Can we please do away with the voting system?

[p0intblank]

The voting system was actually removed when the site was redesigned a few years ago, but was quickly brought back due complaints about it being removed.

The voting system is entirely arbitrary, no one (including myself) knows what a vote really means or is supposed to mean. It's just one of those quirks of the site.

It probably does give people some involvement in the story/site by expressing their love/hate for a story... again, in an ambigious but strangely satisfying way.

There may be a slight reformatting of the front page in the coming months, so I'll consider changing and/or removing it at that time, but prob not before then.

arn

Thanks for your response, arn. If changes are made to the voting system, it'd be really nice if users had more choices rather than just Positive and Negative.

 

[jsalzer]

Thanks for your response, arn. If changes are made to the voting system, it'd be really nice if users had more choices rather than just Positive and Negative.

Even a scale doesn't do much good if we're all voting on different things. You'd almost have to get into a detailed:

a) I believe the rumor to be true, and I want it to be true.
b) I believe the rumor to be true, but I hope it isn't true.
c) I believe the rumor to be false, but I want it to be true.
d) I believe the rumor to be false, and I hope it isn't true.

But then it's kinda wordy and takes over the front page.

 

[Doctor Q]

Wordiness wouldn't be a problem if the voting system uses a pull-down menu. You'd click "rate this story" and a set of choices would appear (such as when you click Search in the toolbar at the top of this page). You'd fill out the answers (perhaps with radio button choices) and click Vote.

However, the resulting tally of votes would have to be shown in a compact way (numbers, bar graph, 1 to 5 apples, etc.) with short labels, especially if there are a number of categories.

 

[andiwm2003]

one important use of the voting system is when software updates are released (e.g. system updates, security updates, quicktime updates....).
when the update is quite buggy, the negative count shoots up and i do not update.

for most of the articles i ignore it. because for reports from meetings and conferences it just means that no powerbook G5 aeh.. merom was released. for reports of hardware releases it just means that the graphics card sucks.

with a little more discipline on from the readers it could be a very useful feature.

 

[TheAnswer]

Just a suggestion, how about replace the positive negative ratings on each story with a poll (or two). And also, perhaps put these feedback polls at the end of the thread, thus requiring more interaction and reflection before the feedback is given.

For examples on the polls. Rumors could have a believability scale that calculated the positive and negative votes into a percentage (like rotten tomatoes does with movies). Updates could have a reliability scale and scale to judge how happy people are with the feature set. Media events stories could have similar polls to reflect how much of what people expected was released (or maybe just a poll option (where aplicable) to reflect "I expected something else to be released today").

 

[OutThere]

Why is it a good thing to encourage people to interact? This is a rumor site, what's wrong with people coming and getting their rumors? Personally, I don't think people need any encouragement, too much interaction is the electronic equivalent of pissing on a wall.

And the voting system somehow makes it impossible for people to come and 'get their rumors'?

 

[Doctor Q]

TheAnswer makes a good point: The appropriate questions depend on the type of story. For example, these could all be given 1-to-5 rating scales:

General news:

How good is this news for Apple Computer?
How good is this news for consumers?
How good is this news for you personally?​

Rumor:

What confidence do you have that this rumor is true?​

New product:

How likely are you to buy this product or new version?
What do you think of the feature set?
What do you think of the price?
How well is this product positioned against its competitors?​

Software update:

How easy or hard was the installation?
What do you think of the changes made to the software?​

and so on.

 

[TheAnswer]

DoctorQ I would think it would have to be a bit simpler than that or it might not see much use. I was thinking more either simple yes/no or a 1-5 scale on simple questions.

So more like:

Rumors: 1-5 Don't Believe It to Believe It
Rumors: Bad/Good
General News: Bad/Good
Software Update: 1-5 Feature Set Rating
Software Update: 1-5 Problems
Product Announcement: 1-5 Feature Set Rating, plus XX% expected another anouncement.

Plus it would be cool if we could be a more graphic indicator of peoples opinions, through some graphics (kinda like rotten tomatoes does with movies).

 

[mad jew]

Lies, damn lies, and statistics. The results of these voting mechanisms derail the very fabric of our society and ensure the demise of our culture and self perception. There is no such thing as a perfect poll.

 

[bousozoku]

Lies, damn lies, and statistics. The results of these voting mechanisms derail the very fabric of our society and ensure the demise of our culture and self perception. There is no such thing as a perfect poll.

Poland is full of them.

 

[generik]

Poland is full of them.

