Step 1) of ATARNotes.com expansion: New 'Respect' System

[enwiabe]

EDIT (feel like an asshat for forgetting this!): Everybody give David a big round of applause for getting this done in virtually 24 hours.

This seemed trivial to many of you. I get that. In the coming weeks you'll see why this overhaul of the karma system was needed. Step 2) of my little plan for ATARNotes.com will drop in the next 2 weeks and you'll see precisely why this was needed.

Now that it's fully implemented (barring one minor thing I'll address below), I'm going to go through and explain it fully!

Karma was converted to Respect by dividing through by 25. I contemplated a full reboot, but that seemed harsh to the people who put in tireless hours into helping this community and I felt it would be cold to deprive them of one of the only indicators signifying this.

Here's how it works.

1) You can now vote on any post to indicate whether you like it or not. Click the up arrow to 'like' it, and the down arrow to 'dislike' it. Each of these actions are worth 0.2 and -0.2 respect points respectively.

2) However, a post must receive a certain number of upvotes and downvotes to activate respect points. When a post hits +3 rating (e.g. upvotes minus downvotes = 3 or more) you get 0.6 respect, and then 0.2 respect for each upvote thereafter. Similarly if a post hits -3, you lose -0.6 respect and -0.2 respect for each downvote thereafter. This prevents, as some people have noted, somebody going and liking 10 of their friend's posts and getting them +2 respect. If we notice any suspicious activity e.g. someone having a lot of posts with just 3 upvotes, we'll investigate to see if people are trying to game the system with their friends. Be aware, our system logs IPs and users who have liked posts, even if that information doesn't appear to you. You will be caught, and banned.

3) The 'top 10 most respected' list is broken at the moment (the thing I was referring to up top) and will be fixed in the next 24-48 hours.

4) I'm willing to hear any feedback you guys have to make this system better. It will become much more important in the coming weeks, so we need to make it as good as possible.

Cheers

EDIT: Over the next day we'll be retroactively crediting people +5 respect for each notes upload to their name. And every new upload will garner the same respect credit

[burbs]

Question:
What is step two, and why is it a secret?

[enwiabe]

Question:
What is step two, and why is it a secret?

It's not a secret so much as I'd prefer not to discuss it until it's ready. I just wanted to reassure people that I wasn't doing this for novelty and that my priorities were in order

[burbs]

Fair enough.

I think the more valuable part of this change is that now annoying/unnecessary etc. posts will get hidden, probably reduce clutter etc. I like that.

Are we meant to be upvoting/downvoting based on relevance to topic or whether we liked/disliked that post?

[slothpomba]

I'd like it better if the up/down arrows were at the bottom of the post like at the end of what the persons written but above the signature, on my widescreen monitor its heaps over to the side.

[enwiabe]

Fair enough.

I think the more valuable part of this change is that now annoying/unnecessary etc. posts will get hidden, probably reduce clutter etc. I like that.

Are we meant to be upvoting/downvoting based on relevance to topic or whether we liked/disliked that post?

I don't want to go all thought police on you but the idea is to reward people for enriching the community and punish posts that detract from it.

[vexx]

EDIT: Over the next day we'll be retroactively crediting people +5 respect for each notes upload to their name. And every new upload will garner the same respect credit

what about the notes uploaded on the subject forums will that be the same? or should we perhaps also upload them in the notes section to expand the notes already there..?

[enwiabe]

EDIT: Over the next day we'll be retroactively crediting people +5 respect for each notes upload to their name. And every new upload will garner the same respect credit

what about the notes uploaded on the subject forums will that be the same? or should we perhaps also upload them in the notes section to expand the notes already there..?

All notes are advised to be uploaded to the notes system, yes.

[jaccerz]

I think everyone should start at ZERO.

in some cases people have high respect already, due to them actually being helpful on here, but there are others who karma the same people day in day out in return for karma themselves, who abuse the system and now have a high karma, in some cases, their karma is higher then those on here who do help and contribute.

[Mao]

I think everyone should start at ZERO.

in some cases people have high respect already, due to them actually being helpful on here, but there are others who karma the same people day in day out in return for karma themselves, who abuse the system and now have a high karma, in some cases, their karma is higher then those on here who do help and contribute.

I disagree.

I finished VCE a while ago, and I don't contribute too much anymore. I think there quite a few alumni that are in similar situations. Our karma/respect were built up a while ago, I think we ought to honour the hard work.

Also, karma abuse was a problem, but since it was converted on a 25 to 1 ratio, valid contributions from now on are worth a lot more than before. Karma abuse will be weeded out pretty quickly.

[Gloamglozer]

I think everyone should start at ZERO.

in some cases people have high respect already, due to them actually being helpful on here, but there are others who karma the same people day in day out in return for karma themselves, who abuse the system and now have a high karma, in some cases, their karma is higher then those on here who do help and contribute.

I disagree.

Speaking from someone who has finished VCE a while ago, I don't contribute too much anymore, and similar for many other alumnis.  Our karma/respect were built up a while ago, I think we ought to keep in mind that these were built upon hard-work back in the time.

Also, karma abuse was a problem, but since it was converted on a 25 to 1 ratio, valid contributions from now on are worth a lot more than before. Karma abuse will be weeded out pretty quickly.

I agree with Mao.  On another note, you'll find that not all members on the forum help academically.  There are those who help out in other things, such as administrative matters associated with the transition from VCE to tertiary study.

I think if you want to start from zero, you might as well do the drastic thing: wipe the forum out completely including its notes and start from square one.  But that's extreme.

[DavidB3ck]

You should port this over to the national forum. You know, that unbiased forum for sharing information equally between all the states. :p

[Russ]

I don't know if this was addressed anywhere, but are there plans to adjust it so you can see who has voted on a post? Perhaps in the rollover text that currently just says "the current score of this post"?

[lexitu]

Personally, I like the anonymity of it. I can vote posts down without fearing a backlash such as in neg karma.

[pi]

Personally, I like the anonymity of it. I can vote posts down without fearing a backlash such as in neg karma.

+1, its a fairer system than Karma, which was less private...