"Rating" threads

[Guest]

I was wondering if anyone else thinks it might be a helpful idea to "rate" the weekly CE music list threads that Draco posts with the maximum five stars. (You use the button top right when you read a thread). It's been done with the current thread from Canterbury, and it really stands out.

That way, when the boards get fuller (as it seems now that they will, after such a good start to the forum), we will easily be able to pick out these from amongst any other more general threads about singing and choral stuff in general that we might post.

I don't generally use these buttons anyway for other things - and it seems from a quick look around that I'm not alone! - they they aren't really used much at all.

I suppose this would help, more than anyone, those who post less frequently and aren't perhaps as familiar with the various topics from week to week.

Anyway, I throw it out as an idea for discussion. It wouldn't be "enforceable" as such, of course, but we all get on well on here and it could become a convention...?

Any views?

[jean]

Oh dear - I've just voted your idea 'terrible' to see if I could...and now I see I can't retract my vote!

(I really don't think it's a very good idea, though.)

[french frank]

Er-um. Have to admit I've been waging a secret war on rating threads, trying to disable them. But without startling success, it seems. I'm not terribly convinced of their usefulness, and my personal, private, individual preference is for a board that isn't cluttered with all the things that you can do if you want to but most people don't bother. If ordered by the management I will make them fully available (if they aren't already). Things like avatars are fine because if people don't want to look at them they can turn them off.

[Anna]

Sorry Simon, Choral Evensong, Variously Rated, sounds like a suggestion from Sydney Grew! Not a good idea and bound to cause divisions when people see their favourite Cathedral Choir not receiving the maxiumum number of votes. So, I voted Terrible for your idea.

[Eudaimonia]

I don't like ratings threads either. Who needs to see the result of a "popularity contest"--or even worse, the handiwork of some crafty soul gaming the system? No thanks.

[jean]

It's also not clear whether you'd be rating the quality of the contributions on the thread, or the performance that gave rise to it.

If you look at the only other thread here that's been rated, either assumption seems to be nonsense.

[french frank]

It's also not clear whether you'd be rating the quality of the contributions on the thread, or the performance that gave rise to it.

If you look at the only other thread here that's been rated, either assumption seems to be nonsense.

True. I also can't see how to tell how many people have rated it. Any clues anywhere? If there isn't a general custom to rate threads, one person's vote could stand at or .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It all sounds a bit Channel 4-ish. I prefer just to discuss things.

[Simon]

Oh I am sorry. I didn't make what I meant clear enough - though a re-read of my post CAREFULLY leaves little doubt!!

I didn't mean that each CE should be "rated" as an opinion of how good etc it was - I'd be as much against that as anyone and it would be pointless, as you've said.

What I meant was that if we don't use the stars for anything else - and we don't seem to, as I said - could we not habitually and automatically "rate" each weekly CE thread with 5 stars simply to differentiate that thread itself from the other discussions about singing, choirs etc. That way, I thought, the weekely CE threads would be easier to find and check back on when the board gets fuller of other subjects - just look for the obvious stars and there are the CE threads! Like you can now!

But it was only an idea - no big deal, no worries, if nobody else thinks it would be helpful.

bws S-S!

[Simon]

just look for the obvious stars and there are the CE threads! Like you can now!

Or rather, like you could if this thread hadn't been given 2 stars!

But ignore the two stars and you see what I was meaning.

[Martin]

Hey... perhaps we should all text the Breakfast prog every Monday morning with our 'thread of the week' recommendation! That would be in the spirit of things, wouldn't it? Then maybe the Forum would get a bit of publicity...

[french frank]

Theoretically, it could work, though it presupposes that everyone knows, all the time, what aspect they're rating. But you can't make people use the system, and I'm still not sure how you tell whether ten have voted or just one person and the rest don't want to bother.

[StephenO]

Hey... perhaps we should all text the Breakfast prog every Monday morning with our 'thread of the week' recommendation! That would be in the spirit of things, wouldn't it? Then maybe the Forum would get a bit of publicity...

Great idea. Then maybe we could turn it into a specialist chart! "And this week's Number One Thread is..."

Actually I'm not keen on the idea of rating threads. We all have different ideas on what makes an informative/entertaining discussion. It might have been interesting to see what sort of ratings some of the more contentious threads on the old board would have got, though. An 18 certificate, perhaps?

[jean]

I see now that Simon is suggesting we use the rating system to do something which is not in any sense 'rating' at all.

This could be even more confusing.

If the CE threads need to be any more obviously labelled than by being called 'CE' in the thread title, wouldn't another sub-board be better?

[jean]

No-one thought this was a good idea, and yet someone is doing it. Why?