Would be really great, there are some fantastic threads buried under lots of bad ones. It would be great to have some way either by user feedback / ratings or mod flags etc… to sift the wheat from the chaff so to say.
Just my 2c. Thanks
Related:
I don’t think ratings, or worse, mod flags are the solution. About user feedback, what do you have in mind exactly?
Well, I had in mind something like a 5 star rating, or ranking, which would be in its own column on the main page, so we would see how others rated that thread and its information. So I could click on 1-Not helpful / noise → 5- Very useful helpful / great interaction etc… I think it could be something the users could use to evaluate the thread rather than the mods actually.
It would be useless because anyone can simply create multiple accounts and change any rating on any topic multiple times to add artificial Sybil noise, you would never get the signal you are looking for.
Thats alot of work just to bump ratings. I doubt people would be so dedicated just to pump up ratings.
That is a weak argument on how social engineering and Sybil attacks work in practice, any scaffolding to erode confidence and/or trust will be weaponized against any community.
Alright, I thought we were a community here, but I see your point.
Your same argument could be used to say, well people can create multiple accounts and just spam topics and replies.
Maybe the ability to rate threads would be restricted to a trust level. That would stop that.
Other forums have a “I found this useful” checkbox or something.
The issue for me was finding those high quality threads buried under lots of noise.
This is the key quote I suggest you read:
Other forums do not critically think about how trust works.
The ability to rate threads could be restricted to a trust level. That would stop that.
It would delay it, not stop it, and still be susceptible to manipulation.
I seem to be replying to FL, but a general comment…
A simple “plus-one” rating can be a great risk for a community, as it gives a sort of unofficial community approval, which excludes minority views. I would not like that, even without manipulation.
“Likes” are more personal - and cannot be used to rate topics or posts.
Maybe it would be useful for proponents to express where the wheat - chaff boundary is. I think it is a highly personal judgement, and should remain so, but it might help to see what is important to folk.
Maybe this is an XY problem. For ex: Is there a topic(s) that cannot be found using the search function and personal bookmarking/thread muting? Is there a problem with usefulness of Category/tag?
(not a mod, but I generally agree with them.
Somewhat OT: I think new users have a particularly hard time here, and I’m wondering about a “New users” category or tag to help them with finding info.)
Related:
Another solution is to convert good topics into good documentation.
You can take a look at this failed attempt too:
That would be good, but there are some who prefer a useful forum entry, and others who like a bit of documentation. Some get a forum answer and then demand the immediate creation of a documentation page.
If work ever gave me a chance, I would propose a “Beginner level” tag (shamelessly copied from @Fatima who proposed some guide categories for beginner/intermediate/advanced)…
That demand can be converted into a contribution, externally assigning effort is cheap and has no guarantee of achieving any persistent result.