Improve rating system at PDF by Gamifying it

[graphican]

I wanted to write this since long and here is good time for it. -ve Ratings only act as -ve medals of dis likeness and unless you have one, you are actually "afraid" of being disliked. But once you have one, these dislikes are permanent and stay with you for ever. There is no difference in 1 -ve rating and 4 -ve or 4 and 7 or 7 and 13 negative ratings and after getting one, you tend to go care-free and future negative ratings do not bother you.

The whole purpose of having these negative ratings was to transform (positively correct) our behaviour in the forum but because of their permanency, they do not transform behaviour.

Negative ratings would be good if they were,

• More visible than they are and are seen as -ve image. That tiny -1 doesn't do that.
• Restrict our freedom and leverage in the forum for some time, like if you have a -ve rating, you cannot like more than 10 posts in total or you can only type in plain text and rich-text editor is denied until -ve rating is there.
• Negative rating should be periodic and time bound. A person may abuse a day but after getting penalized, should be given an opportunity to behave and get rid of that negative medal and then he will be afraid of getting the same negative image again. When this negative image is permanent, you stop caring about it and keep doing what you were doing.
• Negative rating should be exponential, for saying one -ve thing, you get one -ve rating but if you already have one and you post another bad post, you should receive 2 -ve ratings and another loss of functionality in the forum.
• If you end up getting 10 negative ratings in a month, you should be banned automatically.
• Every 2 weeks, one -ve rating should go away. If somebody has 6 -ve ratings, he could be -ve rating free in 12 weeks time.
• Positive and negative ratings should be linked with each other. Everytime you get a negative rating, one of your positive rating should be eaten but positive ratings shouldn't return automatically back when negative ratings go away. But irrespective of how quickly you grow your -ve ratings, you should only loose 1 positive rating for every mistake.
• When you have -ve rating, you can get positive ratings but then they will only reduce your -ve rating instead of adding to your positive ratings.
• Introduce Medals, if you have +3 ratings, give the user a verbal medal, like "likeable", for +6 "respectable" and for +12 "honorable". These titles mean a lot to people and they crave for them instead of numerical positive score. Do not have any labels for -ve ratings though.

If these suggestions are implemented, the forum will move in a positive direction.

Professionally, I am information architect and design user-experiences for tire-one businesses in Australia. My above suggestions have their roots in psychology and behaviour design and have been tried and tested in real life projects.

 

[nForce]

I guess Xenforo (the underlying software upon which this forum is built) has it's own limitations. It's a standard package. The superficial looks may be changed a bit here and there, but the underlying logic will be hard to change.

 

[!eon]

I guess Xenforo (the underlying software upon which this forum is built) has it's own limitations. It's a standard package. The superficial looks may be changed a bit here and there, but the underlying logic will be hard to change.

You were not taking a break for some days ?

 

[nForce]

You were not taking a break for some days ?

yeah..intend to..yet still not quite happening.. Now that this site opens in my tablet too
But you are right. I should take a break from this forum for my own sake.

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

Negative ratings should be periodic. Let, Say for 2 year and there should be limit of negative rating otherwise impose temporary ban automatically.
BUT number of infractions should stay longer time , twice of this period.



My two cents