ratings?

[WRX22B1998]

whats with the star ratings, like on topics.

and on user profiles.

is it a measure of popularity or something?

[Nate10]

Ratings on a members page show how decent the person is on a scale of one to five. One being the worst and five ofcourse being the best. For topics, it's the same thing pretty much. You get the point, right?

In all honesty though, it's a nice feature and I personally like the rating system but ratings(especially on a member)don't matter much and lots of times aren't accurate.....

Edited August 8, 2008 by Nate14

[WRX22B1998]

so how do you measure decency of a topic

[EvoLuTioN]

If the members feel that a topic is good or bad they can just click on the rating option on the first post of the topic and select the number of stars they want to give the topic according to how they like it. Most of the members are not aware of this probably, Cause I rarely see anyone using it.

[WRX22B1998]

aha oh ok. lol

i thought it was some automatic thing or something. whatever

[Chris]

Yeah it's probably the single most pointless feature they could add to the forum software. Topic ratings make sense but users? Yeah it's pretty much never used by anyone, there's no option to turn it off in the admin panel either.

[Gerard]

Ratings on a members page show how decent the person is on a scale of one to five.

Not true. That may be what it is intended for, but there is nothing to regulate what people think or vote. 99% of votes won't have anything to do with the decency of the person, but just how much of a friend to the voter they are.

[MrLlamaLlama]

Ratings on a members page show how decent the person is on a scale of one to five.

Not true. That may be what it is intended for, but there is nothing to regulate what people think or vote. 99% of votes won't have anything to do with the decency of the person, but just how much of a friend to the voter they are.

But the more 'decent' a member is, the more friends they are likely to have, which would result in a higher rating. If a member is nothing but a douchebag, and isn't popular, their rating will be lower.

[Gerard]

Problem is... noobs have friends.

Even the idiots at your school will have friends (who are also idiots). Noobs here will be voted up by other noobs, who think they are funny/clever or whatever.

And in fact, most normal people won't bother rating because its meaningless. I never rate anyone. So that instantly means that the people I like will have a lower rating.

[Nate10]

Ratings on a members page show how decent the person is on a scale of one to five.

Not true. That may be what it is intended for, but there is nothing to regulate what people think or vote. 99% of votes won't have anything to do with the decency of the person, but just how much of a friend to the voter they are.

That's why I added at the bottom that it isn't usually accurate.

@ Mr.LlamaLlama and Gerard-

I've seen what you've said multiple times, you're both correct.

[Thomas.]

I very little of the time use the Ratings button in the profiles. If I do it is when I am bored. I do rate my closest friends and all that but I haven't in a long time. I do take notice of some peoples ratings and I have at one point commented in someones comment box. (in Scott's saying "Who the f*ck voted you down to 3-Stars")

The topic ratings however are rather pointless, people really only rate the topics they themselves make. (I don't but I have seen it happen before and I have done it before (Last Year)) Each topic has it's own quality and if someone votes it to 1-star then nobody will take notice of it because nobody really cares, I don't and I'm sure everyone who has been here more than a year doesn't either. Pointless Addition in my view.