OK, the thing that really bugs me about the current voting system is that people cand and probably do get offended or may even give up if they get a low score for a story. So I propose a change to the voting system.



I think that all votes should be postitive. If we were given only one vote and catagory's to chose from, things would be better. It would show us where we were going wrong but also in a constructive matter.



The catagory's I had in mind were similar to:



1. Characterization

2. Story/Plot

3. Dialogue

4. Action



Plus any others, that are appropriate.



As the votes mount up, one or two of the catagory's would have a higher rating. Which is good. But it would (without being mean) show that the other two are not so good. Thus showing that you should concentrate on these areas.



Plus, if this was applied to every chapter individually, the book as a whole would give a better picture to the writer



So, any thoughts would be appreciated

As always: we're listening. any idea to improve interaction are welcome.

Some issues:



1. we are still suffering from user/reader in-experience with "interactivity". it's a bitch and will take aaaaages to overcome.



2. the proposed system strikes me as being overcomplicated [we'd need RULKES to outline how and what works fro the reader... no one likes that]



3. the current voting system allows them to affect the WHOLE books rating by voting on each and every chapter [so if the writer messes up on a chapter, the booksslides down].



4. we are currently suffering from some "self-promotion" issues and [possibly] "anti-competition" voting. nothing I can prove or put a finger on, but my gut feelings say so. We MIGHT have to recode the voting for increased security/user tracking/honesty/etc



Anyways...

1. the idea is good. as a writer I'd like that sort of in-depth feedback myself.



2. its complexity MIGHT be overcome by limiting such a system to JUST writers. We as "amatuer profesionals" might be willing to vote more/deeper to provide our colleagues with valuable feedback. AND... expect the same in return.

I try to vote on plot and style. If the plot is very good I'll offset on the style and rate higher. If the plot is crud and the style is ace then I vote higher. If both a bad then voting is low. If both are average I go toward the middle. It's very difficult to judge it. I think a comment would be better rather than a score.

Darn, I forget. I think some people vote by the amount of action and blood and gore, thus ignoring if it is badly written. Also, low scores WILL put off those writers that get them.

It's the main reason I started the tippettes thread. to help those authors improve their writing and get a better score. To show them that someone is willing to help them out.

Yeah, that's what I mean - we know what you vote for now Anise (and I think that it is very good way of voting )



But we don't know what others vote for - with the aforementioned system, we get an overall view of what people do (and indeed do not) like in each chapter.



Think of the collective as well as the individual - it's the best way for judging your book in the 'great big world' so to speak.

Another idea I could have done with is an alert asking 'do you want to stick with your vote?' before it sends to server - I mention this because I rated a story too low by accident (too trigger-happy!) so then I had to try and bump it up again.



Maybe also just 1 vote per person per book - I too have had suspicions of "anti-competition" voting, but nothing I can pin down.



And no rating option for your own books!!!!

Some coding issues...



To ensure to self promotion or downrating others, we would need to track all votes. Therefore only registered and logged in members could vote (like the comment script)



I thought the point of the comments was to provide a more in depth feedback(?)

How about a simpler scoring system like:



Did you like the story/plot: Yes|No|It was OK|Loved it|Hated it.



And one for the writing v.good|good|fair|poor|v.poor.



Use radio buttons.



Comments don't seem to be used much as it's adding a rather personal note that if it is nice is no problem but if not nice is going to disillusion.



Anise.

Quote:

On 2002-02-22 16:07, DaggleC wrote: But we don't know what others vote for - with the aforementioned system, we get an overall view of what people do (and indeed do not) like in each chapter.

I agree. For the only chapter of Hunters Stand someone gave me a 10 and then someone gave me a 1.

2 votes average- 5.5

Yeah, something has to be done, even if it is just a minor tweak. How about making the voting un-anonymous?



At least that way we can ask the person why he/she voted the story well/badly?



I don't know, but at the moment it isn't perfect (unlike the rest of the site )



Oh and BTW, make the index.php work more often, if not, all the time!!

Well I don't like the idea of un-anonymous perhaps the book sucked but the person who wrote it is perhaps a friend or something then most people would not vote for it correctly because they are affraid the other person might become angry or something so I more like the idea of one vote a person.

Cliff: the writers are itching for some in-depth critique/comments/advice so all this anonymous stuff annoys them....

I'm probably on slightly thin ice here, but I think the others what more useful feedback and the voters want a method they don't have to think too hard about. There are so many incomplete stories from last year that it is obvious they are not going to be completed. I think the authours got fed up and couldn't be bothered to finish them. I bet the only people who vote (read majority) vote either becuase they thought it was great and deserved a score or thought it was tripe and deserved a slamming. Myself and a few others do not fall into that catagory, but I bet a lot of peeps do. Give some simple, multi-choice radio buttons that rate different areas of the story.



Vikki (Anise).

Yep, definitely - we need something like that, encouragement to work on our bad areas but in a non criticising way.



I'm sure the guys running this place can come up with a good enough way of doing so



*Hint*

The only prob with that is there will always be some peeps who can't take criticism, constructive or otherwise, who will then most likely make a big fuss and fall out with ppl! Stupid but there it is

I don't mean comments. A set 5 part score one for story, one for quality of writing.



Maybe the same current score but for quality of writing and quality of plot.

Hey we've gone full circle now! Back to my original post!

we'll have a look-see as to introducing the new stuff.



Finalise your demands.

Yey!



Don't put anything too hard to do in. Though I'm sure you wouldn't!

Let me clear this up.



BELOW I wanna see the final categories that U people want for the votes, with necessary scales [1-10 or 1-5 or a-e] and some brief explanations.



We do the coding. Thinking about it not included [wink]...