ATS Thread Voting System to be removed...

After reviewing our thread voting system, it's clear that it may be time to remove the voting process. Most are voting either 1 or 10, and after reviewing some of the 1 votes, it's clear that board drama influences votes of 1. Here's the tally: Total votes: 11,472 votes of 1 -- 4,207 -- 36.7% votes of 2 -- 309 --- 2.7% votes of 3 -- 205 --- 1.8% votes of 4 -- 195 --- 1.7% votes of 5 -- 319 --- 2.7% votes of 6 -- 439 --- 3.8% votes of 7 -- 568 --- 5% votes of 8 -- 647 --- 5.6% votes of 9 -- 526 --- 4.6% votes of 10 - 4,057 -- 35.4% It's too bad that a fair system like this could not be used for all of us to help new users and non-members understand which of our threads deserve notice. Apparently, most of you are not able to vote fairly on the merits of a thread's content, but instead vote according to your opinion of the author. The voting system will be removed shortly.

I wonder if it would work better if only a positive vote could be made, no down voting.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

It's too bad that a fair system like this could not be used for all of us to help new users and non-members understand which of our threads deserve notice. Apparently, most of you are not able to vote fairly on the merits of a thread's content, but instead vote according to your opinion of the author.

Opinions of authors are normally based on what they write, so where is the problem there? I'm guilty of marking 1s and 10s but I do so because I either strongly agree or disagree with the subject. I don't use the numbers in between because if I don't strongly agree/disagree, I don't see the point. If a thread starter gives his opinion and is able to back it up well, I don't penalise him by giving him a 1.
I don't see the points system as making that much difference in what we view here. The Most Viewed Threads box and the Most Replied Threads box are far better indicators for what's worth looking at.

Personally, I would leave the voting system as it is. It doesn't do any harm and even though it may not be a great indicator or entirely fair, it does help sometimes. If I see a thread that is clearly getting a 2 or a 3 it's pretty obvious that the majority of posters here think that it is a waste of time following up on.

I think this is a step in the right direction. The Voting System was a good idea in theory but not in practice. As far as selecting which threads deserve attention maybe a new panel could be set up to select the best of the best of ATS and have a section dedicated to the best threads. Maybe that could be a solution.

I think a thread recomendation system would be better.

I myself mainly vote 10's on threads I find very interesting and valuable in content.
Thats pritty much the same as recommending a thread.

Giving ratings from 1 to 10 is something I don't like to do to start with. Doesn't matter if its on info or people.

For me, you have people, info, technology and other things that are normal, or people, info, technology and other things that deserve a recommendation.

How about just tweaking the system?
I guess most of the negative use of the voting system would take place as soon as the author has posted it. Once other people post though, the thread then becomes a debate and it's hard to mark something with conflicting arguments within it.
Why not make it so that a thread can only be voted on if it has more than ten replies?

Sorry. But to maintain the voting limitations, I've had to record which members votes on which thread (and their vote). In a simple random sampling of 20 1-votes and 20 10-votes, it's obvious friends are giving friends 10's, and those with grudges are giving people 1-votes. I'd say at least half of both the 10's and 1's I looked at fell into this category. A not-minor effort went into creating this process of commenting on thread quality, and less than half are actually using it for that. Time to kill it.

i agree SO, plus I am sure you will come with something new and better in time to reflect the quality of threads than voting...plus there is nothing wrong with the Most viewed and most replied to options currently available.

i'm glad to see it go.

I agree with Skeptic, the voting system serves no real purpose on ATS other than a political one.

How about paying for each vote with points. Or even paying 2,000 or 3,000 for the voting system to be enabled. That way, only the ones serious about voting will have access to it.

Another idea is to limit the amount of 1's and 10's you can give out.

One more and I'll stop. How about a or vote. Tallying up the amount of each for the thread. Example:

Thread votes. 15 and 8

Just trying to help salvage the hard work you put into it SO.

[Edited on 5-27-2004 by darklanser]

I appreciate the work that SkepticOverlord must have put into creating the voting system, and have used it on occasion, and not in the 1 or 10 capacity.

Maybe a or , would be a simplified voting system.

If the voter gives the thread a , then they are no longer able to go back and input to the thread (some work involved here). They will always have the choice not to vote at all.

Doh..!! I see darklanser beat me to it, well done..!!

[Edited on 27-5-2004 by Koka]

The thread ranking system sucks. I'm happy I stuck to my original plan and never used it.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thread reliability pourcents votes. People should vote not for the quality of the post but for the probablity of one information of getting real.

You can try something like :

100% - reliable source information
75% -Maybe it's true
50% -Maybe it's not
25% -certainly not
0% -Big Hoax

Some other boards have a system like that.

More about my enlighted idea :
www.abovetopsecret.com...

sorry to hear its going. I do admit, when I did use the voting system, I did use just one and ten most of the time, but it was not because of the author, it was the post.

lol.............I never even used it !



I forgot about it !

Deep

I going back up what was said, it was a great idea but it didn't really work that well. Maybe it will return in the near future

I kind of liked the voting system, I used to sometimes to decide if I wanted to read a thread by the ranking score, but that kind of goes with what SO is saying a guess. Could miss some good threads if you do that because people didnt agree or drama got in the way and they voted a 1 or are biased and vote a 10. Maybe because of the way you found that not many voted 2-9....you could put a good or bad rating...just a 1 and 2. Simplify it.

Either way, as long as the board still is here, I will accept it and move on, cause...

THIS PLACE ROCKS!!

I often would vote a 10 on a good thread, don't think I ever did a 1, might have, but, I dont think I ever did. If someone gets my attention enough to read thier threat...hey Good for them! I have voted a lot of 6-8s.

Anyways....

Whatever you do is OK with me!

What else was going to happen? *hoorah its gone*

I said right from the beggining it was a load of crap and would just be used to be a knock against someone not liking a thread......just as my thread became the highest ranked thread of all time yesterday today it gets killed.....bummer.....and i dont think it was just people who liked me who voted on it .....it was a thread with a link to a great website with maps of sightings of ufo's......so in that sense it was working but in most other ways it was not working.....

I will say this though ....if you did look at the top ranked threads ....it does seem the system was working ......cause those were great threads....!!!!

It seems that people can only vote one way or the other, and can not vote anywhere in the middle. Perhaps if there was only a and a to choose from, and the percentages of who voted one way or another were displayed?

This wouldn't stop people voting for or against people they had positive or negative feelings about, but that's an inevitable side-effect of voting, I think.