Suggestions on a new rating system

[Pete (Thed)]

Hi all,

First up. Thanks for sticking with authearth. I know the current system isn't so great but I am really pleased to see that we have a good community of writers on here. We are doing our best to ensure that the new system we build is best able to profile your work and enable people to get feedback and (dare I say) praise.

On that note we are looking at ways of ensuring the best work is shown more frequently. The only way I can think of doing this is by using a rating system. That means when you read someone's work you rate it say out of 10) and we use the new homepage to show highest rated work across various categories. Another feature we want to have is an easy to way to be notified when someone whom you like posts new work. Any other ideas?

All comments and advice on ensuring we get this right gratefully received.

Best
Thed

[Luke Rowett]

A rating out of ten does seem like the most simple way to do it, as long as it was done in a fairly subtle way. The emphasis needs to stay on reading the work, not rating the work, or else it becomes like a 'hot or not' for literature.

If rating the work remains an option, perhaps as a button of some sort along side the reply box, then it should be ok. I think the only way to see if something will work well is to try it. If it fails miserably we can just take it away again.

Luke

[Armida]

Thed, there is feast and famine even among the best writers.

I'm okay with a rating system. There is so much posted (and that is good); however, it is not easy to read everything that is posted. This is when unfairness sets in unwittingly. It's true we fall in the trap of selecting our favorites...if you come across something early that you like, you tend to go back to see what else was written by that person.

Is there some way to catalog the written material--by themes of the subject matter?

Perhaps the "friends" function is still the viable way to be notified when someone we like posts new work. Does it work that way now? I'm not sure.

It's a full time job the editor has....in all fairness, make it easier for yourself...it's important to come up with a "fair" system so that prizes go to the most meritorous. I thing there should be about three rounds of elimination, but on a quarterly basis--maybe not monthly.

That's my thinking right now--I'm up late and not thinking freshly....sorry for being late in my response to you. I haven't checked my Yahoo e-mail lately.