Hi Gary,

I've participated in sites where ratings are used. They are of the thread as well as of individual posts. Some software can even auto-filter posts that fall below a certain user-defined threshold, although they still show all threads. I don't know if VB can do this. My other posts go into more detail, although I got a little chastized, albeit politely, for using examples of what happens elsewhere.

Why are rating systems important? Because right now, there is no way to express any negative feedback without hijacking a thread, and that's likely to earn you an email from a moderator for a TOS violation. The "ignore user" function is referred to as the end all and be all approach.

Are there people who often deserve low ratings? Of course, we all know there are people whose posts are minimal in content in the miles/points forums, and amount to "hey, look at me, I'm important" or "how dare you disagree with me." There needs to be a feedback mechanism beyond "report post." "Ignore user" doesn't solve the problem of pointless posters, because nobody knows that they're on ignore. Ideally, I'd like my ignore list (and a corresponding high-value list) to be able to be made public as part of my profile, but I just don't see Randy allowing anything that some self-richeous people would find that confrontational.

I will say that I would not particulary care if ratings are turned on in non miles/points forums. My interest is in the core forums.

As far as people receiving poor ratings, I keep on hearing of a consipracy and all sorts of other stuff. Even if it happened, and there seems to be some debate on the topic, I simply don't care. Out of 78,000 members, how many people post on FT at least once/month? 7800?

To deny functionality because maybe a dozen people are upset because they have behaved to become hated so much that others may have the audacity (potentially coordinated, quite possibly not) to display their negative opinion for the world to see...

I have a personal dislike of victim-centric society, and that's why is keeping me active in these threads: I see TB and Randy catering to the self-perceived victims and their friends instead of the masses who didn't do squat. But if I try to express my opinion any further, I'll get flagged for a TOS violation. What metric is the TB going to give me to be able tell these people (and unsuspecting readers) that I think that some of their posts are full of it??