Posted on 25 January 15 at 18:06, Edited on 25 January 15 at 18:31 by tornprince2012
Hi everyone!
Have a great week, first of all!
I am writing this idea I got after reading more than forty pages of different threads and poles about votes, solutions, badges and what not.
I know that this issue was not just addressed but chewed over the few past years. And still, I am interested to bring this idea, in a very detailed form to see how people will react to it and what they will think of it. Of course, as you can see in the title, I have no high hopes since I understood through my few last threads that most of people try to "keep as it is and not to change a thing" ( if this is your take, don't bother to respond, would you kindly? ). My grasp on this is very simple - if it works as close to perfect, leave it; but if it can be changed to benefit everyone - why not?
Hope that Rich will find a minute and scroll through this too, there are a lot of technical issues here. I do understand as a default that we are not going to force comments on negative votes and not going to remove negative votes because this is something that Rich ( and many others! ) see as a necessary feature on TA.
This came to me after endless votes, after a lot of reading, as said above and feeling that things can be better here, for users and authors together. I do rage from experiencing unprovoked troll attack but I feel bad no less when I see good people abandon solution writing because of those too ( hey, Sasha! )
So, here it goes...Please read everything before you respond, crush it or bring any improvements (which are more than welcomed). This will look a bit algorithmic just because my thoughts go far ahead of my fingers and I don't want to skip any detail. And remember that all of these are just my thoughts. Hold on!
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First of all, changing the voting system. The closest comparing I can give you is IMDB rating style ( or, for that matters, our game rating system ). Range - from 0.5 stars to full 5 stars. This will change positive-negative meaning BUT not cancel them. People will understand ( I hope ) that if some solution has 2.5 stars, it's probably worse than other that has 4.2 stars.
Key points here would be :
- start counting average rating after X number of votes ( 3,5,10 question mark );
- putting overall number of people that voted on that solution ( X stars according to rating of Y people );
- of course, the highest rated solution will stay at the top ( rating vs people average computing );
- every rating stays anonymous;
- badges stay the same ( important to people ), colors according to range of rating ( let's say 0.5-3; 3-4 and 4-5 ).
Result : satisfying both systems. People won't go crazy about seeing negatives ( psychologically speaking ) and Rich will still be able to let people evaluate solutions right way.
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Second thing : making solutions look like achievement list, for example :
Achievement ABC in game D has 4 solutions -
Solution by E - rated 4.8 stars by 132 people
Solution by F - rated 4.1 stars by 26 people
Solution by G - rated 4.6 stars by 12 people.
Key points :
- people can see the number of people and rating already on the achievement page;
- if the order above is unaccepted, it may be moved to the solution page but instead of showing only the top solution members will be able to see solutions list with ratings;
- nothing changes ( reporting, solution guidelines etc. )
- maybe as an option dual viewing system - either every solution separately or button (settings, NOT default ) that will allow you to see today's system - as a list of every solution detailed, not to show only top solution.
Please, remember, we're not writing solutions for dick-measuring but to help others ( I truly still believe that ), so if someone will decide to check solution that rated 4.8 from 15 people as oppose 4.5 from 80 people - let him do that without going through "positive-negative" routine. As people always say here - the best one will make it way to the top.
Result : one - finally people that wrote solution later then others ( pre-pre-order gamers, another country that doesn't get the game immediately etc. ) will be seen instead of staying as solution number 3 that is hidden on the bottom of the page by default (!) and two - this part of the site will look more clean and in better order.
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And the last one - negative voting and comments! I understand that getting negatives psychologically can disappoint or totally discourage people from writing solutions, which can be a huge loss for this community. So while we taking them by a different approach with a rating system, that does not mean that authors will automatically get perfect score on each of their solutions.
Taking in mind three things - encouraging to rate, commenting on solutions and non-forcing way to do that, these are key points for this part :
- above the solution will be a rating and a number of people who rated it;
- under the solution is an option to comment AND rate ( more people will rate something that will help/already helped them - just because a lot of us lazy to scroll through the solution and rate ( vote today ) it;
- as an option, the prompt to rate can stay in the upper right corner ( instead of previous point or as another place to rate for better convenience );
- once rated below, let's say 3 stars ( or other ), the page will reload itself with a little window that will ask the rating member what he didn't like in solution - this can be ignored and not to work as a pop-up window ( no to pop-up blockers );
- that window will state that the comment is ANONYMOUS, so that people will still have the balls to explain why they didn't like something in that particular solution and stay hidden from the wraith of authors who go and hunt others' solutions for voting negative on theirs;
- authors, and authors only will get a private message with a comments from that negative rating member with an explanation and an option to make the solution better;
- the above can be switched off in settings for those who don't want to deal with it ( I was sure that some people will say that they are against this BUT it's practically the same PM you get when someone comments on your solution );
- once the solution is edited, the rating member will get a PM ( changeable in settings? ) that will let him know that the solution was edited and he is welcome to revisit it.
Well, I hope not a detail was lost in the explanation above.
Result : nobody is forced to do anything; more people see the rating option after they have read the solution ( and not before : a better call for an action ); more comments because of the prompt to comment and stay anonymous; higher chance for the authors to edit and make their solution better.
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My brain is boiling now, and still I feel that I forgot something. Anyway, I do understand that this will take a lot of coding and technical work, if someone had any doubt. I do. Despite it, I believe that this change ( in any variation ) will make this site better, our community happier and friendlier. Am I making up words now?
Happy to hear your thoughts, whatever they may be.