Hey Askvillers,
Thanks to all who have given feedback on our proposed new voting system! The new voting system will have the following changes to existing rules:
- Switching to a 5-star rating system and eliminate the current 5-tier voting scale (Awful, Weak, Okay, Good, Great).
- We will calculate an answer’s “raw score” by averaging out all the votes and will round up or round down to two decimal points by ½ star increments to get to your final rating (e.g. answer that has a “raw score” of 3.45 will be rounded up to 3.50 and will receive final rating of 3.5 stars).
- We will now be rewarding you in 1/2 star increments for both quest coins and experience points. The new breakdown for quest coins and experience points is the following:
- Best Answer Badge: To qualify for the Best Answer Badge, you need to have at least two votes (Asker's vote still counts as two votes) and a final rating of greater than 3.5 stars, without any ties. For there to be a tie, two or more users would need to have the same exact “raw score”, before we do any rounding up or down. If there still is a tie with this new
rating system, then no Best Answer Badge will be given (although you can now "Appeal" your final rating to break the tie).
- We will be removing the Voting Superpower since we will be replacing this with the new "appeal" process. Users who purchased the Voting Superpower will get a coin refund.
- We will remove the "thumbs down" option - i.e. 3rd party users can only give a thumbs up to an answer. The “thumbs up” rating has no impact to an answerer’s final rating, but will be used to eventually give recognition to popular answers.
- If you get only one vote or if no one votes on your answer you will get a default 3-star rating.
Elements of the voting system that will not change are:
- Asker's vote still counts for two (2) votes.
- Only Asker and Answerer can vote on questions (unless an answerer decides to "appeal" their final rating).
- Voting period lasts for 3 days and the Asker and all Answerers can still vote as soon as other answers are submitted.
- All votes are hidden (i.e. no one knows who voted for whom).
- There still will be negative coins and experience points associated with 1 star (previously "awful") and 2 star (previously "weak") answers.
Appeal your Final Rating!
Do you think you got an unfair rating? Do you think you got a default 3 star rating because not enough people voted? Don't worry... You can now appeal any final rating! After you get your Official Rating, you will now have the option of "Appealing" the rating. "Appealing" a rating will result in a random selection of other Askvillers to rate your answer. We will give preference to Askvillers who have expertise in one of the topics that were tagged with the question. Those votes will be added to all existing votes and the final rating of that answer will be recalculated. You can only appeal 1 answer at any given time and you can only appeal answers to questions that were asked within the past 90 days (i.e. you can not appeal a question that was asked 91 days ago).
We've also made some cosmetic changes where all the actions related to each answer are now located at the bottom of each answer. This should make it easier for you to vote, send a compliment, bookmark, or post a comment right after you've read an answer.
If you were randomly selected to vote on an Appeal, it will show up in your Action Items box under your My Askville. Please help the community by voting on any appeals that are in your Action Items box. Plus, you will earn 1 coin for each Appeals vote you give!
After you click on the Appeals link in your Action Item box, you will be directed to a question and answer that you will need to vote on. Please vote as you would any other answer for a question that you asked or answered. You also have the option of "Skipping" an Appeal vote, in case you do not feel qualified to rate the answer. By "Skipping", you will lose your chance to vote on that particular question/answer and you will be be sent to the next Appeal (if you have any more left).
We believe this addresses most of the concerns that were raised by the community, related to voting. We realize that some of you may still disagree with some of the changes above. However, we ask that you give it a chance and see how the changes improve or degrade your overall experience on Askville and then give us some feedback. In the end, we hope all of these changes will make for a fairer and better Askville.
Thanks,
The Askville Team
