Am I the only one confused by the new Rec system?

[garybeck]

I just opened two threads.

One said "MUST READ" When I opened it it said it had 22 votes and a 4.9 rating.

the other said "RECOMMENDED." When I opened it it said it had 32 votes and a 4 rating

?

I guess the rating outweighs the fact that more people actually bothered to vote on it and give it a positive rating?


I mean, if 22 people say one thing is great,
and 32 people say another thing is good,

which one is better?

this begs the question... if a thread has only one vote and it is a 5, does that thread get a "must read" icon on the forum page, while another thread could have 100 votes averaging a 4.x would only be regarded as "recommended" ?

And I really miss being able to see the number of recs on the forum page. now I have to open each thread to see how many recs it got?

And I believe the fear of being labeled "skip it" or "disruptive" might cause people to not speak their mind or ask questions for fear of sounding stupid.

Can we have a sticky at the top explaining how this works?

I appreciate the effort but I think it needs some tweaking. I think it's hard to figure out which threads are really the best ones, when we can no longer see the number of votes on the forum page.

[Misskittycat]

1. When did this new system go into place?

I'm here constantly through every day, and I just noticed it.

More to the point, why is there a new system?

[TahitiNut]

3. This afternoon. See Skinner's thread in General Discussion.

:shrug:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4070591&mesg_id=4070591

[cabluedem]

5. All I know is that the old REC system worked with my Smartphone browser. This new system doesnt.

Oh well at least I can still read the posts at DU.

[TahitiNut]

2. The number of people giving a rating is immaterial. It's the average of their ratings.

Remember, we're NOT merely 'recommending' or not ... we're RATING the thread. After 10 people rate it, the rating is "published" in the index ... blank being too low to mention.

(I'd prefer to see the MEDIAN rating instead of the mean, but that's another story.)

[garybeck]

10. I think this is a mistake

I understand the intention- quality over quantity.... but quantity deserves some recognition too. If 10 people rec a thread as "must read" and 100 people rec a thread as "recommended", I'd rather know about the latter. It's nice to show the quality but not at the exense of taking away the showing of the quantity. doesn't seem right.

[krispos42]

4. Skinners has a thread floating around explaining it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4070591


He usually waits a day before pinning it.

[canetoad]

6. It's a pain

I couldn't give a flying fuck what other people think of threads, I read what tickles my fancy - and try to ignore the waste of screen real estate.

[fla nocount]

9. I'm with you, I distrust people in groups...particularly their opinions

on what might be commendable. There's a lot of what I consider bat-shit that many here find rare and profound. I fear this feature will be abused by the sub-groups that frequent particular topics and run in packs. Groups like the Net-Nanny Needlepoint Society, the Debunking Blue-Dogs of the DLC, the Curmudgeons of Change(my group) and infiltrators from the "I Actually Get Paid to Post Here" corner.

I'm trying to ignore the left side of the screen until I'm used to the distraction.

[riverdeep]

7. From the Skinner post:

Note that this new system will give threads posted in less active forums a better chance of appearing on the Greatest Page than they did under our old system. What matters now is the quality of the ratings a post receives, not the quantity.

You also don't see threads rated lower than recommended in the forum view, so people will still be theoretically clicking on them or not based on whatever they were doing before, the lower rating only shows up when you actually click on the thread. Considering how many people click on locked threads, lower rated 'disruptive' threads might actually get a reading they otherwise wouldn't.

I don't imagine there's any system that will satisfy everyone's needs, but so far I like it. I suspect the next change will be the option to turn recs off completely in MyDU.

[eShirl]

8. it's like the Amazon book ratings system

I was hoping for a cumulative points system