{"id":3856,"date":"2011-03-04T09:59:47","date_gmt":"2011-03-04T14:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=3856"},"modified":"2011-03-04T09:59:47","modified_gmt":"2011-03-04T14:59:47","slug":"who-cares-about-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/03\/04\/who-cares-about-ratings\/","title":{"rendered":"Who cares about ratings?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the suggestion of a regular In Box<\/em> reader, I have added a feature to the post comments that allows readers to “Like” or “Dislike” a comment. Here is part of what he said:<\/p>\n

I wish there was a way that I could simply register\u00a0 a “like” statement to a post\u00a0 or comment… I often read something\u00a0 I like,\u00a0\u00a0have nothing to add to [it], but\u00a0 would like to make my positive reaction known to the writer…\u00a0\u00a0 This was true for me, for example, with Bret4207’s\u00a0 comment at the end of the string of comments that followed Brian’s “Excellent Schools” post.\u00a0 I would like Bret to see that someone saw, read, and liked his comment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was fairly easy to make\u00a0something like this\u00a0happen; a simple comment rating tool was available and I put it into place last week. And\u00a0the fact that so many readers have rated comments already, without any real promotion of the feature, tells me that it does strike a chord and is easy to use.<\/p>\n

Here is how it works: If you like a comment, click the up-thumb, if you dislike, click the down-thumb. Well-liked comments show a yellow background color, hotly debated (with a mix of likes and dislikes) are labeled “Hot debate,” etc. You can only rate a comment once, and you can’t rate your own comment (I bet some of you have tried).<\/p>\n

The built-in feature that I like the least about the rating system is that it will collapse a comment that is widely disliked so that you have to do an extra click to even read it. Since I believe that unpopular views are sometimes the ones I would profit most from reading, I have set the range pretty high on that feature. I would turn it off altogether if I could figure out how. But I was an English major, not a comp. sci. guy.<\/p>\n

And one glaring lack in the rating tool is that\u00a0a reader\u00a0can rate the comments of others, but can’t rate the blog post itself. Sauce for goose should be sauce for the gander. I will be looking for a tool to rate the posts as well.<\/p>\n

All of which begs the question, “Is any of this a good idea?” I have mixed feelings.<\/p>\n

One fear I have is that regular commenters will shy away from weighing in, particularly if their views prove unpopular with other readers. And another is that people will automatically dislike comments by people they frequently disagree with, without even reading them.<\/p>\n

But I also have hopes for the feature–that more people will read comments, and that readers who have been lurking in the wings will start to engage by rating the comments of others, and will graduate to joining in on\u00a0the conversation directly.<\/p>\n

Let me know what you think of the rating feature in a comment below. Suggest changes\/improvements. Or just like someone else’s comment who represents your viewpoint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the suggestion of a regular In Box reader, I have added a feature to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}