas in the Suggestions section.

Jim,

I’d like to make my comments based on the assumption that it’s the feature that we would like to be included in the site, but it has to be tuned before it reaches to satisfactory level. If that’s the case, then as with any application, it’s necessary to know the base model and criteria (rules) the original functionality was built on. After reviewing the details of current functionality we can start pointing the weak areas and start suggestion enhancements.

I’m not a WEB developer and I don’t know what tools you guys use to control the site’s features, but similar principals and logic applies when building any application. I would start with raising few questions like:
  • Which part of the feature didn’t work as expected?
  • Was it too easy or too difficult to understand and/or use?
  • What percentage of members didn’t use it properly or simply abused it?

I’m sure you have a database behind the WEB UI, which has members table. I think that by adding few flag fields that would add more detailed level of qualification and control for members to use the feature can help. For example:

Let say we add the following flag fields (Y/N):
- Reputation_Grace_Points (this field restricts members with < 100, or whatever you decide points)
- Rutation_Grace_Period (this field restricts members that signed up only 3 months, or whatever time frame you pick)
- Reputation_Strike (this field restricts members with > 10, or whatever # you feel is appropriate, red balls)

So, if a member has all flags = “Y” he’s authorized to rate a post, otherwise a member doesn’t have ability to access the feature. This type of validation would restrict new members that have limited knowledge and members with negative feedback messing things up for others. In other words, a member has to earn his right to vote and would loose it if his reputation drops. Along with this I think you should make some things have easier access. E.g. I still don’t know how to know or see if anyone gave me a red ball and why. This brings me to the next item of submitting negative feedback (red balls). I think that by adding some qualification flag fields and reason may help as well.

These are just some quick ideas I had after reading your post. I’m sure we’ll live without the feature, but if you think that it’ll make the site better, I think there’s a way to make it work. Every problem has a solution.

BTW, if you think if I’m out of line and/or the way the site works is very different, simply ignore my post.

Regards,
Alex.
 
I was just curious why you felt it was working previously but at this point you don't.

Doug

When did I say I didn't feel it was working? The members that were most helpful were the ones that had multiple balls.

Alex, all those flags were in place.
 
I think it was silly that the balls went to such great numbers, and that once a person had big ball numbers, he had huge influence up and down on any one person.

In other words - one or two balls total would seem to be more functional.
 
Personally, I thought they were a distraction. I think we have more threads about the damn balls then we do about cored hulls. Now if there were a way to cash in the balls, then that would be another story.
 
No balls for you!
Seinfeld-Soup-Nazi.jpg


Now what are some going to going to bitch about?
 
Personally, I thought they were a distraction. I think we have more threads about the damn balls then we do about cored hulls. Now if there were a way to cash in the balls, then that would be another story.

What? You didn't get your checks?
 
When did I say I didn't feel it was working? The members that were most helpful were the ones that had multiple balls.

Alex, all those flags were in place.

Jim,
We must be missing something here. I assume there was something with the feature that didn’t make it satisfying in one way or the other. If all was fine, I guess it would be still activated. It might have working fine technically, but not meeting all user needs. You said I am going to remove the user rating system until I can figure out a better way to implement it. Since some members are not able to take it seriously other members feel it is actually detrimental instead of helpful.”

So, it comes down to one question, what in your opinion is the problem?

You’re saying that all the flags are in place, but I think we need to add more to tighten the rules and make it more restrictive. I also agree with John (Hampton) that the number of balls (either red or green) should be limited. There’s no reason to have 8 balls. If you rate members on the scale from 0-5 it should be plenty. If everyone knows that 5 is the highest score, this is good enough to let members know that a particular member has excellent knowledge. For this we don’t need 8-10 balls. I also think that number of posts shouldn’t drive the points in any way (not sure if it does now). But, we shouldn’t have a race like “I need 30 more points to get another green ball). I see number of members staying active in political posts while providing minimal info when it comes to specific boating issues.

So, ones again, until we highlight the problem we can’t find a solutions.

Alex.
 
Last edited:
Pretty much everything has been said for now about the ball system except one other thing and that is it was never obvious how to use it or what the balls meant to many people, especially new people.
 
Personally, I thought they were a distraction. I think we have more threads about the damn balls then we do about cored hulls.
Very much in agreement, this board is self policing. If someone posts a bone headed suggestion, the other members would/do pound that individual into submission and then some. The balls are not and never were needed.

Totally agree with these posts. Good riddance!

If you just HAVE to bring it back I think the only way you're ever going to keep it real is to remove the anonymity factor. People should be willing to be held accountable for their 'votes'.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,890
Members
60,933
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top