The star rating

[becks]

Other than telling people that their answer is good what is the point of the star rating on here? I get why you'd want to say thanks for a good answer but there should be some sort of league table - like you get on ebay for being a good seller. Then if you get a certain amount of stars you can have an icon or something - what does everyone else think? I bet QM would be champion!

[Quizmonster]

Thanks for your confidence in me, Becks! There was a somewhat similar system on Answer Point, the good 'human' half of the Ask Jeeves Q & A site before they threw it away in favour of the pathetic 'computerised/robotic' half a couple of years ago. You may not recall a beer called Double Diamond, but at one point the site-editors were in correspondence with me as to whether they might introduce an icon showing two diamonds for people who answered - I think it was - 5,000 questions! There were 'bronze' people, 'gold' people and so on, but the competitiveness it engendered was not altogether a good thing.

I'm not convinced it would be a good idea here either. Cheers

[andy hughes]

I was going to agree that our QM would be the pinacle to which we all aspire, but I can also see his point that the tendency to want to earn stars for their own sake, rather than simply share some knowledge or info., is not a good road to go down. I think most of us are content to wonder if there is anything our QM doesn't know (!), and supply their own bits of info. as and when they can pitch in with something useful.

[sft42]

....and to complete the trio of old hands of the site I have to agree that it may draw out the worst in the competitive nature of some....I answer most questions in an altrustic way and enjoy researching for some questions I also would like to know the answer to but I can see people starting to whinge if they didn't get stars for a certain answer.

Also on here as it's not like eBay where cash has changed hands there is no motive for honest ratings so people have been known in the past to have numerous ID's and would bump up their own rating, furthermore how on the opinion based questions (The "What does everyone think about such a prisoners sentence" or "What shade of lipstick is best with my new blouse") would a guide be drawn up for those answers?

Lastly, and most important, if it does come in it had better be done retrospectively cause us three would be due loads of stars :>)

[becks]

Thanks guys, yes i suppose i hadn't really thought of it that way, there used a be a website that was similar called whquestion and you got icons for answering a certain amount of question. When i think about it though, i've answered a fair few of my own questions (uh, like now) or gone on to post a comment without actually answering. Still, thanks for giving me another perspective.

[norfolk boy]

Oh becks you will always get three stars from me.

[stevie21]

I take it that the "award stars" option is only visible to the person who poses the question? I've never posed one but I've had a nosey about to see where the "tinker about with stars" option is on the page only to give in and admit defeat.