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New feature trial: Comment rating

Posted by Super G on June 19, 2008 - 10:14pm
Topic: Site news

For the next week or so, we're going to be conducting a trial of a comment rating system.

Here's how it works: At the bottom of each comment, there is a form with a number, an up arrow, and a down arrow. The number is the comment's rating. To rate a comment up, click the up arrow. To rate a comment down, click the down arrow. Once you've made a rating, the arrow you've clicked will get filled in. You can change a rating as many times as you want, but at present it is not possible to "unrate" a comment. In other words, if you accidentally rate a comment down, the only way you can undo it is to rate the comment up.

For the future, we are contemplating hiding comments with low ratings and sorting subthreads by rating instead of by date. But for now, ratings will not have any effect on the visibility or placement of a comment.

Some ground rules:

  • Only logged-in users can rate comments.
  • You cannot rate your own comment.
  • You can only rate comments that are less than a week old.
  • Comments should be rated up if they are especially insightful, informative, or interesting. Down ratings should be reserved for comments that violate the reader guidelines. Do not rate a comment down just because you disagree with the opinion being expressed.
  • For now, the ratings are anonymous, but keep in mind that they may be made public at a later date. Also be aware that the administrators can view everyone's rating behavior.
  • For now, users can rate as many comments as they want. We may decide to limit this in the future.

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