Wasn’t there a ranking system for specific posts on the old board? I like this as opposed to a ranking of responders.
The number of posts is not necessarily a bad way to rank posters, but it is only an indication. For example, I look at a lot of threads and see good answers to which I have nothing to add, so I don’t. Sometimes I will see good and bad answers (IMNSHO) and I will respond pointing out the good from the bad.
I think those with consistently bad answers who are called out enough times by the good guys sort of go away.
For me, I have an advantage when someone asks a question about a specific car that I own, or someone in my family owns and I provide maintenance for, especially when I have the FSM for that vehicle. I can look up the answer even if I have run into that specific problem. In those cases, I do identify that I own the vehicle and have the manual in my response so that the OP knows where I.m coming from.
Lastly, even among those who usually give good responses, there are issues of controversy. Disagreement here should not be included in any ranking system. Some opinions change with time.
An additional item to add into the profile of the user, that would then port under their name in a post could be any specialties that they have.
Lets say they are a Transmission Specialist.
Have this show up under their name.
Maybe even the number of years that they have been a specialist.
20 Year Transmission Specialist.
That way, if they are giving out advice on a transmission problem, the original poster can weight their advice much more highly than someone who has no credentials listed at all, and are telling them that their low blinker fluid is shorting out their 3 to 4 shift module, and that they need to top it up.
Also, the other problem I had with the “Rate the Post” item from the last thread is that you could put in great advice, like “Winter Tires would really improve the traction of your Infiniti G-35 Sport sedan in the snow. Here’s some links to a couple of great tires”, yet someone who has only ever used all season tires in their neck of the woods, and thinks winter tires aren’t needed, will then decrease the 5 stars that your post already received from the bulk of other posters for no reason other than they don’t use winter tires themselves.
I’ve seen that one play out many a time on this board, for a variety of subjects.
But I still do feel that the “Rate the Post” tends to show the better or worst responses to a question in a thread quite easily.
Some of the other boards I frequent have a “Thanks” count and a “Thanked X times in Y posts” count for each user.
This gives you some idea of whether or not they give out useful advice and how active they are on the forum. They also include “Join date” and “# of posts”. This information is displayed in a block on the left side of each post so it’s very visible without having to go searching for it.
Personally, I pay little attention to it because as I said before, I don’t care if you’ve never posted here before. If you provide useful (or entertaining) information, that’s all I care about.
I think a better idea would be something along the lines of a “thumbs up” that the original poster could give to responses that were helpful. After awhile one could see how often a contributor gave good advice.
Newbie here: If it isn’t broken don’t fix it. In sites that do rank there’s a lot of useless posting and needless counterproductive competition. This would get in the way of your top posters, who are doing some real public service.
As a newbie, I am very impressed with the quality of the posting. It’s like arriving in a land where everyone is helpful and friendly. I’ve never seen a ranking site accomplish this. It’s great to be able to just get information without all the noise that generally accompanies the numbers game and rankings.
I cannot seem to figure out how to post a new thread here, so with your forebearance I’ll put my comment in this thread.
A reply just posted in a thread that disclosed an OP’s name, state of residence, and how he makes his living, and he was not the one who made it. Perhaps we need to reinstate the “flags” that allow us to notify you of the post that may need to be removed. Privacy concerns would suggest a need for such a flag.
Mountainbike, next to to poster’s user name is a time stamp. Next to that is the word “Report” - that’s the flagger. You can now actually enter text as an explanation, I believe.
To be honest, I never paid any attention to rankings. While it may be embarassing to admit as it may make me sound oblivous, I got so focused on the questions and answers it was several years before I ever even noticed the stars.
I suggest that it be considered that many people asking questions, don't know who is who. I would think they would be the ones who would benefit from some sort of ranking.
In my ideal world a person who posted a question would rate comments on how well a person’s post helped them. That is instantly problematic because it seems to be a minority of posters that ever say thanks, or even post a second time. The star rating for answers as in the old board into a cumulative star rating might be nice, but Tom and Ray might not get past 1 star, so that is out. The top posters was nice, but number of posts as stated previously does not really indicate anything but a propensity to post. There are people here who when I see a post by them it is near gospel, and should be recognized and that recognition being a small reward and indicator when there are many suggestions which to try first.
In conclusion a hybrid of the previous methods would be the best in my opinion. A person would get a different colored stars, based on 2 factors. Like this post 5 points per vote. This post solved my problem from the OP 20points. The colored star would represent the average per total posts. The regular members would be encouraged to star or not star a post.
An example. My car does this.
A gets 0 likes and no this solved my post from the op. = White star, thanks for your thoughts B gets at least 1 like response orange star = Someone else agrees with this C gets 5 likes, green star 5 people agree with this D this solved my problem, Gold Star You solved my problem.
Then all responses of condition B, C, D totals are averaged into a personal Name color.
Lets not forget, waterboy, that some posters also come on here expecting us to tell them what they want to hear, not what we know.
Example being a thread recently about a person calling into the show wanting a vehicle for 3 car seats and refused to drive anything but a sedan; minivans weren’t cool enough. Though she also wanted a 60s era VW Bus. From what I read, T&R couldn’t convince her otherwise, and she was oblivious to other suggestions.