WiserEarth Paris
Paris plus Sage
Un groupe Wiser Earth à Paris, avec pour objectifs (entre autres) de rassembler les membres locaux de la communauté WE, soutenir le développement du WE en français, créer un pôle européen pour le développement de WE, promouvoir les synergies locales etc. Ce groupe sera ce que nous en ferons, WE (nous) les parisiens, banlieusards et provinciaux du monde entie ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Nov 25, 2008
Updated: Nov 27, 2009
Membership: Open
Semi-Private
Decouple ratings from comments
Problem
Not very many people are using the WE rating system.
Suggestion
Decouple ratings from comments: to encourage more feedback on WE.
Discussion
I am sure that requiring a comment in order to rate something was done to promote more feedback, but it actually, I believe, has the opposite effect because it takes away one of the most popular ways that people on the Internet like to give feedback--just a simple rating (without requiring a comment).
Ratings are very important. I think that they should be encouraged as much as possible. If someone wants to give more complex feedback, they will write a comment.
Comments (1 - 10 of 10)
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@Celeste: Thanks for the feedback.
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Just to add another view that supports what you've been saying, I found it initially confronting to have to write a comment when all I wanted to do was say this record is great (which seemed like a trite thing to write as a comment). It would be nice to first give the rating and then a get a option to leave a comment.
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I've been a recent convert (I was the one who pushed for the five stars in the first place) to simplicity of UI usage and comprehension. Users are clearly (a) not using ratings - from what I understand they don't understand what the standards are for a 1 or a 5 star and they find it complex because of the need to write a comment and rate at the same time and (b) working around it by doing the virtual thumbs up (five stars). So I would be in favor of listening to them and adopting what they are already doing...... as for displaying the info a commulative number of thumbs up sounds simple enough and gets the message across.
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I would suggest something like this page, http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/communities-&-groupware/ratings-&-reviews, where it shows the average positive vote percentage as a five-star rating. But also have a little thumbs up and a thumbs down symbol next to it for (logged-in) users to cast their own vote. This could be placed right where the current rating indicators are on the web pages (though you might want to remove the current rating indicators that are below the comment entry fields, to keep the page cleaner).
It would be really cool if the five-star rating and number of ratings indicators would instantaneously update. More so if there would be some indication if/how you had already voted and to be able to change your vote. |
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Well then, that clarifies things. Thumbs up, thumbs down sounds good.
The question now is, how do we decouple? (read: how do we translate that to the user interface?) |
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I would go one step further and change the rating system into a thumbs up (and possibly thumbs down). The reality that is how people are using it - giving a 5 or 4 star for the most point. More a 'this is great' kind of signal!
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"people sometimes forget to add their rating when clearly, their comment is effectively rating the page"
When you're forced to give a comment, people can easily think that that is the way to rate something, or forget that they need to officially rate it as well.... Basically, there is a redundancy: People want to rate but must comment to do that. They comment to rate, not thinking that an official rating is also important (as it would feel redundant). This is another reason why decoupling ratings from comments is important. |
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Although I still prefer people add comment to give meaning to their ratings, decoupling them makes sense. Seems to be that best practice is as what Bret said, rating does not require comment (is it?).
I wonder what others think? Was the reason to necessitate comment is as what Bret said? Has anyone else heard complaints/feedback about the pairing of ratings with comment?
One thing I observe is actually the reverse of Bret's concern, which is, people sometimes forget to add their rating when clearly, their comment is effectively rating the page (great video!... this is recommended reading... etc.). Do we have a usability issue here? |
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I am making a rating, Internet ugh.
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I'm not sure what the rating system should ultimately look like, but I agree with the basic gist. I'd like to see the comments requirement removed!
I'm in favor of what Angus has suggested, a cumulative number of "thumbs up", like what digg has. An item could be voted "up" or "down", but only the number of "up" votes are displayed. If there are more "down" votes than "up" votes, the item is then hidden or "buried" on digg, but perhaps an option for WE is to then give it a "0" rating. I like how digg also has a public history of the "up" or "down" voters.
I think a ratings system that is widely adopted by WE users is key to solving the issues of filtering and sorting the enormous volume of info. on the site (For example: Sort organizations/resources/etc by popularity/most votes).