A Tomato Meter for CR4 Commentators

That would make sense for the few individuals who write things here with only one perspective. Myself, I prefer to swing the gamut from Technical Expert to Quirky Commentator. Along the way I enjoy the occasional stop at venial verbosity with a touch of abstruse obfuscation.

This is true for most of us I think. Although I make no claim as to being entertaining of funny.

This is why I suggested a Tomato Meter like scale.

Assuming one would be prevented from voting for one's self, this could be a usefull tool.

I admit that allot of folks would hover somewhere between Helper and Heckler. However, perhaps if someone noticed they were developing a trend toward Heckler, they may be inclined to be more helpful.

Others simply wouldn't care, and soon enough, it would be easy to see those individuals who are only in it to cause trouble. Not that I have a problem with these folks. Really. Many times I think the color commentary is amusing. Just so long as everyone, regulars and newbies alike, understand to take certain folks with a grain of salt.

This meter may allow CR4 to retain a degree of responsibility for policing itself. As of now, there is no way to tell the serious from the sarcastic. (Other than by getting to know folks over time) Unfortunately, many leave in frustration before they have the time to learn who to believe and who to blow off.

-A-

Now tell us, oh expert commenter, how would you differentiate objectively?

One man's quirky is another man's technical expert.

many an expert word is written in jest.

Which one am I based on this response?

I am an expert when it comes to structural engineering but a complete ignoramus when it comes to the black arts such as thermodynamics.

Let's not get hot under the collar, here.

It would be a voting process. Similar to the awarding of Good Answers.

Over time, your commentating tendencies would become clear.

I really think this system would allow folks to self-level their own comments. If others constantly see you as spouting smart@ss remarks, and you're okay with that, no change! If you feel you should be taken more seriously, this could be an indication for you to straighten things up a bit.

-A-

graphs, We need plenty graphs.

Seriously in its essence this does sound like a good idea. But like Redfred, they are comments that use the whole spectrum. That has to be worked out for ratings.....

Plus, the personalities keeps this site from getting dry with its combination of knowledge and entertainment

I agree that most folks would end up in the middle somewhere. Others, like Jory, would probably end up on the extreme Helper or Technical Expert end of the spectrum. While others still, would find themselves not being taken seriously if they continue to spout off the snappy answers and nonproductive counter questions.

The rating would be done as a group and over time. Hopefully, insulating individuals from singular spiteful instances.

-A-

There you go. Without a tomato scale to judge people you already can see where members sit on this spectrum. So what's the goal here, to allow a newbie to prejudge people? We already police ourselves. I have more than once "flown off the handle" with my comments and have been publicly corrected. Besides, I would much rather be corrected by complete sentences that explain how and why I made a mistake than from a cryptic tomato count. Sometimes the fault lies in the in the tomato thrower and not the recipient.

"from a cryptic tomato count."

I have a question....did you spell 'count' correctly ?

What better proof that anonymous cowards should not be allowed to make negative (tomato throwing) comments.

Hang around. Better proof will come along soon enough.

Good Idea!

-A-

I thought you were here because your wife is mowing the lawn.

I increased one more for you to eat it for free and it is 394 for you now.

300 × 224 - newlifeonahomestead.com

are you waiting for it to turn into a cupcake?

I give Usbport (3) cupcakes.

Yay! With sprinkles, I hope!

Sprinkles huh?

set it on the back porch and give it a week.........

I forgot to ask, what kind of tomatoes are we discussing?

Aaargh!...

What did I say???

It might work if the formula takes into account only the latest votes. Some of the long term commenters are simply going to end up with a Tomato rating smack dab in the middle of heckler and helpful.

I kinda like this idea better than the GA vote. It adds a technical dimension to the vote. GA is both a popularity/likeableness gauge and a technical correctness gauge. As far as guiding a reader as to the worthiness of the response or the technical acuity of the responder, GA's are pretty useless.

So I'd suggest taking into account only the last 100 (more or less) comments or votes or the comments or votes from the last 100 (more or less) days. This way if someone is falling into a crotchety, grumpy phase, it will show up in their rating. Likewise as a newb gains confidence and experience or a long timer comes out of the heckler phase it will also show up in the votes on their comments.

Agreed, we don't need no stinking tomatoes...

It's hard enough to decide on GA's.....

Instruct the reader to vote whether the response answered the OP or not. That's the "technical dimension". You have to admit, a good number of GA's are rewarded for witty remarks having no technical merit.

Why stop there? Why not a f*&k off button?

