The topic ratings don't seem to be used much. On most forums, there is perhaps only one rated topic every two pages or so. I personally think the feature is a good idea, and could be useful if people start to use it more - maybe have a prominent "Don't forget to rate this topic" message somewhere, and it may be a good idea also to have a way of listing topics by rating (or can you do this already somewhere?), i.e. highest / lowest rated topic at the top, so that people become more inclined to start rating topics a bit more.

Just some thoughts anyway!

The topic ratings don't seem to be used much. On most forums, there is perhaps only one rated topic every two pages or so. I personally think the feature is a good idea, and could be useful if people start to use it more - maybe have a prominent "Don't forget to rate this topic" message somewhere, and it may be a good idea also to have a way of listing topics by rating (or can you do this already somewhere?), i.e. highest / lowest rated topic at the top, so that people become more inclined to start rating topics a bit more.

Just some thoughts anyway!

Problems with ratings like this is you can't really trust them. Someone with an agenda could bring it down or someone who has 'a thing' for another poster could bring it up not reflecting the real value of the topic. An example, Bambi might get 5 stars or a zero rating just because of who she is and how some members think of her. Sorry to pick on you Bambi, best example I could think of at the moment. All this is IMHO.

Problems with ratings like this is you can't really trust them. Someone with an agenda could bring it down or someone who has 'a thing' for another poster could bring it up not reflecting the real value of the topic. An example, Bambi might get 5 stars or a zero rating just because of who she is and how some members think of her. Sorry to pick on you Bambi, best example I could think of at the moment. All this is IMHO.

Well, yeah, I know what you're saying but the ratings are for the thread as a whole, not the person who posted it. There are forums out there where you can rate or "vote" for individual members, this would be inappropriate for ThaiVisa I think

Problems with ratings like this is you can't really trust them. Someone with an agenda could bring it down or someone who has 'a thing' for another poster could bring it up not reflecting the real value of the topic. An example, Bambi might get 5 stars or a zero rating just because of who she is and how some members think of her. Sorry to pick on you Bambi, best example I could think of at the moment. All this is IMHO.

Well, yeah, I know what you're saying but the ratings are for the thread as a whole, not the person who posted it. There are forums out there where you can rate or "vote" for individual members, this would be inappropriate for ThaiVisa I think

I agree with you, I'm just saying that biases will always happen on forums and often will reflect the feelings for a poster rather then the topic. Good example are product forums were numbers get padded by loyal product fans regardless of whether it is good or not and shoved down by fans of competing products. Sorry about the poor analogy, got to leave and beat the traffic.

I personally don't see a point in the rating system. If a thread has a catchy heading then I may read it. Also, threads that doesn't initially get my attention but goes on for several pages may arouse my curiosity and I'll give it a glance.

Just because a thread has five gold stars, does this guarantee I'll like it? No, it doesn't.

I see the rating system as yet another little thing that may only take a fraction of a nano second to download. But combined with all the other little things, gifs, banners, ads, links etc, that only takes an itsy bitsy bit of a milli-second to DL, then they all start adding up. Yes?