Flawed,
You make some good points... just today I was considering dropping the -10 penalty for rating another user. It was instituted to prevent action without thought, but clearly that's not the issue. Out of the thousands of users we have here I can count on one hand those that use the MilPoints system regularly to assess others. That to me is a breakdown in the system, which is supposed to encourage "good" user behaviour and discourage "bad" by allowing the user population to have a strong, consistent voice.
The old rating system burned out of control and I know why, at least in part: it was completely anonymous. I believe a small but very vocal segment of our userbase was able to anonymously tip the scales with a concerted effort. This system holds the assessee and assessor publicly accountable, and predictably the "radicals" are nowhere to be found this time. Unfortunately neither is anyone else.
I hear repeatedly that folks aren't concerned with their MilPoints totals, yet they're not using the tool to assess others. We know from past ratings experiments that the will is out there, so I can only assume that the cost plays a (small?) part in everyone's reluctance to use the system.
Based on what you're saying I
think I'm hearing that larger +/- values for rating others might also help make the system more useful. As has been pointed out, the system (and the entire site) is ever changing, in large part due to the ideas and discussions of our users.
kratz is right about the intent of the system, and you're probably right about it's actual effectiveness. As a result, I've dropped the -10 penalty, and increased the assessment value range (see
the MilPoints FAQ for details).
One other thing the old system had going for it was ease of use. Would including simple one-click "Give XX MilPoints" and "Deduct XX MilPoints" buttons help people use the system? The current system is 2 steps, but allows you to take a hand in the moderation of the site by putting forward an optional opinion.
We've seen once so far that MilPoints can have an actual value* - I plan to do more like that in time, but there's still a lot to get in order before anything noteworth takes place there.
I'm certainly open to additional suggestions on how to improve it's utility and balance.
Cheers
Mike
* In writing this I realized that due to some confusion about where the gift certs from that contest were to be sent, they were never sent... winners, expect to hear from me to confirm your addresses again on this... everyone else use the system to rate me down! ![Wink ;) ;)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png)