Did you know you can get 5 points just for rating a post? You did? Then why the hell don't you rate?
Tell me if these titles sound familiar: "The Boots." "One little decade" "The Day A Soldier Made Me Cry..." "My autistic brother, my complete stranger" If they do, look to your right. They've been in the top rated positions since before the beginning of this competition.
I've got nothing against these posts. Really, they're well written, on topic, have good grammar. But it's been almost 3 months that some of these posts have been up there. Has no one really written any good posts since then?
Esuffern's post about Vanessa Hudgens has over 7100 reads! How many of those rated her? 6. Wow. Great job people.
I know that there are good posts out there. I've read them, you've read them. But will they ever get the attention they deserve if no one rates them? No. Instead, they will quickly be forgotten to the lost recesses of ProU backwater along with posts entitled "ugggh" and "My First Post." The authors who have worked their heart and soul into their posts do not deserve such a fate.
Please rate posts. Flush out the unspeakable posts and raise up the ones that deserve it.
And if these reasons didn't convince you, just do it to get some goddamn points.
But people are selfish with their votes and if they aren't doing well rating wise, they sabotage...I have been victim to that...or if they don't agree...Then silly posts get high ratings...Ugh.
I totally agree. I rate most of the posts I read, but it doesn't seem to make a difference in which posts are on the top rated. I want to see some new stuff up there too! Some people really deserve it.
ALMOST every blog did, and my most recent one that i really liked {about Political correctness} had one star one second after i posted it and that's okay but people should at least say WHY?
I comment on almost every blog that i tihink deserves a comment and the ones that I have something to say about and now I don't rate unless I also comment because I don't think it's fair to just rate and not leave comments.
"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right."
http://www.progressiveu.org/231615-this-is-a-muslim-girls-plight
" "love em all,trust a few,and fear none"....thats wassup.one love. peace." mos def
original thinkers out of envy, I do not always agree with your views, but I enjoy your voice on here...We do not have to agree on the view, but the fact that you have an opinion, and an intelligent one, is rare and rewarding to the people you comment to. Don't worry about those stars...They mean nothing to the people taht look at you for real, and not at this contest...it corrupts judgement.
and get revenge--- seriously, I don't even rate a person on whether or not i agreed with their blog--the thing i rate on is the grammar and how cohesive the argument was and would I be persuaded to think about things in a way I had not thought of them before
it's ignorant to rate low on a blog just because one does not agree with the stance.
"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right."
http://www.progressiveu.org/231615-this-is-a-muslim-girls-plight
" "love em all,trust a few,and fear none"....thats wassup.one love. peace." mos def
But obviously not everyone is on that level...I have seen some GREAT blogs with few stars and some not at all progressive or thoughtful blogs with many...
I hate when people vote, but then I receive no comments on what I wrote. I want to know what people like or dislike about what I'm saying.
I am sometimes guilty of not commenting on something I've rated.
When something is written just horribly: bad formatting, bad sentence structure, riddled with spelling and grammar errors-- they get a "1" out of me regardless what the blog was about. Since I only ever rate based on writing quality, I only leave a corresponding comment if they have tagged the blog "Critique my Writing"...
Otherwise, I assume that if they see a "1" on their blog, they'll try looking at how they've written the blog and trying to fix it.
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
Fanaile Essence,
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I do the same thing.
Although, I am relatively confident that if someone has not learned the basic rules of the English language, such as capitalizing "I"s, grammar and sentence structure, they aren't about to try and learn now. Not to mention that there is a built-in spell check in these boxes... it really isn't that hard to look for the red lines and use them. *grumbles*
Do i have horrible spelling and grammar????
I do know that my english writing can stand to improve a lot but I've always felt that I was good at it because english is not my first language and it takes me a little more time to search for the right words (my brain knows the word it wants in urdu and then i have to search for the english counterpart)
I learned English in the 5th grade :( but I'm getting better or so I thought until i see the really low ratings and I'm left thinking, IS it because of grammar/spelling?
"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right."
http://www.progressiveu.org/231615-this-is-a-muslim-girls-plight
" "love em all,trust a few,and fear none"....thats wassup.one love. peace." mos def
I can't say that any of your blogs resulted in a 1 or 2 from me; but I also can't speak for every one else; I only listed a reason why I don't always comment on a blog I've rated.
This might be a good time to post a blog and tag it with "Critique my writing"; this will draw people into commenting not only on the content of the blog, but also about how well you wrote it.
In some cases, I think Amy Rice is right, in that some users are intentionally rating several blogs a day at only 1 without spending more than a couple of seconds on the blog (certainly not enough time to actually read the blog). We're monitoring it to see how we might be able to promote more fair ratings...
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
Fanaile Essence,
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agreed...comment and rate the ones that deserve it.
Very true.
The only bright side is, that this time around I can't get accused of cheating just because my post is up there :)
But, many of the posts you mentioned also have a huge amount of points - something that has never happened. Last semester, posts were dropping off within minutes of being listed, and the average post had only 10 votes on it. One or two rates would make a real difference them. My post "The day a soldier made me cry" has 51 votes on it - which is completely unreal; So I do think that there are more people rating, and rating fairly, than we had last year.
