This is just a random idea I had...

I was thinking it would be nice that when a purchase is made a user can give positive or negative feedback. Also they could leave a comment like ebay.

I think this would be a good addition.

The feedback "score" would be displayed under the users information only in the advertising forums.

It would need to be coded into vBulletin, and no mods will be made until vB3 is installed, which probably will not happen.

:)

Like DNforum?

Excellent webhoster, A++++++++!! Would host again with them!!!!! :D

There is actually a feedback system in version 3.0 and 3.5 of the vB software called "Reputation."

Yea and I believe there were numerous threads started about this issue, whether to upgrade WHT to VB3 or stick with VB2...

i say we go to vB3!

There are also numerous security issues in this version.

I say WHT patches this version and modifies it.. unless vB3 has performance boosts (last I heard it was slower).

I use vb3 (now 3.5) and it's speedy for me. Then again it's not as busy as WHT. iNET does use vB 3 for some of the other properties like FreeWHT and the OC Forums. Somewhere one of the Leaders mentioned that this mboard has been tweaked and peaked so much that it would be a major undertaking moving to vB 3. Also many members are used to the current version and swapping it would cause more moans then a cold bus in the morning.

Originally posted by KimmiKat
I use vb3 (now 3.5) and it's speedy for me. Then again it's not as busy as WHT. iNET does use vB 3 for some of the other properties like FreeWHT and the OC Forums. Somewhere one of the Leaders mentioned that this mboard has been tweaked and peaked so much that it would be a major undertaking moving to vB 3. Also many members are used to the current version and swapping it would cause more moans then a cold bus in the morning.


I will have to rewrite most of the upgrade scripts and run the larger queires by hand as running them from the web would cause them to time out. So normally I convert several sections to run as a shell script.


There are a lot of hacks on this forum, so upgrading will be quite interesting. But the nice thing is, 3.5 will make it easier for me to upgrade most of our forums as they all have the same kind of basic hacks that can be modules, most with the exception of this forum which has massive modifications.

A major issue with a rating system is, its almost impossible for WHT to verify a transaction has taken place and people aren't just trashing othe rusers, or creating accounts to boost their ratings...

-Mat

Originally posted by KimmiKat
. . . Also many members are used to the current version and swapping it would cause more moans then a cold bus in the morning.
Yeah :mad: we don't like nuffin changed! :D

A major issue with a rating system is, its almost impossible for WHT to verify a transaction has taken place and people aren't just trashing othe rusers, or creating accounts to boost their ratings...


Given the nature of WHT and the mentality of many involved with it (not running it, mind you, and CERTAINLY not all individuals, but many), this specific mod (reputation/etc) is not exactly the best idea at all. It'll promote nothing good here, and, in fact it'll actually do more to hinder the community than anything. Think about this for a second.

<scenario 1>
User A decides they'll start a business. Being on WHT forever, they think "hey I know all about this", so they start the business.
Being on WHT forever, they know all the regulars, and are close friends with many. Surprising? Naaah, it happens.
So, they get these "regulars" to post great feedback about user A, none having actually done business with User A, going just off of friendship.
Is this Honest feedback? No, of course it won't be. It's biased, because user A and regulars are friends. However, this WILL affect the user's reputation level (even with the rep. points, it's the same thing).

<Scenario 2>
Well Known company A has a service problem. It happens people, whether routers go down, hardware issues arise, or whatever, THINGS HAPPEN. Well, let's say that this problem is 5 minutes long. Great, NOW all customers of company A are now able to totally trash company A's reputation, because of this problem, regardless of how "long" the problem actually was.

<Scenario 3>
Customer goes to company, orders service. Service is provided, but customer wants more than ordered suddenly (it happens), or customer didn't read the fine print to realize that XXX wasn't included. This customer then goes to his (or her, sorry ladies :P) friends and they all attack company's reputation, any way possible. The service provided was very legitimate, and very honest, but the customer just wanted more than advertised. Who loses here? The company.

Think it WON'T happen? It does every day, just read through WHT. Then we have the issue of legitimacy, as ProHacker put out. Who ends up dealing with this? You guessed it, the already overworked (and underpaid) mods.

In many communities, something like this would be good, but in WHT, I hate to say it, but it'd be a literal mess to get out and put together. It'd turn into more of a popularity contest and "boys club" than it already is.

What about a Karma rating. People who make useful posts would have a higher karma, and trolls people could rate lower. The AMX mod X guys have a good system in place, its pretty good at stopping abuse by taking away a karma point when you give someone good karma, heres an cut of how theirs works:



Karma - Karma is no longer a few meaningless blue blocks! It's a volatile number affected by your peers, enemies, and the quality of the plugins you post. Everyone's initial karma count was determined by the ratings of the approved plugins they had posted. You can see your karma in your profile or on posts. The + means "add karma" and the - means "subtract karma", and you can give or take karma to a certain number of people per day.

Read on for more information about karma and update news!

The exact karma rules are as follows:
Every day (24 hours) you can affect five people. Of those five people, you can only affect the same person three times. The first time you affect a person, it's for free. However, if you affect them again within a 24-hour period, you lose karma points - 1 if you give them karma, 2 if you subtract. This is to prevent people from going on vengeful karma-burning sprees.

If you have less than -10 karma, you cannot affect anyone else's karma negatively. If you have less than -15 karma, you cannot affect anyone else's karma at all. If you have less than -20, you are automatically assigned the rank of "Troll" (which will be removed once you get back above -20). Furthermore, you cannot post plugins. There is no limit to how negative or positive you can get.

For every rating on an approved plugin that you've posted, you can lose or gain karma. A rating of 3 or greater is +1, a rating of 1 is -1. A positive modifier (like Useful) is also +1, while a negative modifier like Redundant is -1.

The karma system is meant to be a way to reward people who make insightful posts and detract people from posting nonsense or annoying things. Use it as a reward system for people who do well :]

That's exactly the reputation system that is being talked about, just with a different name. The problem is that , again, you can't verify any of this, and, again, it becomes a popularity contest.

Judgements like who to do business with or something like that should never be made simply because someone's rating is higher than another's, or their "reputation" is higher than anothers. Those can very easily be doctored. All you have to do is have your friends vote for you, or , hey, here's an idea, create a new account (do you really think it's impossible to do? All it takes is proxies, email addresses, and voilla, you're setup again) , or multiple accounts , and rate yourself.

Again, while, in theory it's good, in practice, especially when dealing with business practices, it's far from good, because it'll end up being a much abused situation.

I have to say that the majority of reviews I see here do seem to be flaming over absolutely nothing by competitors / ignorant people / people that can't speak the same language and never knew what they were getting to begin with..

But that being said, I do think this is a very good idea overall. People have a tendancy to complain about any service long before a tendancy to praise it - but a review system is really already here - it's just less convenient to dig up useful info on a host now.