{Misc Support} Slashdot-like mod point system?

[voyager529]

Hey guys!

I don't know how extensible these forums are, but I don't know if anyone peruses Slashdot at all.

If you do, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, here's the quick and dirty...

Posts are rated based on their content. One can be modded funny, insightful, informative, flamebait, etc. (the complete list is on Wikipedia). users are given 5 mod points at varying intervals, and can assign a mod point to worthy post.

I dunno if i'd go for the 5 random mod points system, but I think it would be cool to implement a system like that where comments can be ranked by users.

Is that at all possible? has it ever been considered? If so, what was the verdict?

Joey

[[Admin] skstarkiller]

Why would you want to do that? What do the points get you?

[voyager529]

For example, a post rated +5 informative is more likely to contain information useful to directly solving the issue at hand. a +5 funny is likely to be entertaining, but if i'm in a rush, the joke wouldn't register anyway.

Then of course, there's "street cred". I remember we tried the 'rep power' add-in a few years back, but few people used it and it wasn't terribly user-friendly.

If you haven't, check out an article or two on Slashdot. it'll make more sense.

Joey

[[Admin] danroth]

This was discussed awhile back and the results speak for themselves.

I guess the question is to what degree do we want to be a meritocracy and to what degree do we want to encourage maximum participation?

I can see the benefits of rating "helpfulness". However, I can also see people being discouraged from trying to help.

It's part of why we don't rate things in the MXC. We want to encourage lots of contributions from everyone. (although we might consider a "hidden" rating in which nobody can tell how something is rated, but in which higher rated items occur higher in the search results).

So, let's say that it's always under consideration, but not a high priority at this point.

[tedanderson]

Then of course, there's "street cred".

LOL! I understand where you are coming from but the environment here is a little different than the typical message board. IMHO openly judging posts would discourage people who really need this forum from participating on it.

At CMN nobody is supposed to get flamed.. or at least flaming is not the Christian way of us conducting ourselves and I would even suggest that rating a post as being "flame worthy" would be the same thing.

I mean if you consider the amount of times that you had the answer to someone's problem and you didn't get "thanked" for it, that alone could ruin your street cred.

[kbob]

I think we've had many different stabs at something like that over the years, with the rep and points systems. I think we're not really about a rep or status system here-either you've got a good answer or you don't. Lately, I've tried not to answer everyone's questions immediately, so as to let others develop the habit of contributing by seeing an un-answered need and filling it. I think that have a rep system might stifle some of the participation somewhat, as some might be inclined to let the "experts" handle to harder or trickier problems posted.

Now ranking some of the answers to common questions in the search results, on the other hand, sounds like a great idea! Perhaps without having them publically ranked?

[Mustangnaz]

I love Slashdot and their point system because most threads get dozens of replies. It would be useless to try and sort through the comments to find the helpful ones. Here on churchmedia.net though we are lucky to get one dozen replies and I think it would be more work than it's worth to use a point system.
But to answer the real question, yes it is possible. Their code is open source.