Update the Voting System

This if for you sluvious.

In a previous post, talk about downvoting poems had led to consequences, well what about the people going around leaving 5's on every 100 word poem THAT IS TYPED IN FULL CAPS AND HAS NO PUNCTUATION AND FREUQNTLY SPELZ WURDS LIKA DIS!11!!

I'm sorry its close to pathetic =/

I feel almost disrespected by my poetry rating. 4.9 and 600+ votes. I'm not saying HEY GO DOWNGRADE MY POEMS NOW, i'm merely stating that my poetry is far from perfection. Let alone my early work. (How teenage dramatic it may be.) Poems from professional authors, Edgar A Poe, Shakespeare, Frost, Dickens, their poetry I believe would not secure a true 4.9/5 rating in a honest critics opinion.

The poetry award might as well be 4.6+ rather than 4.3 as it seems almost impossible to drop below that rating. So here is my suggestion.

sluvious had also mentioned this breifly in another post. A low comment, of a 2/1 should require a brief comment letting the poet know what needs to be worked on rather than just leaving a low rating and hoping the poet can find their way their self.

But what about those pesky comments that say, "ZOMGGG I KAN RELATTEEEE 5/5!!!!!!!!!!!1"

well, how about for every poem 4/5 it also requires a more elaborate comment letting the poet know what they liked, and possibly what they did not like about the poem, and why the poem deserves to have a higher rating.

If the 1-5 scale is the same as a grading scale, then 1/f, 2/d, 3/c, 4/b, 5/a. If a C is average, then why are the poems at the C level of such horrid grammer and composition?

I know it goes more indepth than this, but for this site to become better, I really think the voting system should be far more thorough (sp?).

Yes I think you are right about that but since I may be one of those that do it I am not sure if there is a way to get some of us (chickens) to post a comment.
May be if there was a set criterion for each level of the vote rating.
I do think it is something that can be worked out for the betterment of the site and each of us.

Yes, well this is where the addition of requiring a critique from high votes. Granted, this may limit to the voting system to those who are only members on the site.

Which could have multiple positives and negatives

True the other like site I am in to vote or comment you have to be a member but just to read no. It is the same way there some just vote some just comment and some do both.

Well P&Q Has a program I think, that allows one vote per IP Adress. So it keeps the flooding of downvoting away, but still, too many 5/5 are given out with no criticism.

Also with people leaveing 1/5s

Not that this belongs here but just to keep threads limited. Ive come up with a totally new system and think it addresses some concerns

Personally Id like a system that encourages people to spend time commenting, a system that allows the poet to reward the comments they feel are helpful. And rather than a 1 to five system something that acknowledges the areas in writing that they think were done well and not so.

So here is an example I go and pick someones poem to comment on. If I write say up to five lines I get one point up to ten two points and fifteen three. The poet then rates my comments one to three points depending on how helpful they are. And finally there are areas you can comment on that are specific to the structure and design of the poem.

The reward to the reader would be that the more points they accumulate gives them two benefits. For every fifty points they can nominate a poem that goes in a special review area and are listed in the order that the poems are loaded. And secondly you also get to redeem the points totals in medals 10 for a bronze 20 for a silver and thirty points for a gold. These medals can be awarded for poems you have read.

So in the above example I might read ten poems and earn fifty points. Those points I can use to pick my favorite poem to go on the review page and also I get to award the same fifty points in medals to poems I enjoyed.

Poets would get medals that are awarded for what others think are the best poems and it encourages others to read poems generally. And you can also occasionally pick a poem to get a review as long as your prepared to earn the points. And the best thing would be the end of down voting. Because if you dont give a constructive review you wouldnt earn feed back points.

The main ideas behind this system are to incourage constructive comments and to limit the reward you can give out to poem so that people have to choose their very favourite poems to reward with medals.

The main problem at the moment is you can hand out 5s at will there is no justice is someone popular being topped up to legend status. Likewise if you dont like someone its pretty easy to chuck in a 2 or a 3 just to bring them back to earth.

Im not sure how the weekly contests work to be honest but if its on the current system Id rather not enter personally.

Ive seem something similar on another poetry site but they didn't limit the rewards you could give out and in some ways it was as bad as the system on this site, unfair and inaccurate.

Likewise under my system you would also be rewarded for taking the time out to give feedback on others work.

I don't see where the number of lines you write for a commnet should matter it should be if what you write is any help or like 70% of mine just a pat on the back.

Granted you know peopl will abuse this. I've received coments saying OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1273890173019283091283091274 3089127409127409127412o0470192470129470129/5!!!

is that worth the points? I think it will take quite some time before a more developed voting system comes along that helps with the comments. I just hope that at the moment its high up on the list.

Christopher while we cant control what someone types what we can do is encourage indepth analysis and we need a yardstick to judge. Therefore it is a fair assumption that a reply of a hand full of words probably doesn't go into the depth a 100 words or greater reply would. And likewise the poet gets to rate the comment and this with the size of the comment should indicate the effort that was put in by the reviewer. WHat we are after is honest and indepth reviews and this seems a practical way of measuring and incouraging reviews.

Thankyou Lonely Romeo and what an impressive sandwich you have there

Not a problem =) and yes I know, its a shame the picture was 2 years ago

True Carrotgirl but is you had a spelling error in line 5 not just as good as, word four line five letter 4 should have been an e not an I. You can make it indepth without beeing wordy.
Ah so that is why it is a little green Lonely.

Whatever system eventually replaces the current one there are basic building blocks that need to be put in place.

Firstly there must be an encouragement to comment. And if that also leans towards longer and more indepth comments all the better.

Secondly the marking of the poem must be regulated in such away that you cant reward every poem a five or down vote.

Now as far as I can see I've address all those concerns. And I challenge anyone to argue that point. Im not saying there isn't a better option, but I get tired of all the doom and gloom merchants who complain but dont make the effort to really come up with a solution.

I have been on many poetry sites and this site would do well to learn and adapt and it could become a great site.

Likewise other sites could take a few lessons from this site. The moderators here are excellent, the setup while fairly basic is logical and very easy to follow. And most importantly the average age on this site I guess is much younger than most sites Ive seen. Lets build to our strengths but also approach improvement with an open mind and some serious consideration.