Remove the user ratings or negative ratings from home page articles?

[asdf542]

A lot of the time stories are given negative ratings for absolute no reason and the ratings don't serve their purpose very well. I personally think either the ratings system should be removed all together or there should only be a "like"/"positive" option.

 

[miles01110]

A lot of the time stories are given negative ratings for absolute no reason and the ratings don't serve their purpose very well. I personally think either the ratings system should be removed all together or there should only be a "like"/"positive" option.

This has been brought up before and it hasn't happened yet. Positive/Negative ratings are highly subjective. For example, "Microsoft to Relaunch Windows Slates Again at CES." Some people might vote negative because they don't support any company besides Apple. Some others might vote positive because competition is a major incentive for companies to keep delivering.

So, just because you don't understand individual motivation for voting one way or another doesn't mean there is "absolutely no reason." I agree that the interpretation is ambiguous and I'm not sure what the rating system achieves, though.

Oh, and thumbs down on the "like"/"positive" option. It's the same thing as the current system, and if you don't have a "negative" option that's just weak to begin with.

 

[roadbloc]

Meh, who even uses that feature?

 

[maflynn]

I don't even notice the rating, and on the rare chance I do, the negative/positive rating has no bearing on the content of the thread, so in the end I ignore it.

I guess what I'm saying is, that rating doesn't really provide any benefit.

 

[Doctor Q]

At some point arn may decide to drop the ratings or replace them with some other form of news story feedback but there's nothing about to change at the moment.

As it says in the FAQ, the ratings mean different things to different people. Some people simply like to rate threads, so the feature is provided for them.

If there's significance to be found in the results I think it would be from comparing one article's ratings to another, not from trying to determine exactly why people rated a story one way or the other.

 

[blipper]

It's an easy way for people to vent and I suppose that is a tangible benefit. It would be a mistake to use it as a means for deciding which article to read.