LinuxQuestions.org
Help answer threads with 0 replies.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > LinuxQuestions.org > LQ Suggestions & Feedback
User Name
Password
LQ Suggestions & Feedback Do you have a suggestion for this site or an idea that will make the site better? This forum is for you.
PLEASE READ THIS FORUM - Information and status updates will also be posted here.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 11-15-2009, 03:09 AM   #1
bartonski
Member
 
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Louisville, KY
Distribution: Fedora 12, Slackware, Debian, Ubuntu Karmic, FreeBSD 7.1
Posts: 443
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 48
Suggestion for rating threads.


I would like to suggest a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" rating system for threads, a-la digg/reddit/commandlinefu. No one seems to use the ratings in stars, I don't know why, but I think that I would be a lot more likely to bump a thread that I like up if there were simple "up" and "down" buttons.
 
Old 11-15-2009, 08:21 AM   #2
Hangdog42
LQ Veteran
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Maryland
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 7,803
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 422Reputation: 422Reputation: 422Reputation: 422Reputation: 422
I guess I'm at a bit of a loss as to why we would need to rate threads. And in general, the only reason to bump a thread is if the problem isn't solved. Threads here are designed to solve a problem, and if the conversation reaches an end, there is really no reason to bring the thread up again.
 
Old 11-15-2009, 08:40 AM   #3
jeremy
root
 
Registered: Jun 2000
Distribution: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu
Posts: 13,597

Rep: Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080Reputation: 4080
Thanks for the feedback. There already is a "thumbs up" functionality for individual posts and the 5 star rating for threads that you mention. At this time we have no plans to change the way rating a thread works.

--jeremy
 
Old 11-15-2009, 11:50 AM   #4
bartonski
Member
 
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Louisville, KY
Distribution: Fedora 12, Slackware, Debian, Ubuntu Karmic, FreeBSD 7.1
Posts: 443

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 48
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hangdog42 View Post
I guess I'm at a bit of a loss as to why we would need to rate threads. And in general, the only reason to bump a thread is if the problem isn't solved. Threads here are designed to solve a problem, and if the conversation reaches an end, there is really no reason to bring the thread up again.
Ladies and Gentleman, if you've ever wondered what the true definition of a moot point is, this would be a perfect example. A moot point is a point of law that has been decided by the court, but which remains interesting to argue. I say this because I do realize that Jeremy's decision is final.

So, Hangdog, I respectfully disagree :-). Threads on Linuxquestions.org remain useful far beyond when they end. They are a valuable resource for other people researching the same problem. There's also a lot of linux knowledge buried in some of the better threads; these would act as good training tools. I maintain that there is good information buried in Linuxquestions' databases which is not bubbling to the top because we don't have effective mechanisms for making this happen... but as I said, it's a moot point.
 
Old 11-16-2009, 12:15 PM   #5
onebuck
Moderator
 
Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Central Florida 20 minutes from Disney World
Distribution: SlackwareŽ
Posts: 13,922
Blog Entries: 44

Rep: Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158
Hi,

Quote:
Originally Posted by bartonski View Post
<snip>

So, Hangdog, I respectfully disagree :-). Threads on Linuxquestions.org remain useful far beyond when they end. They are a valuable resource for other people researching the same problem. There's also a lot of linux knowledge buried in some of the better threads; these would act as good training tools. I maintain that there is good information buried in Linuxquestions' databases which is not bubbling to the top because we don't have effective mechanisms for making this happen... but as I said, it's a moot point.
I'll add a simple point. If you are doing a search here on LQ with broad keywords then the refinement of the words as associated to the problem will produce some of the knowledge within those posts. The rating system will not do you that much other than when YOU associate the problem/solution. Now tags will help define the search along with your keys while searching thus producing a helpful list of threads.

The activity of the threads will cause the thread to move to the top. No activity, the thread elevation descends. If it was a moot point then why raise your question?

If we classed the threads within a forum then that may aid some.

 
Old 11-16-2009, 12:36 PM   #6
Hangdog42
LQ Veteran
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Maryland
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 7,803
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 422Reputation: 422Reputation: 422Reputation: 422Reputation: 422
Quote:
Threads on Linuxquestions.org remain useful far beyond when they end. They are a valuable resource for other people researching the same problem.
Actually I agree quite strongly on this. I rarely have to start a thread here due to the huge volume of existing information.

Quote:
There's also a lot of linux knowledge buried in some of the better threads; these would act as good training tools.
Maybe I'm strange, but when I search here, I've never wished I had a ranking system for the threads. My opinion is that good information can be had from most threads and defining what is a "good" vs. "bad" thread is so subjective as to make the rating system kind of pointless. Also, the definition of a good thread changes over time as software progresses. What was a good thread five or six years ago might be completely pointless (or worse) today.

