Thinking about trying something out here...

I have had people ask me for some sort of simplified rating system for people that have been the topics of discussion on the BOI.  Some people just don't want to read reams of messages about someone in order to form an opinion.  What they want is something similar to Ebay's rating system to show at a glance what the general consensus is about someone they are considering doing business with.

With this in mind, I have explored the capabilities of the polling function in this message board system.  I have created a new category and put in a test forum for you all to take a look at this idea I am trying out:
Poll testing area

There are some issues that I will need to address, and your input will be helpful for me to determine if this will be a wise idea or not.

The biggest drawback (or is it?) will be that voting in the polls will be anonymous.  The votes are not traceable back to the person making the vote.  There will, of course, be the opportunity for abuse, but fortunately a registered member ONLY, can vote, and they can ONLY vote one time in each poll.  So perhaps that will limit it somewhat.

I will set up the forum so that I am the only one whom can create a new poll.  This will keep it structured and prevent duplicates that would certainly show up.  It will also put a burden on me, as anyone wanting to enter a name into the rating system will have to send that information to me (or maybe I can designate someone for this chore).

A poll can be set up in two ways:

(1)  Allow no replies to the original message. It will be a POLL ONLY thread.  This is probably a good thing, as the discussion really should remain in the BOI, and this would just be an enhanced section to compliment what is in the BOI.  The drawback to this method, however, is that the program is written in such a way that even I cannot edit the information in the original message.  This probably is an oversight in the programming, but it is a concern.  People and businesses will change their contact info, and I will have no way to update that information without going directly into the database to do it.  This will not be very time efficient to do.

(2)  Allow messages to be posted along with the voting process in the polls.  My gut feeling is that this would not be a good idea as it would just cause a parallel thread and duplicate what is already being said on the BOI.  I think very few people will refrain from adding comments if there is nothing to stop them from doing so.  But at least I would be able to edit the contact information as needed.

Ideally what I would like is to be able to block everyone from adding messages but be able to edit that original message containing the contact info.  Unfortunately, they appear to be mutually exclusive options, so I will have to pick one over the other.

If you all think this is workable, I would like to come up with a name for the forum that will be self explanatory to anyone reading it.  Some ideas that pop into mind:

BOI Rating System
At A Glance Ratings
Thumbnail Ratings
etc......

Also, I widened the spread of options on how someone could vote on a business or person.  Just having GOOD GUY and BAD GUY as options seemed too much of a straightjacket, but if simpler is better, tell me that's what you would prefer.  I think more options might just be more confusing, so these appear to be a happy medium, to me anyway:

() Excellent!
() Good Guy
() OK, but nothing special
() Not so good
() Bad Guy
() The Worst!

So take a look at this test area and tell me what you think about it.  I am undecided if I should just accept emails with applications for names to put into the rating system or if I should just open up another forum for people to post them there for me to go through.  I'm open to suggestions to this one.  If I twist someone's arm to help me moderate this aspect of this site, probably having a separate forum would be easier to manage.  The preliminary entries would just come from the threads that already exist on the BOI, of course.

Thanks for your help.

sounds like a good idea, but I think people that haven't delt with the individual being polled will post anyhow
still a neet idea though <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

I think it would work, if it was not an anonomous poll. I know on E-bay, with bidding, 1 or 2 negative feedbacks can be the reason an item recieves no bids. I think that the boi, as it is right now, serves the same purpose, and trolls and flamers are soon weeded out. Could the thread topics be alphabetized by individuals names to facilitate an easier search? I think that most "consumers" will enjoy reading the various threads. (I do)

Without being able to see who's posting I don't think its legit way to rate a business or person. As you can see from the amout of post certain people make that they are online most of day & could just rate themselves all day. If you could get a poll that tracable it would be killier idea as long as the individual has to be registered to BOI to vote.
Just My two cents.
Chris Pearson

As mentioned in my original message, a person HAS to be registered in order to vote in a poll, and they can only vote once per registered name.

This will NOT replace the BOI, it will be in addition to. &nbsp;It can be set up to only allow the poll to be voted on, and leave the posting of detailed messages in the actual BOI.

I do not believe it would work if I just attempted to add a poll to the threads in the actual BOI, because there is no way for me to control the creation of a new thread. &nbsp;Which means there will be a lot of duplicates. &nbsp;People will seldom search the forum to see if a thread already exists about someone they are interested in posting comments about and will post a new thread rather than spend that time.

As far as the problem of the votes being anonymous, I don't believe it is any better or worse than what is posted in the BOI. &nbsp;Anyone can sign in using a HOTMAIL account and put a false name on their message. &nbsp;Obviously I cannot verify them all. &nbsp;But in most cases, I believe the truth will prevail if enough people are participating.

I think you might need to add "extenuating circumstances - good guy" and "extenuating circumstances - &nbsp;bad guy", but if there is no way to put remarks, that might not work. I like the idea, and vote for no comments, just the rating.
sue frederick

It's a really good idea for everything only thng is now you'll have even more to do . thxs for thinking of it

I think its a good idea. &nbsp;Is there any way you could put a permant link in the message area that leads to a page you could update with the info? &nbsp;Perhaps that may solve the problem of changing contact information. &nbsp;Or perhaps a link that automatically searches the BOI for threads about the person being rated? &nbsp;Either method would prevent people from adding duplicate messages to the polls, while allowing you to keep up-to-date information available.

Great work!

Kara

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Is there any way you could put a permant link in the message area that leads to a page you could update with the info? &nbsp;
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That would be really labor intensive, as it would take another couple of steps to be able to update that page. &nbsp;Plus I doubt many people would be inclined to use it to take a look to see that information. &nbsp; If I had more time available, I could write my own PHP script to do this edit for me. &nbsp;Maybe I can talk Danni Wilson into something like that.

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Or perhaps a link that automatically searches the BOI for threads about the person being rated? &nbsp;
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That would be even more complicated. &nbsp;Even though I can sort the forum these polls will reside in via the topic line (which will ONLY contain the name of the person/business being voted on), I suspect most people might use the search feature at the beginning to find all threads about the person they are interested in.

I am inclined to use a person's full name as the sort criteria, since people will change business names more often than their given name. &nbsp;But that really only applies to a one man show type of business. &nbsp;Neil Gubitz or The Snake Pit of Tampa, and Dave Lawson of Lawson's Reptiles are prime examples of this. &nbsp;In those cases, I would list the topic line as 'Gubitz, Neil - The Snake Pit of Tampa', and 'Lawson, Dave - Lawson's Reptiles'. &nbsp;That way the poll forum will sort by last name and display the entries in alphabetical order.

Something like Big Apple Herpetological, or LLL Reptiles would be a different situation entirely. &nbsp;I will have to give this one some thought.

It's a shame there isn't an option to be able to sort that forum by the sum of the votes received. So the best of the best would be at the top of the forum. The only way this would work is to apply negative values to the votes below 'OK' in the summing code.


Thanks for your suggestions.

A feedback rating system would be great, but it shouldn't be anonymous...think of some of the flame wars on here, then think about how petty people can be. There should be a small (80 characters) area for a comment, akin to eBay. Further followup should be posted to the message board part of the BOI.

Having the poll include whether the person leaving feedback was a buyer or a seller would also help people reading through the ratings get a feel for the person they are checking out without having to wade through hundreds of threads for a quick answer.