Myself and Yogi are considering writing a plugin to allow users to rate posts from say 1..10 so that members who make the best contributions will have higher ratings. These ratings will then be shown under usernames as a star rating (stars can be changed to whatever you want) - so at a glance you can tell who the highest rated members are or those who provide the best or most helpful answers.

Would anyone be interested in this or does anyone have any thoughts?

Yogi may add extra to what I've said if I've forgotten something ;)

Hi,

You know a feature I've been looking at that would be a great plugin would be a karma system like Slashdot. The basic premise is each user has a fixed number of points, and you can +1 or -1 a post and it uses up your points. You get a fixed number of points automatically, and you also get points when other people +1 your post. Then allow users to filter posts based on rating. It works out great for open sites that allow anyone to post. Have a look at http://slashcode.org/ for an example of how to use it.

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.

Is that the number in brackets here...

http://slashcode.com/~shiafu/ ??

That would be quite cool. What if people kept -1'ing you?...you could end up with like -1000

So is this something GT want to do or did you suggest it so myself and yogi could try to come up with something?

Have a look at:

http://slashdot.org/...2/05/12/220250.shtml?

It's the Score column beside each post. They also allow you to apply attributes to a post. It works quite well, you set your settings to say 2, and then when your reading slashdot, you eliminate 80% of the crap. Also, they have it setup so authenticated users start at a score of 1, and anonymous users start at a score of 0.

There are limits to prevent abuse. I don't know the details of what all the checks and balances are.

This is something I'd like to see personally, as I think it's a pretty good system. I don't know if it's something we would do unless it was a custom project.

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.

Once you read the thread, try looking at:

http://slashdot.org/...sort=0&op=Change

to see the filter in action. This only shows posts with a rating of 2 or more. Much more readable and interesting. =)

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.

I think that hyperlink above is broken.

Anyway how about a deal?....myself and yogi (or just me if yogi doesn't want to) will try to come up with a plugin to do that, if GT install it on this forum ....fair?

Fixed the link. As for putting it on Gossamer, if you include the ability to make it active per forum, definately. =)

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.

Good idea, maybe we can come up with something like the karma system. This might be very useful for heavy traffic sites, but maybe a bit of an overkill for low traffic sites.

What I was thinking of originally was more something like the "Recommend Post" thing they use at the Motley Fool (http://boards.fool.com/BestOf.asp).

Of course set up/permissions will be very flexible (per group, per forum) if needed.

Ivan
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Iyengar Yoga Resources / GT Plugins

Wow, cowboy! The slashdot karma system is the most controversial piece of moderation tool ever to be released on the 'net! It's a good system in principal, and it mostly works, but my god has there been in-depth discussions about it.

I recommend anyone who is seriously thinking about this i.e. Paul and Yogi to become a member of slashdot and really familiarise with the way the website works and how the karma system works. Then try reading past threads about the issues raised with such a system, and the issues about implanmenting such systems. Definitions are difficult.

Yes, allowing you to label your own levels is good, and the system does help to eliminate some trolls. On the other, it usually just encourages persistant trolls to sign up under a hundred different names and flood threads with pointless gibberish just to 'beat the system'.

A better system, IMO, is the XP system being used at http://www.perlmonks.org/ where users gain eXperience Points. This is calculated by some weird algorithm, basically how many times users log in each day, how many threads they read, how many posts they vote upon, how many votes their posts recieve, the sum of moderation done to their posts, the number of root nodes posted and more. This gives a broader perspective of how good an user is, or how valuable his or her's contribution is likely to be.

Update: The perlmonks.org website uses the Everything Web Development engine, with it's own built in karma like XP system. Do a search for Everything Web Development to see what I mean.

Implamenting a slashdot style sysem *is* a mamoth task. Working out the logic, and making the logic work for the 'average forum' is something very difficult. The karma system is very personalized for slashdot, even though it is bundled with the latest slashcode.

I dunno. I just have my doubts about this one.

- wil

Recently, I've been collecting Karma points on a vB based forum.

hmmm, interesting, and Wil has brought up many good points.

Script Kiddies will wanna try to find a whole in the system. But, hey, didn't we all at one time or another around the age of 14 try to break through a system of one type of another?

I'm not familiar with all the other systems and the slash dot one always evaded me on how it worked.

So, so simplicity will be nice but yet not so simplistic the system just turns into a rating system.

hmmm, experience rating could play favorites couldn't it? I mean if a bunch of folks decide to push down 1 person's Karma.

Also, I would like to see how my karma is being built! Here I mean, which threads bring my Karma up while which users / posts brought it down. And possibly, some kind of moderation to prevent attacks.

lol ... sounds really difficult but exciting at the same time.

---

openoffice + gimp + sketch ...

QooQ,

Would be very interesting to see a graphical diagram, which shows value of the karma through the selected time interval.

Also would be fine to limit the percent change, someone's karma can change a day (1%-5%).
Hmmm. It starts to look like a user stock exchange...

I was serious anyway.

