wait for it, wait for it....
can i help with the master plan???

 Quote: Mike J Schoonbrood

My stars go up and down depending how much I offended someone when I told em they were doing something wrong :p

Yep. Seems to be how it works .

The board software used to let you opt out of the star rating system. I liked that.

The current system only lets you rate someone once. If your opinion of their posts changes, you can't change your initial rating.

Watching how the stars change, it seems you are either rated a 5 or a 1. That sounds about right. Why bother to give someone an 'average' rating?

It seems that if you generally have a clue and express your opinions, you will settle in at two stars after about ten rates. Again, that sounds about right. People are generally more likely to throw bricks (one star) than flowers (five stars).

My dogs like me, so, I just ignore the stars.

 Quote: steven lepic

There is a master plan regarding these stars.

All I'm allowed to say is wait.

I hope the wait is worth it . Here's what I posted back in October, and I hope something like what I wrote is implemented:

"As far as stars are concerned, my feeling is that a member should be registered for 6 months, maybe even a year, before they can "rate" anyone. That way they can get into the flow of this forum, read posts and get a feel for the advice that's given.

As it stands, anyone that is registered for even a day can down-rate someone without even knowing anything about the person whatsoever. I think and wish that would change by not letting ratings come from brand new members.

I've read posts from people who just came to the forum that have 4 or 5 stars, after no more than 1 or 2 posts - literally! Some have a high star rating although they haven't posted more than 20 posts. That's just too - ummmm - weird. Especially when those with extreme working dog experience have the same number of stars as someone who just registered. Just throwing stars around or removing them willy-nilly is not desirable for a serious forum such as this one.

I hope Ed will change this and require at least 6 months of being registered before a member can rate others."

I think Ed, Cindy and all the mods should be the ones rating our advice.
Not to mention an X if we have ever received an Ed-O-Gram
Hee hee, I was kidding on the last part......

Well I have only been here a couple of months.
But I like that advice I made the mistake of rating soemone when they made me mad at first.

So I think Carol is right.

To come and find out that person has helped me the most and got me to start feeding raw.

If I knew now what I new then.
Situation

Thanks for all the help and Carol your right

 Quote: Carol Boche

I think Ed, Cindy and all the mods should be the ones rating our advice.

Well there go all my stars then!

I think a system that would allow people to rate each topic individually would be cool. Sometimes, I have made sense..(I know hard to believe) or have reiterated something I know is right anyhow, lol. In such cases, it would be nice to have the ability to rate EACH post on it's own merit. So, for instance, if someone comes in and reads a post and sees 5 stars next to it they will be able to identify that the reply was something that was right, in accordance with acceptable advice. If they get on and see the post has only one or zero stars then they know they can disregard that as sound advice. Only after someone has made sense 100 times or so and been rated well, then and only then, would they be allowed to see a star next to their name. Each star next to a name would indicate 100 correctly advised posts. So, if you looked at their names and saw 4 stars you would know that they have made 100 correct posts 4 times. Make sense?

In other words, the posts could be assessed as well as the person. The amount wouldn't have to be 100 it could be as many as Ed, Cindy wanted. This would give each reader the immediate sign that, yes, this is something we all agree with, so it's safe to follow this advice. Am I making any sense? Careful, don't answer that, if you can understand my senses, it might be an indication somethings wrong on your end!lol!!

 Quote: robbinmann

I think a system that would allow people to rate each topic individually would be cool.

You can do this. Go to the top of the page and you'll see "rate this topic" and then a drop down menu for the number of stars. This feature doesn't seem to be used all that often, though and you can't rate the individual posts, either.

 Quote: Mike J Schoonbrood

 Quote: Carol Boche

I think Ed, Cindy and all the mods should be the ones rating our advice.

Well there go all my stars then!

ME TOO....
But I don't think I would have an X either, well, maybe one.....hee hee