Quote:
I maintain that there is good information buried in Linuxquestions' databases which is not bubbling to the top because we don't have effective mechanisms for making this happen.
I'm reading between the lines here, but this suggests that somehow the search functions aren't living up to expectations. My experience here suggests quite the opposite. I find that the only real modifications to the search that I need are time based (newer threads are frequently, but not always, more relevant). However, if you're seeing some deficiency, that is certainly worth discussing.

Quote:
Ladies and Gentleman, if you've ever wondered what the true definition of a moot point is, this would be a perfect example. A moot point is a point of law that has been decided by the court, but which remains interesting to argue. I say this because I do realize that Jeremy's decision is final.
Actually, I don't believe this is a moot point for the sole reason that Jeremy is largely open to suggestions from the LQ community, even when they go against his prior notions. That is one of the truly outstanding features of LQ and I think a huge contribution to its success.
 
Old 11-17-2009, 05:58 AM   #7
bartonski
Member
 
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Louisville, KY
Distribution: Fedora 12, Slackware, Debian, Ubuntu Karmic, FreeBSD 7.1
Posts: 443

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 48
Quote:
Originally Posted by onebuck View Post
Hi,

I'll add a simple point. If you are doing a search here on LQ with broad keywords then the refinement of the words as associated to the problem will produce some of the knowledge within those posts. The rating system will not do you that much other than when YOU associate the problem/solution. Now tags will help define the search along with your keys while searching thus producing a helpful list of threads.
But what if you are not doing a search? If you're browsing for interesting things to learn? Yes, LQ is a wonderful place to get questions answered, but is that the only way that it should be used? Let's say that someone posed a very insightful question, which was followed by an exceptionally Lucid answer. Two posts, Five years ago. No one thought to rate the thread with 5 stars, because, well, who does that? My point is that I'll never know about those two posts, even though I might very well like to know about that little thing about bash, or perl or whatever. Just because I wasn't looking for it doesn't mean that I don't want to learn it.

Quote:
The activity of the threads will cause the thread to move to the top. ]No activity, the thread elevation descends.
A flame war has a lot of posts, but I doubt that anyone would rate it highly.

Quote:
If it was a moot point then why raise your question?
a) The point wasn't moot until Jeremy weighed in. b) The definition of a moot point is that even though the point has already been decided, there is still benefit in the argument.

Last edited by bartonski; 11-17-2009 at 06:17 AM.
 
Old 11-17-2009, 06:16 AM   #8
bartonski
Member
 
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Louisville, KY
Distribution: Fedora 12, Slackware, Debian, Ubuntu Karmic, FreeBSD 7.1
Posts: 443

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 48
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hangdog42 View Post
Actually, I don't believe this is a moot point for the sole reason that Jeremy is largely open to suggestions from the LQ community, even when they go against his prior notions. That is one of the truly outstanding features of LQ and I think a huge contribution to its success.
Thank you for this observation. I haven't been around and active here for long enough to really see that in action.

Duly noted.
 
Old 11-17-2009, 08:59 AM   #9
onebuck
Moderator
 
Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Central Florida 20 minutes from Disney World
Distribution: SlackwareŽ
Posts: 13,922
Blog Entries: 44

Rep: Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158
Hi,

Quote:
Originally Posted by bartonski View Post
But what if you are not doing a search? If you're browsing for interesting things to learn? Yes, LQ is a wonderful place to get questions answered, but is that the only way that it should be used? Let's say that someone posed a very insightful question, which was followed by an exceptionally Lucid answer. Two posts, Five years ago. No one thought to rate the thread with 5 stars, because, well, who does that? My point is that I'll never know about those two posts, even though I might very well like to know about that little thing about bash, or perl or whatever. Just because I wasn't looking for it doesn't mean that I don't want to learn it.



A flame war has a lot of posts, but I doubt that anyone would rate it highly.



a) The point wasn't moot until Jeremy weighed in. b) The definition of a moot point is that even though the point has already been decided, there is still benefit in the argument.
Knowledge is gained! If someone shouts in the woods the mysteries of Life or science and no one hears it then nobody gains. What about that hidden book that contains the answers to all your questions? Do you just wonder between books or define the search? My point is if you really want to learn something that is worth it's weight then you will work to find that same jewel. You can be mentored, steered or whatever you wish to call it but until YOU take the steps to open the door and go through it to gain some understanding then your goals will never be met.

Perusing may get you some information immediately but until you gain the detail for the whole then the answers will be fragmented. It seems we differ on how to attain knowledge but that does provide color to the world of knowledge.

Flame wars are just that 'wars'. Heated debates with respect along with good communication will win out for me anytime.