Best regards,
Webmaster33

---

Paid Support from Webmaster33. Expert in Perl programming & Gossamer Threads applications. (click here for prices)
Webmaster33's products (upd.2004.09.26) | Private message | Contact me | Was my post helpful? Donate my help...

Have faith ;)

>>
On the other, it usually just encourages persistant trolls to sign up under a hundred different names and flood threads with pointless gibberish just to 'beat the system'.
<<

I really don't think that would be the case here. Its more likely to happen on sites like slashdot etc.

>>
Implamenting a slashdot style sysem *is* a mamoth task. Working out the logic, and making the logic work for the 'average forum' is something very difficult.
<<

Again, have faith ;)

Hi Paul

I'm speaking most of all from experience. I don't frequent slashdot.org anymore as it's just become a breeding ground for trollers and I rarely get any good discussions steming from the front page articles. And besides, their whole moderation on what goes on the front page is flawed - but that's a very different story.

I encourage you to look into the Everything Web Development system, though. The one that powers http://www.perlmonks.org to get a feel of the XP system. You will then be able to compare this with the karma system of http://www.slashcode.org and come up with your own ideas.

- wil

>>
I'm speaking most of all from experience.
<<

I guess Alex is too but he seems to like it :0) ....its personal taste. If it gets installed here and you don't like the way it works then don't use the karma system and let all posts show as normal

You mean the GT site?
Size of Gforum based sites may spread from small to medium, maybe even bigger sites,
so I think it may be a possible problem. An abuse defence system would be anyway fine to protect the "karma" of users.

Best regards,
Webmaster33

---

Paid Support from Webmaster33. Expert in Perl programming & Gossamer Threads applications. (click here for prices)
Webmaster33's products (upd.2004.09.26) | Private message | Contact me | Was my post helpful? Donate my help...

There are going to be a few security features in place so I can't see any major issues.

I've got the filtering working, just need to setup the user/admin side of things now.

hmmm any RPG (paper version) gamers on board?

I keep thinking about this in AD&D terms ... lol my age shows

The marvel game had some pretty interesting ways to add Karma ... now if I just could remember some of them.

---

openoffice + gimp + sketch ...

The plugin is turning out pretty sexy if I say so myself.

Karma can be turned on/off per forum. If it is on, next to every post you'll see:

Karma: 1 [+] [-]

The number is the current post karma and by clicking + or - you can increase/decrease the level.

The administrator can set an option in the admin panel so that the karma increments/decrements only after x number of votes, so say admin sets that option to 20, that means 20 people would need to vote for a post before the karma would increase/decrease.

It will track which posts you've already voted for and show:

Karma: 1 Voted

....if you've alread voted for it.

Forums not supporting karma will show:

Bad Karma

...that lot is template based so easy to change.

Only members that have posted x amount of posts to a forum and are considererd 'old hands' or 'regulars' should be able to alter a post's karma. Not everyone, by far. This should be a trusted power that is given when you reach a posting level of x.

- wil

Or, you get a number of points per day that you can use on changing a posts karma.

The number you get each day depends on the number of posts (and maybe their karma....)

Ivan
-----
Iyengar Yoga Resources / GT Plugins

Yes, but this brings me back to the Everything Web Development System which I have mentioned many times in this thread which is far superior to the slashcode based system of karma.

There are several different levels (10 in all) and each level you get a number of votes per day etc.

I urge everyone who is thinking of doing this seriously to go and register themselves on: http://www.perlmonks.org and participate to see how the system works.

Your points are calcualted on the numver of posts in a day, the number of useful posts, number of root nodes posted, number of votes casted and other common sense attributes.

Much much much much better than the karma system...

Cheers

- wil

Just wanted to add my 2 cents that the number of posts alone might not be a terribly great way of looking at things. On my boards at least, some of the people with the highest post counts are posting crap just to get/stay on the list-- I think it would only worsen if they had some actual "reward" for doing so.

---

Realiiity.com Forums

I don't see why only experienced users should be allowed to vote, thats like saying that new users can't understand the difference between a crap post and a good post...thats totally wrong and more often than not it is new users who are asking for help and would find it useful to vote for a reply almost as thanks if they got a good answer...so I agree with you Ellipsiiis

The reason I am saying this is of experience on boards with a higher traffic. Again, try http://www.perlmonks.org.

Perlmonks hardly gets any trolls. Why? Well because your theory of 'reward for posting, so people will post more' is wrong.

Because, if the posts are worthless, and I quote "posting crap" then they would get downvoted and loose XP points and loose their status. So, more often than not, people who just post crap all day but have a higher post count tend to quiet down as their reputation or 'karma' gets slammed as people don't really appreciate crap.

And in the end, their posts are always otuside of the default threshold of -1 - +3 (on slashdot) so noone gets to see their posts anyway, unless you specify that you want the output 'raw'.

In regards to not giving everyone a vote. The system should be flexible enough for someone to set their own threshold obviously, but usually you have to a) log in once to get 1 vote for the day, then you need to gain your XP to 5, then 50, then 200 etc. etc.

Anyway, this has been thrased out before, and a whole system was built from it. Again, I will suggest that you try out and lurk around http://www.perlmonks.org for a few weeks.

- wil