I hate the idea of "earned privileges" in internet communities. I don't like having classes of netizen. But I dislike even more the abuse currently being applied to the ratings system. A casual tour of the newly transparent ratings makes it more than obvious that the majority of negative ratings are being handed out by idiots with an agenda rather than good-faith posters trying to promote good posts and demote undesirable ones.

So understand that what I'm about to suggest is something I'd rather not see in normal circumstances: Allow only those posters with a (somewhat significant) history of posting to rate posts. Require a minimum number of posts and a minimum number of days since registration before enabling the Rate This Topic feature. It'll make your job of squashing abusers more easy since an empty, vapid posting history built for the purpose of attacking others will be self-evident.

At the very least you can force these assholes to make a significant investment in their sociopathy.

And I believe that all the sockpuppets are a single poster, who is truly dangerously looney.

one oughtn't attempt to cure psychopathology by reconstituting the system.

simply succor the poor dears to death. allow them to create and use as many puppets as they like. when they come to see how ridiculously they are behaving, they will then cease of their own accord.

in the meanwhile, let the rest of us not contribute further to absurdity by investing our time and efforts.

yours truly,
nanny

That would make him/her a truly energetic looney. You gotta admire the dedication I suppose (not really).

I'm kinda/sorta back I guess. Singularly unmotivated to make a top-post these days, though.

(p.s. to techies: return of the black-hole post-swallower? Good thing the previous Fray taught me to copy my post text into the clipboard before committing...)

The jury's still out on you. I haven't been able to detect an obvious agenda in your overzealous downrating. Possibly you believe your mission statement. Of course you're largely wrong in your quality assessments (not always!) but I'm more than willing to chalk that up to good ol' difference of opinion.

Course if the PTB take my advice you'll have to spend a little time polishing this particular puppet to credible levels.

that you are suggesting a return to the star system even more empowered than the former?

Frankly, I'm all for it and also elect just one star per board and give them the honor, duty, and stewardship of scoring that board. Let the boards vote their own star, and voila! I know run75441 will zealously award Bottomline the recommends they deserve, but we have no problems to speak of; want to see a professional board? Go count the recommendations at our board. No one bothers with those silly rating clicks, we are more into actually saying something and responding to ideas of the top posts.

(or one that has been found after being lost)..... the rating system will be used and abused for a while.

And then it will settle down.

If you can't stand the way it's being abused, go to the "views" side for a bit, then come back when people have gotten tired of playing the ratings.

Hopefully it will be sooner than later, but who knows?

Jen

you are thinking like an editor; they do want readership, that is the real mission. If the kiddies are amusing themselves playing with the toys; mission accomplished!

NannyMcPhee:

one oughtn't attempt to cure psychopathology by reconstituting the system.

simply succor the poor dears to death. allow them to create and use as many puppets as they like. when they come to see how ridiculously they are behaving, they will then cease of their own accord.

in the meanwhile, let the rest of us not contribute further to absurdity by investing our time and efforts.

yours truly,
nanny

*****************************

Hello NannyMcPhee… (since we can't rate posts) √ +

I agree…and…
I did knock.
But I fear you’ll have warts for quite some time yet.

Even though I share the relative optimism, uncertainty, and patience of Jen01.

…Looking forward to your surface beauty :-)

~ Galatea

I'm not suggesting that rating be reserved for some "top echelon". Merely that would-be raters have to have some proven investment in the system. Requiring some bar that's not too hard to clear unless you're trying to do it for your five sockpuppets is probably sufficient (I'm not sure what that might be... 100 posts? 200? More?).

If constructed cleverly by the techies, it could even become another weapon in the Freditor's arsenal for taming abusers (along with deletion, flushing, and banning): reset the rate count requiring flagrant abusers to qualify yet again before they're allowed to rate (just free-associating right now).

If the old Fray (and other similar online communities) have taught us anything at all, it's that these trolls are unflaggingly dedicated to their craft. We'll certainly see these behaviors wax and wane but they'll always be with us. I'm just looking for a way to slow down all but the most dedicated.

well, yeah, that sounds credible. But why bother? If you just want the kiddies to grow up; why not write one of those touching, awe inspiring top posts that changes the whole generation the moment they read it? I'm not sure how to write such an epistle but I think you could do it; do a search on Galatea and copy all her cool artwork for the subject line; that way, everyone will open it, just to see what it is.

It is out of control, at least on BOTF. Jen 01 is right, you can always switch to views. But since the frontpage of the Fray now highlights "highly rated" posts, the sockpuppet patrol now means that posts which should be highly rated aren't. In other words, some of the best posts are being beaten down by the loons. So either ditch the ratings system entirely, or do something like what skitch is suggesting.

I know you're a deeper thinker than that.