What the heck - it's GPL.Just put it on.You can always change the software if you don't like it.

A better question I think is how will it negatively affect us?

I read up a bit on the affero site, but examples are always MUCH different than actually implementation.

Jeremy, this idea does sound like a good idea, and does appear to be a sort of answer to the new server problem. I see the pluses outweighing the minuses on this sort of idea.

The thing that has already been brought up that could be bad is the "I don't like you, so you will get a negative feedback mark from me". I doubt it would happen on such a site as this where the community is a help community, and is also a very friendly and inviting one, but it is possible. Something along the lines of feedback should be implemented. Then just like now, there would be a mod to review the feedback dialogue. And if someone had given negative feedback because they just wanted to be rude, then it would simply be removed. Same goes for positive, if someone just wanted to boost someones rating, then that would also be removed. Also to help keep the haters/lovers from randomly giving various feedback the ability to give a rating at all should also be based on if they give a donation. If a person gives a donation, then they can "rate" the member on whos behalf they gave it. Sort of like the contributing members can use the PM button. If they don't, then the option will not allow them to post there.

I have never been on a site where something like this has been implemented or tested, so I cannot jump to any quick conclusion, but I think it is important for us to give feedback now, to help you make a better decision.

The only tool I have used where a "rating" system has been oriented, would be AIM. And in AIM I don't even notice the "warned" percentage unless a person is being extremely rude to me, so I think this would not be a bad idea in that sense.


If this is going to help the site, I do not see a reason NOT to do this. If this will hinder the community from helping each other out, and answering each other problems, then I would steer clear of such and idea.

IMHO

Although funny, he is right. Like someone has said before, you have changed the program you used to make this forum so much that it should have your name on it, if this allero isn't quite working well, you can always "adjust" it to fit better with the community.

Good luck on your decision Jeremy

I'm not going to go into any details but I am 100% for this. I believe in taking risks on anything I do personally. You can't really criticize anything until you've tried it at least once.
I say lets go for it, what do we have to lose by trying ? Nothing really, but we can only gain most likely out of this.

-trickykid

I have thought of the "I don't like you, so you will get a negative feedback mark from me", but I cannot see many people *paying* to do this. Have you had any problems with this Chris?

--jeremy

A couple of comments on the rating system deserve explanation:

and
So, here's how the rating system works today:

Any person can rate another person. The rated person can then rate-back the ratee. Both ratings affect each rators reputation, but *only* when the rating person has made or recieved at least one donation.

For the FAQ on the reputation summary...go here.

For example, JQ has a question about installing a spam filter and xLinux trys to help him out. JQ, who never even reads the message and is a basic troll, rates xLinux as "useless". JQ is someone who has never *made* a donation(s) or *received* any donation(s) from anyone else. In fact, he's a newbie who just registered... The rating gets received, and xLinux is notified of it, but xLinux's user-history doesn't show JQ's rating until JQ has been validated by either putting up a donation to someone else or receiving one. So, in effect, noone sees this negative feedback. Also, when xLinux receives the notice of JQs feedback, xLinux has a link to rate-back JQ. He can explain the negative rating so that when and if JQ ever gets a donation...this negative rating can be explained.

Basically, if someone always gives negative feedback to others, then they themselves will get rated down by others in their community.

It's much harder to explain then it is to do...

In one scenario, a person could set up multiple bogus identities to rate-up themselves or rate-down others, but each identity would need to have been validated in this way. It's not fool proof but it would take some effort to set up multiple accounts and make multiple payments...it would be somewhat expensive and time consuming to do.

Another way to *filter* ratings is by forum. Each person can have their own rating history as it pertains to a particular forum. This way someone who has one reputation in one community can have a different reputation in another.

When we fully implement our web-services interface, these filters will be configurable by individuals. Our intent with these filters is not to kill feedback or limit free expression, but to enable individuals and *their* elected communities to self regulate the *visability* of others peoples opinions...if anyone wants to dig into our code, every screen in our interface has a little (o). When you click on it, you get the tarball of our entire source code. It's available under the Affero General Public License...which is almost identicle to the GNU-GPL and has been endorsed by the Free Software Foundation.

After reading the comments here, and visiting the affero
site (the site isn't very clear to me tho), i think its safe to start it, at least for a certain period.
And as things are optional why not.
Only thing i wouldn't want are ad popups or (porn) links
but that isn't an issue as the affero contact said.
One could make some extra efforts, to help someone
to get into linux.
A large(r) linux community is more compatitive to x$ companies
and more drivers for inst. might be a nice spin-off

(yes using dictionary and spellchecker sure doesn't produce
really nice readable lines i'm afraid)

my family calls me mrBackspace instead of mrGee

regards

I signed up at Affero yesterday to figure out what the buzz was about. The donations and rating system is dreadfully simple, but I do have to agree about the webpages being a little unclear to the un-initiated.

The one major question I had, actually UnSpawn's concern, but it makes me curious as well, is when is Affero going to have the chance to add support for people with non-US credit card billing addresses? A lot of the thread starters I've responded to on here, and actually about 1/5 of the mod staff too, are outside of the US.

Aside from that I highly recommend checking out how the system works. You don't have to give any more commitment than an email address, same as LQ. It really is quite nice.

Cheers,

Finegan

I know affero is working on this, but I don't think they have solved it yet. Maybe Henri or Chris can give more details.

--jeremy

Jeremy,

Sorry for the delay in responding to your question. Henri and I were down at the O'Reilly Conference in San Diego.

We are looking into adding International credit cards as we speak. It it a very high priority for us. The problem is once we add this feature we will also begin to receive beneficiaries from all over the world. Currently, we do not have a the beneficiary search engine in place to do that. So we need to get that done first.

I understand your concern many individuals at the conference asked about it as well.

We will get it done as fast as we can.

Chris

I like the idea. I do not fully understand how it works, but it seems to me that the ratings would be for who brings in the most donation dollars. What can be negative about that? I guess if they don't like you then they will not donate. So all it can do is help the cause here. As far as building up someones ratings. That's how the money would be made, so I don't see a thing wrong with it.

We all know who's gonna lead the competition anyway.

I just wanted to let everyone know that affero will be hosting a fundraiser for the FSF during the San Francisco Linux World
Conference. Also, we should have a piece of a booth in the .org section. If anyone has any questions I should be there most of the time. Here is a link to the party.

http://www.fsf.org/server/whatsnew.html

-Chris

Just wanted to update everyone and let them know that we will be going ahead with this. If you haven't voted in the polls yet please do so now as they will be closing soon. This is your chance to help decide what projects we will help support by default (members with affero accounts can override these of course). You can also enter your affero username in your profile now. If you haven't signed up for an account at affero yet I encourage you to do so. This will allow you to decide how money donated on your behalf is distributed (there are many great projects to choose from). Thanks.

--jeremy

All signed up and ready to go. Got the link in my signature.

-trickykid

The forum is now setup so that if you enter your affero username in your profile you will have an affero button in your posts (next to the buddy button) that will link to your affero profile.

--jeremy