From the comments of my "housekeeping" post:
Anyway, as long as changes are a'comin, how about a total redo of the ratings system (or totally throwing away would be OK, too)? I've always thought the Chicago Reader had the best movie rating system, with 4 stars and a zero. The range is: worthless, has redeeming facet, worth seeing, a must-see, masterpiece.
So here's a suggested hierarchy:
0 TROLL (reserved for driveby, OT, posts that just waste space and should be deleted or hidden)
TIMEWASTER (not quite an intentional troll, but still, um, worthless)
WORTH A LOOK
MUST READ
MASTERWORK
I figure this list would tend to make the 4 rating a little harder to get and lead to more use of ratings between the extremes. As it is now, anything less than a 4 comes off as almost an insult
Intriguing.
One of the things I realized as I've poked around the ratings issue is that we need five options. If we change that, we'd have to wipe out all TU statuses and start over from scratch, since the current system is wired for 0-4. Not impossible, just a hideous pain in the ass.
If we're willing to suffer that pain in our rear, I have considered a three-option system: thumbs up, thumbs down, and troll. But I like the theoretical nuance of a five-option system. Even Roger Eberts goes beyond thumbs up to "two thumbs way up", and "two thumbs way down". Of course, I would like that "4" used for REALLY good posts, not just any good post.
The suggested system I've quoted above seems to combat grade inflation quite a bit. The C&J stuff has gotten so bad that today I tightened up the TU guidelines to make it tougher to get TU status. Of course, that hurts people who are toiling away in other parts of the site building mojo the old fashioned way.
If we were to adopt the above, I would also tweak the TU guidelines, since as currently constructed, a "2" is a negative while in the above, a "2" is a positive. So don't sweat those details. The key would be to combat grade inflation, creating a system that lowers abuse and arguments, and that is more self-explanatory.
No system will ever be perfect, but I do think we can continue tweaking until we find a somewhat better recipe.