Default ratings idea...

[John Blakley]

Dan,

Has Netpro implemented any kind of default ratings after a certain period of inactivity? Expert Exchange does this when there's no activity, and I see a TON of people who put time into helping others, but they get nothing for it. Is this a possible solution, or something along those lines?

Thanks,

John

[Jon Marshall]

All

I think Mike's idea of an initial explanation for new members signing up is a great one.

I would however be a bit wary of the ebay approach of sending e-mails to ask for ratings. I know personally that if i am going to get e-mails just because i have used a site that i tend not to want to use it and i think it could put people off posting questions. The last thing a busy person wants is to have more e-mails filling up their inbox. But that could just be me

I think Rob, as usual, has hit the nail on the head. It's about quality not quantity and although ratings are an issue, and probably always will be, if we go too far the other way so that people feel bound to rate we could just end up with every post rated exactly the same and then it almost becomes meaningless. There are some great posts that never get rated but there are also a lot of other posts that do get rated +5 etc. that are not as good, i know because i have written quite a few of them myself (the not so good ones just to be clear !). And to be honest if we see a great post that is unrated we can just rate it which is kind of an unofficial way of what Tim was suggesting with TAC.

I think it's a fine line between trying to get more people to rate and simply badgering them to rate which isn't what CSC is about. Perhaps rather than sending separate e-mails we could tack a reminder onto the e-mail that gets sent when someone responds with an answer ?

Jon

[Leo Laohoo]

Forgive me for being cynical here but I believe that some people are reluctant or refuse to rate our posts because their problem has been solved or it is not their responsibility to rate something which fixes their problem.  I'd like to call it selfishness.  I do, however, ask them to rate our posts when necessary.

I found that owners are reluctant to rate when we point out to them that their solution is wrong, most of the time.  You'll know because if they have a problem they keep posting but once the thread gets silent, then you know it's been fixed.