How do the Poles do it?

 

[milo]

one important use of the voting system is when software updates are released (e.g. system updates, security updates, quicktime updates....).
when the update is quite buggy, the negative count shoots up and i do not update.

Problem is, an update could be perfectly fine, but people still rate it negative because some rumored new thing didn't show up.

Or an update could be really buggy, but people vote positive because it has some flashy new feature.

 

[freebooter]

Let freedom reign, I say.

There are far too many people trying to shut down the expression of opinion, especially opinion that does not fall into the "norm", however defined.

 

[TheAnswer]

I think the problem with the ratings system is (1) lack of definition and (2) lack of thought currently required to post the opinion. Surely a clearly defined ratings system (as per my previous posts) could be very useful. The problem now is that people are voting according to different criteria (accuracy, desirability, likelyhood, etc.). If the criteria are narrowed, the ratings would at least reflect an opinion of sorts...now they reflect nothing because everyone is answering their own question.

 

[emw]

The thing about voting, as others have said, is that right now it means nothing. In general, that's not a bad thing if you know it means nothing, but if you think it means something, then it can impact your perception of a story, product, update, etc.

In any case, there will never be a perfect voting system as long as people either don't know the rules, or it's too complicated to use. I like the 1-5 rating system, such as how I can (arbitrarily) rate this thread. What I don't know is if anyone else has also rated this thread, and if I rate it what the impact of my rating will be...

Perhaps we could tie polls to certain key news items that would ask a more in-depth question. People could then view the poll if they wanted to see reaction. Even better if the poll results could be seen in a minimal view (like the binoculars at Ask.com).

 

[Doctor Q]

Ignoring the crude quality of my mockup, is this the style we're looking for?

 

[MacNut]

Is it possible that the reason the thread in question got a bad rating was that the product was not up to expectations. Maybe people just don't like Aperture. People aren't gonna like everything that comes out. No need to complain that something got a bad rating. This Poll isn't electing a president so its not really worth the argument. I don't even look at the Positive Negative anyways. That said I give this thread a negative rating.

 

[mkrishnan]

I'd suggest we just ban whining, but then a little warning window pops up, that says, "You have selected to call the kettle black. As a pot, this might compromise system security. Are you sure you want to proceed?" And then I don't know what to do. Grrr, so I'm just going to give this thread a negative rating.

 

[TheAnswer]

Ignoring the crude quality of my mockup, is this the style we're looking for?

That's the basic idea. Although on some topics, I like the idea of people voting bad or good (two options) and then the results being shown as a percentage of goodness.

 

[p0intblank]

Is it possible that the reason the thread in question got a bad rating was that the product was not up to expectations. Maybe people just don't like Aperture. People aren't gonna like everything that comes out. No need to complain that something got a bad rating. This Poll isn't electing a president so its not really worth the argument. I don't even look at the Positive Negative anyways. That said I give this thread a negative rating.

I can assure you most of those negative votes came from the whiners who wanted a MacBook Pro and were disappointed.

 

[Xeem]

Ignoring the crude quality of my mockup, is this the style we're looking for?

I think that voting on those two factors would be an improvement over just positive/negative, as long as the vote is integrated into the rumor in a visually pleasing way.

 

[Doctor Q]

I hereby tease myself for something stupid I did. We discussed having "scales from 1 to 5" but my mockup shows a scale from 0 to 5. I guess I think like a programmer and there's no cure.

The numbers on the scale are arbitrary, but it should have started at 1.

 

[russed]

i think it has to go! i have never voted, nor do i really look at it but its annoying reading mid thread "why are people voting negative"

the only way to get a positive vote would be for the powerbook g5 to happen and i think pigs will fly before that day comes around!

 

[iEdd]

The voting system has never once worked for me, no matter how many times I click yay or nay, it doesn't +1. I agree with p0intblank, but I don't pay attention to the voting system because it makes me wonder how many people's votes actually add to the count.

 

[WildCowboy]

The voting system has never once worked for me, no matter how many times I click yay or nay, it doesn't +1. I agree with p0intblank, but I don't pay attention to the voting system because it makes me wonder how many people's votes actually add to the count.

The count doesn't refresh in real-time, so while your vote is definitely counted, it will only show up once the next update interval (I forget what it is) has passed.

I think I've voted on fewer than five stories since I've been here. I don't really pay attention to it, so it can stay or go as far as I'm concerned. I know you've all been waiting to get my input on this, and now you have it. Carry on.