Originally Posted by anabolism

Having a post rating mechanism that is only applicable within some forums will help a lot, I think. Being sure that there is no mechanism to view any sort of per-poster stats will also help, I think.

(snip)

My suggestion for goals:

• Rank posts, not members
• Able to be enabled per-forum (maybe per-thread)
• Allow viewing threads that hides posts below a threshold

Originally Posted by anabolism

A mechanism to rank a post (e.g., as 'helpful')? I see it as a foundation for a subsequent feature to allow filtered views of long threads so that only high-rated posts are visible. Combined, this can be a real leap forward in FT usability with large threads that contain useful information scattered among thousands of discussion posts.

Originally Posted by ozstamps

Well if TB even does get to a vote on this, I hope the voting wording includes this -

"If the motion is successful, any member can opt to be excluded from this 'feature' altogether".

Originally Posted by JDiver

Just FYI (I think it has been mentioned upstream already): the current vB "like" facility can not be restricted to or from certain fora. It's pretty much an all or nothing option.

Originally Posted by anabolism

To me, "like" and "helpful" are completely different (hence "like/helpful" makes no sense), because as I see "like" is Facebook-style social media, while "helpful" (as on TripAdvisor or to some extent StackExchange) ranks the post content. (Both TA and SE use this as part of a member ranking and badging system, which I think would be a bad idea for FT.)

As I've said before, I see zero benefit to FT in adding more social media mechanisms. I also see a differentiation between conversational forums and informational ones. I also see a problem with very large informational threads that people would like to mine for useful information. It is this view that makes me thing FT could benefit from a mechanism to rank posts that is not part of any reputation system.

Originally Posted by Kiwi Flyer

Lots of interesting points made in this thread.

I have some thoughts that don't seem to have come up yet. Before I do, some disclaimers so you know where I'm coming from.

A) I'm ignoring IT feasibility issues at this stage and just considering concepts.

B) I have a personal bias that I think FT shouldn't remain as it was in 1989 just because of the way it is. That is not a recipe for keeping FT alive and relevant to new generations of members.

C) As a frequent poster I like to get feedback on my posts, both good and bad. As a reader I like to see feedback others have given to help inform whether I should read the thread/post, and if I do whether I should trust the information.

With that out of the way, here are some of my thoughts.

1) What is the main purpose of the proposal?

Presumably to provide an easy means of feedback. Those providing constructive feedback can still do so by posting a reply (and this should be encouraged in my view). I think it is uncontroversial that a simple button makes it easy to give feedback.

2) What is the level of feedback / what is the feedback on?

To me, this must be an individual post or thread, and must not be at FTer level. Anyone (even me) can post brilliant information in their area of expertise and spout complete rubbish in other areas.

3) For the feedback to be useful it should be generally meaningful and not noise.

Gaming and one-sided feedback is unhelpful, and so any system should try to limit this or at least mitigate it.

4) I don't think FT profiles should have any link to feedback on their posts.

Partly this relates to point #2 above, and also it would reduce the incentive for FTers to seek favourable feedback for its own sake, or to give unfavourable feedback.

5) A counter of favourable feedback is useful only to a point.

A displayed high count of favourable feedback could indicate a really good post, or could be gaming. However a displayed low count of favourable feedback could indicate a poor post, or just a not-well read post.

6) A possible mitigation of gaming.

Effects of gaming can be mitigated by having positive and negative feedback, and also by only displaying an indicator or label if a post has more than a threshold number of positive feedbacks and simultaneously less than a threshold number of negative feedbacks. E.g. a helpful post label or highlight only appears if a post gets at least 10 clicks on the helpful button and no more than 10 clicks on the inaccurate button.

7) Information on FT generally gets dated over time.

A post may be brilliant at the time it was posted but six months later could be out of date and give completely wrong information.

I'm not sure how this can be best addressed through feedback system, although my suggestion in #6 would enable FTers to click on inaccurate button to remove the helpful post label (as long as the thresholds are sufficiently low).

8) Display handles of those providing feedback?

There are arguments both ways but on balance I'd prefer not to (but have available for forum moderators if needed).

While sunlight can be a disinfectant, displaying handles will significantly add to clutter.