Poll: Getting rid of the star ratings

[Wise Young]

As most of you know, you can rate the topics and assign stars to each topics where 1 star indicates the "worst" and 5 stars indicate the "best" topic. The web site averages the votes by people. So, I would like to know whether I should delete this service for the following reasons:

1. Very few people use this feature. Here is how I know. I just voted on the topic entitled "Luba's book is finally out" It has been viewed by many people at least 1168 times. Yet, my vote for "best" changed the number of stars from 3 stars to four stars. This indicates that probably no more than 3-4 people voted.

2. The star ratings often do not reflect the postings that people make on the topic. For example, a topic may contain many positive postings but the star-rating is two or three stars. It is not clear why some people may have voted to indicate that the topic is "worst".

3. The criteria for voting on the number of stars should be based on whether people think that the topic is worth reading. Instead, I think that many people are voting on the basis of whether they agree with the topic or postings . In my opinion, whether a person agrees with the posting is less important than whether they think that the topic should be read.

So, I was wondering people believe that we should eliminate the star ratings of the topics.

[cheesecake]

I have tried to "cast a rating vote but have had no success in getting it to registar. Perhaps this is a part of the problem?

[Wise Young]

cheesecake, what happens when you try to rate with the stars?

Wise.

[cheesecake]

Dr. Young,
I have tried to rate a topic that has no rating. I have selected my ***value and enter. It has never recorded a rating or I receive an error message. I haven't tried again since some time in October. I am just wondering if others have had the same problem and just don't attempt to rate a topic. Currently there are two topics with numerous views but no rating. I have been perplexed as to the reason why.

[Wise Young]

cheesecake, why don't you try rating this topic. It currently does not have any stars. Thanks. Wise.

[cheesecake]

Got it to work today Dr. Young. guess presistance works. I gave up in Oct, should have kept trying.
A thought....If the rate button was at the top of the page, do you think it wold get more use? It is rare that I scroll down to the bottom of a topic, I just pick up where I left off.

I think this thread is getting missed....maybe posting it in the life section would help....or put a link to it.

[cheesecake]

I ranked this a 3 star=average. Did you rate it to see if the star system was working? Or now, maybe others are trying to!

[Wise Young]

I think that the star rating system is working. It is often not clear how many people voted. I think that I will suggest to the programmers to include the number of votes. It is possible to set up a special forums style sheet where the star rating would be up on top but I am not sure that it is worth the effort. I also think that people are using the star system more and the ratings are making more sense. Let's wait and see if it gets used more. For certain forums, it really does make sense... i.e. the links.

Wise.