101 replies to this topic

[japro]

What always confuses me about something as simple as a "like" button is that I don't know on which "scale" I'm supposed to rate the post. Do I "like" the way it is presented? Was the content useful to me? do I agree with what was written?

So for example when I'm reading a thread in the more technical forums I "like" posts that I learn something from. Generally posts that explain something in a understandable way ("was this helpful?"-button) or even ones that just point me into the right direction. Posts I'd vote down would be the ones that I know are incorrect, in which case I'd also try to answer and address the issue.
But then when I open my own thread with a question I suddenly feel like I should thank everyone who tried to help me, even if he misread my question. So now I'm treating the button like a "thank you" button. In the lounge I'd want to "like" stuff that has an entertainment value to me, like a post in a funny picture thread or an interesting point in a discussion (even if I don't fully agree). Someone else will probably rate the same post in the discussion based on whether he agrees or not.

So by using something as generic as a "like" button you just end up rating arbitrary (and maybe orthogonal) properties on an arbitrary scale and then somehow represent them in a single number.

For the technical forums I'd just go with a "this was helpful"-button and a "disagree/incorrect"-button for which you somehow have to give a reason (basically a variant of the quote button). If you really want it to be fancy you could weight the "disagree" post based on how many people disagree with the disagree . In the more off-topic forums I'd go with no rating at all since you'd have to either make a very complicated tagging system or end up with another meaningless number since there is no way to enforce or even suggest a unique scale to rate on.

[way2lazy2care]

With 2,321 posts you really got the short end of the stick with 56 rep points then. As a technical point. if one starts an account and posts one post.. two people can vote that post up, thus allowing their reputation to exceed the total number of posts. The actual ceiling is infinite, which makes 56 look even smaller.

The lounge kills reputation if you are even a little bit controversial. Being a libertarian catholic, I was doomed from the start.

What always confuses me about something as simple as a "like" button is that I don't know on which "scale" I'm supposed to rate the post. Do I "like" the way it is presented? Was the content useful to me? do I agree with what was written?

This is kind of the best argument against a like/dislike button for me. It's very ambiguous and makes the reputation kind of useless. Someone can be a helpful asshole and have low rep. Someone can also be a non-controversial asshole and get high rep. Someone could be unhelpful but very nice and even bow out after they've been corrected and have low rep. Even more of the problem is that you have to factor in the type of people that will generally vote and how frequently they will vote. For example, I only ever vote on things that make me laugh or things that have a huge correct information density, I'm sure some people vote on everything, and others probably don't vote period. Others will just vote for people they like/don't like every time they see them regardless of post content (vocal minority problem).

The disagree/agree vs unhelpful/helpful ambiguity hurts it the most though imo. It would almost make sense to have 2 different rep systems.