When I take the time to post a review on RIA, it's nice to know that people read it. RateItAll tries to provide a couple of different ways that readers of a review can react to reviews on the site. There's the commenting feature, which I think has been a great addition. There's the compliments feature, which is a little more buried, but which is also a nice way to tell folks that you like what they have to say. And then finally, there is the voting feature, which allows people to vote on if a review is helpful, funny, or if they agree with it.
This last feature has been the source of much entertainment and drama over the years. There are some people who can tell you how many votes they get on a daily, or even hourly basis. There are others who will get enraged if they get a disagree vote. There are some that like to drop funny votes at unexpected times. And finally, there are even those that have undertaken elaborate and sophisticated schemes to get, or give, a few more extra votes than they were entitled to.
This fascination with votes might strike outsiders as odd. Why should we care what others think of our reviews?
I know I care.
I think it has to do with the fact that when you take a time to write a review, it's nice to know that people out there are reading it. Even more than if people find my review helpful or agree with it, I care that they read it. I'll take a "disagree" vote over no vote any day of the week.
So with this philosophy in mind, we are going to try out a couple of different things this week to see if we can get some more votes into the system.
The first change you'll notice later this week is a design change that allows for one click voting. Currently, you have to click a link that says "vote," and then choose your selection. That means it can take up to four clicks to react to a review. This will be changing soon.
The second change has to do with expanding the universe of people who can vote on a review. More on this to follow.
Here are RIA HQ, we are curious as to whether a couple of simple changes can bring more votes into the system. There is only one way to find out.
12/6/09
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The new and improved voting buttons look and work great. Nice work.
ReplyDeletepredictions on the increase in aggregate vote volume?
ReplyDeleteIf I had to guess, I'd say you'll get a lot more votes at first as people play with the new feature. Then I think that rate will drop off a little, but will still be higher than the voting rate was before the change.
ReplyDeleteI myself haven't used it a whole lot, as most of the stuff in my river today has been about either baseball or Tiger Woods's cheating escapades. Neither topic inspires me to vote on reviews in either a positive or negative way.
OK vague guy.
ReplyDeleteI'm saying 3x. Average number of total votes per week will go up 3x.
3x? I'd say that's being optimistic (although not impossible). If you want numbers, how about 2x for the first two weeks, dropping to 1.5x after that?
ReplyDeleteOK, I thought your 3x was too high, but my helpful count from today looks more like it used to under the previous version. I guess the one click voting really could add that many more votes to the system.
ReplyDeleteHuzzah! This is a great improvement and restores the flexibility of Version 2. All you had to do in the good old days was click the button. This is almost as good.
ReplyDeleteRestore some of the other functionality of V2 and the entire thing will be a success! Read some of my criticisms to get the gist of the problems.
Looking at the comments, I agree with Magellan that the votes with increase several times. The Version 3 system was a real block towards entering your choices. The old Version 2 system of easy entry has almost been restored. I withhold my opinion if the new is as good as the old without my extensive use of the system.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the comments, I agree with Magellan that the votes will increase several times. The Version 3 system was a real block towards entering your choices. The old Version 2 system of easy entry has almost been restored. I withhold my opinion if the new is as good as the old without my extensive use of the system.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed this morning is that you can now give your self votes. That aught to produce a spike or two.
ReplyDeleteActually, it was possible to do that before as well. You could set up multiple accounts, or you could go to the public library or something and work off another IP address. Both tactics were (and still are) against the rules.
ReplyDeleteThere are new loopholes with the new system. If you do find an exploit that lets you vote up your own stuff, I would encourage you NOT to do it. We are tracking where the votes are coming from. Voting on your own reviews isn't very sporting :)
As a lesson to all, I gave myself a "helpful", but found that a second click undoes it. I gave myself a "disagree" and found that undoing it creates an "agree" vote. Undoing that creates a "disagree", which is where I left it, because I remembered what you said about how you'd rather have a Big D than nothing, but I already had hit my quota of 27 "helpfuls" and "agrees" (and it was an attempt at a humorous post, so you can add 36 "funnies" to the mix). It all came down to a moral decision; I gave myself an illegal vote and am summarily suspending myself.
ReplyDeleteRidge, please don't be too hard on Ridge. He means well.
ReplyDeleteI found an odd glitch this morning. I voted on a review and logged off. The votes were still there, but the buttons weren't faded and I was allowed to vote again and they stuck. After the second vote, the buttons remained faded, logged on or off. It should be noted that this isn't always the case, but I'll look a little deeper.
ReplyDeleteYep...there's a lot of 'em...
ReplyDelete