I found this interesting, as I've just started working again on a web app for rating learning resources - I made a previous post on HN asking about the merits of a 5-point system versus a 2-point system (thumbs up / thumbs down). It seemed the consensus was to the five-point system, as it's more informative.
However, TC seems to believe that the 5-star system is more poorly defined. Opinions? I've been wondering about whether to include guidelines for the different rankings, (3 stars means this, 4 stars means this, etc) or just to let people use their own definitions (since, in all likelihood, the guidelines would be ignored). I've always thought it strange when reviewers provide a little box saying "5 stars - Excellent, 4 stars - Good..." and so on, since most people should have got the idea by now.
I also want to segregate links by level - Getting Started/Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced - and was trying to think of precise definitions for each. Again, I've also thought that since people likely would ignore any such definitions, it might be better for them to use their own definitions. Theory being that if 100 people thought this link should be in the 'beginner' category, then others won't be surprised to find it there.
So, give definitions for each ranking, or let users work by their own interpretations for each ranking?
2 ideas to improve things:
Idea 1: Change the weighting of a vote based on the voter's voting habits. Eg, if a person only gives 1 and 5 star votes, decrease the weighting for their votes. I doubt I'm the first person to come up with this idea, does anyone know of any sites that implement such a scheme?
Idea 2: Users with 'editor' priveleges have the ability to move things around into their 'correct' place. This could make it more useful to have predefined definitons for each ranking and category.
However, TC seems to believe that the 5-star system is more poorly defined. Opinions? I've been wondering about whether to include guidelines for the different rankings, (3 stars means this, 4 stars means this, etc) or just to let people use their own definitions (since, in all likelihood, the guidelines would be ignored). I've always thought it strange when reviewers provide a little box saying "5 stars - Excellent, 4 stars - Good..." and so on, since most people should have got the idea by now.
I also want to segregate links by level - Getting Started/Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced - and was trying to think of precise definitions for each. Again, I've also thought that since people likely would ignore any such definitions, it might be better for them to use their own definitions. Theory being that if 100 people thought this link should be in the 'beginner' category, then others won't be surprised to find it there.
So, give definitions for each ranking, or let users work by their own interpretations for each ranking?
2 ideas to improve things:
Idea 1: Change the weighting of a vote based on the voter's voting habits. Eg, if a person only gives 1 and 5 star votes, decrease the weighting for their votes. I doubt I'm the first person to come up with this idea, does anyone know of any sites that implement such a scheme?
Idea 2: Users with 'editor' priveleges have the ability to move things around into their 'correct' place. This could make it more useful to have predefined definitons for each ranking and category.