Last season the highest rated posts consisted of 3-star posts because they were constantly being voted down or off. We have several 4 star posts that aren't listed on that list - they just aren't *quite* there yet.
Perhaps we can lengthen the list to show more than just 5?
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
Fanaile Essence,
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But I think yours has been up there so long because its seen on every page, so more people vote on it, making it stay longer, having more people see it, and thus, more people vote on it. No offense against you or your post, I'm just tired of seeing it. I need some fresh blood...or something.
Maybe increasing the number of top rated posts would help, but really, it comes down to a matter of voting, and voting fairly.
Whisper on a scream doesn't change a thing. - Kenny Wayne Sheppard Band
I agree, there's a bit of a cycle there. I don't think it would be as bad if the other four changed around a bit more often; but having all five of them constantly up there is getting old.
But I think the best way to solve it is to try to solve it from all angles:
1. - We need to find a way to promote better writing; I can't speak for every one else, but I try to look through every blog that comes up. By the time I've gone through 10, I'm so frustrated by the lack of quality and originality that I don't bother looking again for a couple days. When I do find one, I promote it right away. But finding one good blog in a sea of 35 blogs is nuts.
2. - we need to figure out a way to bring exposure to some of the overlooked blogs. As Amy Rice said, she has some great blogs that are being virtually ignored because they aren't on the recent posts list or the Highest rated list. They've been buried. This happened last season as well. But with so many blogs being posted a day - they get knocked off quickly from the recent list.
3. - At one point in time last week, my entire buddy list posts was comprised of "Unpublished Post: XXX". That's ridiculous. Despite the amount of advice we give and the clarity offered in the FAQ - people are still plagiarizing and posting crap that gets deleted. We need to find a way to get people not only exposed to such advice, but use it.
4. - We need to promote fair rating. We ran a poll on 9-15 that asked what people rate on, 128 people claimed to rate fairly based on the quality of writing. I think they lied (besides, higher than even total votes on most of the other polls).
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
Fanaile Essence,
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How do you rate a rape story or someones opinion about burger king? I'd like the free points, but how do you rate shit like that?
is it progressive, did it make me think about something, did it somehow open my eyes and give me insight into something that I had no idea or emotions about and of course, was it written reasonably well...
hope that helps and hope someone else tells you how they rate too
"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right."
http://www.progressiveu.org/231615-this-is-a-muslim-girls-plight
" "love em all,trust a few,and fear none"....thats wassup.one love. peace." mos def
It would help if we could rate more than 20 times in 24 hours. I read more than 20 posts in 24 hours - I should be able to rate what I read. It's not fair when I can't rate down what is clearly garbage and what someone obviously put a lot of time and thought into.
I also read a previous post by you that concerned adding ratings on English / originality / topic / progressiveness / ect. I think if you separated the rating into maybe 4 categories but kept it in the same spot, it would be just as easy and accessible, and more helpful to the writer.
I know I'd sure like to know what I can do to improve my ratings / get more people to rate my posts!
I agree with engkatiemarie. The site should let us rate more than 20 times per day. I get frustrated when that happens because I don't keep track of how many times I rate people. If they allow more, I think more people will definitely rate more. I'm just worried how most people would rate a post...
It can get frustrating, but right now we can't raise the number of times people can rate per day; not as long as there are users abusing the ratings feature by going from blog to blog and rating each one as a "1" without spending more than a couple of seconds at each blog.
But I'll save these comments for future reference so when we do work out the bugs in the system, we can consider raising the limit :)
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
Fanaile Essence,
A-Team Member
Nominate your Favorite Blog to become a Featured Blogger!
what goes around, goes around, goes around and DOES come back around--- people just won't know it or admit it, but that's another story -
these things DO (in my opinion) come back to bite those haters in their rears :)
"Things have a life of their own. It's just a matter of waking up their souls."
--Gabriel García Márquez
http://www.progressiveu.org/231615-this-is-a-muslim-girls-plight
LOL
I am a firm believer that Karma always comes back to bitch-slap those who deserve it :)
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
Fanaile Essence,
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If you are able to identify these people, why not just make it so they are unable to vote? That way the rest of don't have to pay for a few other's dumb choices. : )
:) if only we could.
The problem is that we can either allow every one to vote, or no one.
We're working on it, though.
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
Fanaile Essence,
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Why? This is just my opinion, but...
Voting should be a privilege, just like driving. Everybody can do it, until they do something stupid and "break the law". Then they get their "voting license" suspended until they learn some voting responsibility. If the rules are changed, and everyone is informed in advance, then I don't really see a problem. : )
The reason it's not that simple is the software, not our wants. :)
The node module won't allow us to specify users to vote or not vote, only to disable the entire module or enable it.
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
Fanaile Essence,
A-Team Member
Nominate your Favorite Blog to become a Featured Blogger!