 
Old 11-17-2009, 01:18 PM   #10
bartonski
Member
 
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Louisville, KY
Distribution: Fedora 12, Slackware, Debian, Ubuntu Karmic, FreeBSD 7.1
Posts: 443

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 48
Quote:
Originally Posted by onebuck View Post
Perusing may get you some information immediately but until you gain the detail for the whole then the answers will be fragmented. It seems we differ on how to attain knowledge but that does provide color to the world of knowledge.
Ok. That may be so, but it's not the whole story. I ran across a method of incrementing serial numbers within strings in perl somewhere in the last 3 months, e.g.

Code:
filename000.txt
filename001.txt
filename002.txt
filename003.txt
filename004.txt
...
It was the most elegant solution that I've ever seen to this problem.

a) Without explicitly searching in the threads that I've posted to, how would you find that?

b) I didn't know that I was looking for that. I stumbled on it because I was replying to a newbie who had a 0-reply post of a Perl question, and I know a little Perl. It just so happened that several Perl gods converged on the thread all at once, and there were several excellent suggestions about improving the quality of the OP's perl code. If I had an 'increment' button on that thread, I definitely would have rated it up, and other Perl people would find it, probably even some time in to the future.

Education is the process of learning what you didn't know you didn't know. My example above was pure serendipity, but I'm always happy when someone else makes me more likely to bump in to interesting and useful stuff that they've happened across.
 
Old 11-17-2009, 04:58 PM   #11
titanium_geek
Senior Member
 
Registered: May 2002
Location: Horsham Australia
Distribution: elementary os 5.1
Posts: 2,479

Rep: Reputation: 50
couldn't you have used the 5 star thing?

TG
 
Old 11-17-2009, 10:34 PM   #12
bartonski
Member
 
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Louisville, KY
Distribution: Fedora 12, Slackware, Debian, Ubuntu Karmic, FreeBSD 7.1
Posts: 443

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 48
Quote:
Originally Posted by titanium_geek View Post
couldn't you have used the 5 star thing?

TG
Yeah, I'm about to do that, but I still maintain that a cumulative rating system has the "wisdom of the masses" thing going in its favor.
 
Old 11-18-2009, 04:54 AM   #13
DragonSlayer48DX
Registered User
 
Registered: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,454
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 75
Quote:
Originally Posted by bartonski View Post
Yeah, I'm about to do that, but I still maintain that a cumulative rating system has the "wisdom of the masses" thing going in its favor.
I believe it might work if everyone rated threads honestly. Sadly, I doubt that would be the case- too many people base their opinion solely on their own personal interest.

Cheers
 
Old 11-18-2009, 05:22 AM   #14
XavierP
Moderator
 
Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Kent, England
Distribution: Debian Testing
Posts: 19,192
Blog Entries: 4

Rep: Reputation: 475Reputation: 475Reputation: 475Reputation: 475Reputation: 475
And even more people will not rate a thread at all. Rating threads is so very very subjective that I cannot see any use for this at all. What is the definition of a highly rated thread? Speed of answer? Number of answers? Detailed question/detailed answer? Would we downvote a "simple question" or "simple/short answer"? What value would the rating have? - if I have a KDE issue, would I really care that the top 10 rated threads are all about Gnome?

Personally, and just my 2p, this would add to the confusion factors and not give us anything of value, especially since the primary method to find useful info should be the search function.

I downvote the idea in this thread. Or I will once the button is implemented
 
1 members found this post helpful.
Old 12-10-2009, 06:41 AM   #15
onebuck
Moderator
 
Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Central Florida 20 minutes from Disney World
Distribution: SlackwareŽ
Posts: 13,922
Blog Entries: 44

Rep: Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158Reputation: 3158
Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

Quote:
Originally Posted by colemancol View Post
Hey friends,

Well I think that "Features- Quality Hosting,High Storage, High Bandwidth, Fast Service, and Good Community...Price- A Few Posts on a Forum."
I think you should add more general and related topics for this site.I have learn lot from this site and so many questions of mine are come to an end by having and reading healthy discussion with members.Speed of response also the best.
Thank you..
Look at the 'General Forum'. You could always do a 'Search' here on LQ to find specific queries of interest. If you use good keywords or even tags to narrow the search then you would have loads of information to peruse.

BTW, suggest to jeremy the need for a pay increase.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Suggestion: Minimum post count to post in old inactive threads Eternal_Newbie LQ Suggestions & Feedback 5 04-28-2008 09:34 AM
Suggestion: for "subscribed threads" & "top of page" buttons Old_Fogie LQ Suggestions & Feedback 7 07-10-2006 05:10 PM
My Subscribed Threads page suggestion ahedler LQ Suggestions & Feedback 2 12-01-2005 02:03 AM
Unsubscribing form threads suggestion darthtux LQ Suggestions & Feedback 2 07-29-2004 08:43 AM
Suggestion: Thread Rating System eric.r.turner LQ Suggestions & Feedback 4 10-01-2003 07:51 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > LinuxQuestions.org > LQ Suggestions & Feedback

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:35 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration