Thread Rating Stars
Are they worth the screen space?

Thread Rating Stars

jedaisoul
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Posted Oct 13, 2011 - 9:00 AM:
Subject: Thread Rating Stars
I often access PF from my netbook with a 1024 x 600 screen resolution. I need to have one or two email clients on screen as well, and there just isn't room. So far as I can see, the thread ratings are a waste of space, and could be got rid of entirely. But if you want to retain them, how about a single character 1 to 5 instead of five graphic stars across the screen?
jedaisoul
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0 of 1 people found this post helpful
Posted Oct 13, 2011 - 11:40 AM:

Very funny. Some comedian has given this thread 1 star. Which epitomizes how pointless the feature is. An argued retort would be so much more preferable.

mclark
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Posted Oct 13, 2011 - 12:07 PM:

I agree that the thread rating feature is a bit antithetical to the spirit of philosophy. But that doesn't make them unhelpful. There have been a few times when I've gone to read a thread that I otherwise wouldn't have because it received a high rating from many people. In other cases I tend to ignore the rating.

I suggest trying something out: maximize the browser window and use mail clients that indicate new mail via the notification area. Your mail client may already have this option. Make sure the notification icons that you're interested in will always be shown: windows.microsoft.com/en-US...r-in-the-notification-area

If I'm feeling inspired tonight, I might try writing a Greasemonkey script to optionally hide the thread ratings on the client-side, reclaiming some screen real estate for those who want it.
Banno
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Posted Oct 13, 2011 - 5:43 PM:

Looks fine on my iPad...

sticking out tongue
Cadrache
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Posted Oct 13, 2011 - 7:02 PM:

Or we could run all 5 stars,
but with 2 lines.
SIR2U
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1 of 1 people found this post helpful
Posted Oct 13, 2011 - 9:40 PM:

When great minds get together, utter confusion is possible. The stars have been there for a long time and even though I don't often rate the threads some are worth making a mention of.

If the development of a thread has been worth following it should be made visible to others so that they can have a chance to participate. Apart from putting a comment box outside the thread, which I certainly don't like the idea of, there are few options. The stars system work well.
mclark
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Posted Oct 14, 2011 - 12:38 AM:

I wrote a Greasemonkey script that hides the Rating column. It works well with Firefox. Unfortunately it does not work as well with Chrome. Chrome does not recalculate the column widths after the Rating column is removed, so screen real estate is not reclaimed.

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/115479

Update: Moved threads appear to throw off the column removal. I'll have to work around it later.

Edited by mclark on Oct 14, 2011 - 11:23 AM
jedaisoul
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Posted Oct 16, 2011 - 5:31 PM:

Banno wrote:

Looks fine on my iPad...
sticking out tongue

So that's ok then. People don't matter who don't have an iPad.
Gulnara
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Posted Jan 11, 2012 - 8:20 AM:

Rating stars can be misused, because someone can place stars only on topics in which he participates, to draw more people towards them. Then most people do not read every single topic in order to evaluate them accordingly, thus evaluation is very random and it's up to ones personal interest in particular topics. Plus, many people do not bother using them at all to evaluate or under-evaluate.
Considering those misleading characteristics, stars take on too much visual weight being so yellow on blue background and so big. That is If they will stay, they should be more modest, more in tune with their meaninglessness.
But then, why devote extra effort to something meaningless, if it is easier to simply remove them for the sake of meaningful proposition?

Edited by Gulnara on Jan 11, 2012 - 8:26 AM
Gulnara
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Posted Jan 12, 2012 - 7:56 AM:

Does anyone know, if a post was voted down from higher rating, can it ever become starless, or it will always have lowest evaluation - 1 star?

Plus, in Pseudophilosophy, when people rate high, does it mean "Yeah, this is really Pseudo! High Five!" or what exactly post is evaluated on : meaning; use of language; fun; commonality with other people's thoughts; sarcasm; beautiful Avatar; craziness; content is so complex, that I can not comprehend so I better rate it well?

Edited by Gulnara on Jan 12, 2012 - 8:18 AM
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