It's hysterical. The "must reads" are by in large worthless, and the

[Neshanic]

ones that are the most interesting and worth reading are not even rated.

There are still people who have "must read" ratings on their inability to conform or accept the new high school rating regime.

[cdb]

1. I just voted for this as a must read...so what does that make this thread? n/t

[wtmusic]

2. The old system worked fine

IMO.

[eleny]

3. And I miss being able to see what's gotten the very latest recommends

I need to be out and about earlier than usual today and went to the Greatest page to read that left hand column. It always had the threads that have been recommended most recently. No way to catch up at a glance with the new system.

It was a helpful feature.

[tekisui]

4. Everything you said was completely subjective.

[Lex]

9. I'm beginning to think people don't understand the difference

between objective and subjective anymore.

[snappyturtle]

5. I love the new rating system! None of that, "you already k&r'd this"..

all done on the OP space. I haven't been disappointed in the "must read" OPs yet.

[Poll_Blind]

6. Can we just have you and you alone rate the articles for us? Please?

Really, the Dickinsonian urchins who read (while moving their lips, presumably) this place and their rural tastes! Well, I never!

[Neshanic]

10. No, but you must have noticed the flow that used to occur here is disrupted and the unworthy

quickly off the first page, never to be seen again.

Kind of a Democratic "dumbing down".

[Subdivisions]

15. You're not helping your case by saying the

MUST READs are wholly worthless. Indeed, calling any post "worthless" is simply rude considering there is a real person behind each post and each thought that results in a post is important to that person - even if no one else thinks so.

[shadowknows69]

7. I won't use the system

[codjh9]

8. Don't get mad - I'm merely pointing this out - but the saying is 'by AND large', and I was

just wondering what in the heck it really means and where it came from, and here's the answer:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/by-and-large.html

[Neshanic]

11. Whay would I get mad. This alone will get more attention than the real issue.

of DU drive thru posts that are slavishy recommended and others that really say something being ignored.

[Lex]

12. hey, that *is* interesting

thanks :thumbsup:

[CJCRANE]

13. Irregardless, I could care less.

;)

[DS1]

14. Agreed that "Must Read" is an unfortunate choice of words

[deadparrot]

16. God forbid we actually have to read the thread titles.

*swoons*

[CJCRANE]

17. It's nice to be able to leave feedback without posting a reply.

But I read threads based on the title mostly not whether someone else thought it was interesting.

[ihavenobias]

18. I wouldn't go THAT far

Some are great, some are ok, some are so-so. That's obviously all subjective.

What I *will* say is that the new rating system further benefits the more well known names at DU, i.e. people with more popular user-names are going to have less competition because it requires 10 good ratings to pass the threshold of Must Read/Recommended, etc.

And I'm worry about abuse of the "skip it" rating...some people have personal grudges or other motives. Or some people might rate down what many would consider to be a relevant topic just because they personally don't think it's worth talking about.

IMO "skip it" should be reserved for poorly written points or really, really bad content. Again, I know that's subjective but for example, just because a detailed discussion of quantum physics might be over my head, I'm not going to rate it as "skip it". Rather I just recognize it's not my area of interest and move on, etc.

[wvbygod]

19. Letting someone else decide what you read is never a good idea

Ratings are good for seeing what others think but one should always think for themselves.