On the serious side:

You are selling the newbies short, insulting their intelligence, one would be awfully dumb to not recognize the difference between serious and playful. Occasionally, one or two of us hide a good answer inside some humor, but those answers are not obscure. The anonymous troll postings are blatantly obvious.

We don't need no profiling in here.

Can you make it a bit more international? In this part of the world, we dont throw tomato, we throw eggs, effect of eggs are better, rotten one even better.

Let's just have 3 vote options: GA WA and BA (wrong and bad). That way we can indicate technical corrections, or plain disapproval.

FWIW, I have some sympathy with those who seek advice and get told in effect that if they don't already know the answer they are not qualified to ask. Those would get a BA from me.

Come on Joke -- ? "Lets Fuzz Up the site even futher" -- i suppose you agree that keeping the thread clear would be much more prefferrable than tracking the tomatos

let's say the GA dudes get the right to 1-time erase all fuzz 1-ce found - and thats the point

the future visitors can but may and not like the chit-chat that _\|/_ spice up your day but doesnot push the discussion closer to a solution

what i've studied here is - as for best practice - put in your 2-cents and MOV NEXT

the alternate is you have to argue with some "ignorant SH" about WTH knows what _\|/_ (Sunny Sun)

I am very interested in your development of a Tomato Meter. As I grow several varieties in my garden. I do have a problem though with quirky, commentator, technical and expert as readings on your scale. I would think the scale should be on taste, color and texture.

" If they are among the uninitiated, they lack the tools to differentiate between the hecklers and the helpers." That's not the only tools they lack! Like the ability to ask a proper question with enough information to be able to give them an answer. With the many talents of or membership. Mind reading isn't one of them. If the OP thinks it is, he is more likely to get heckled then helped.

Being new to this forum I have been wondering how the Guru, Power User, Active participant and other status get awarded. Searched the site for a few minutes but could not find. I first believed this rating allowed to identify expert commentators but as an highly skilled expert with designs working perfectly at rev.0 more than 90% of the time, I have seen too many innacurate comments from Gurus, and also too many Gurus, to still believe in this rating. Could it be improved instead of adding another possibly conflicting rating?

Member title are nothing more than an 'in-joke'. You raise an interesting point in that it is deceptive for new visitor, but (with due respect) reading FAQ's on any site is a good idea. Point taken that not all passing visitors have time, but it's only a few more minutes than registering.

I do believe that you are the first "highly skilled expert with designs working perfectly at rev.0 more than 90% of the time" to come along in some time.

However, you are not the first newcomer (07/03/2013) to have opinions about how the forum should be run, "to make it better".

Had you bothered to read the FAQ's, you might have discovered that cr4admin@globalspec.com is where you would go to point out all the shortcomings of the site and how they should change it to make it the way you want it.

Don't take yourself too seriously. Never mind, it's too late.

<splarf> If you can find a niche market, that's the way to go. A rough guess might be 'zero revisions to product'. If only microsoft were the same.

I was just too polite to say . Dammit, now we may have to find another spot to monkey about with !

Not to worry. This is a "target rich environment".

Other opportunities will present themselves forthwith, and posthaste.

I did search for the FAQ but missed it. May be I am a little blind or got tricked by the CR4 preceeding FAQ in the link name while looking for a link starting with an F.

I do not claim to be an expert on how a to run or use a forum and I don't see why you point me to cr4admin@globalspec.com . Is my comment off topic? Isn't this thread about shortcomings? Not sure what your motivation is?

My designs work. It's a fact. Why should I hide it with false modesty? Did I say I am the best and others are inferior? If thats what you read. Sorry for you. I just pointed out that my assesment of Guru's answers is based on real life experience. I know how to make the difference between what I know and what I don't (Ex: I did not say there was no FAQ, I said I did not find it) and I think a user labeled as a Guru or a reliable source should also. Misleading advice is much worst than no advice, especially when it comes from someone labelled Guru.

You seem to have plenty of opinions about what's wrong here.

And about yourself. Your extreme brilliance is lost on most here, for many reasons. Not the least of which is that this is AN ANONYMOUS FORUM. No CV's or resume's are required for acceptance.

Once again, you have proven that you are ignorant of the workings of this site, the people here , the quality of the questions asked and the motivation of people coming here.

This site has survived until now in spite of not having the benefit of your inflated ego.

Sit on your hands, and observe for awhile. Or, as John Gielgud said in Arthur, "Try not to speak".

Oh, where are my manners, welcome to the forum.

Since you are a highly skilled expert, I'm surprised you haven't yet figured out how the titles are awarded.

(And while you're trying to figure that out, ask yourself if an inaccurate [not innacurate] comment is maybe sometimes deliberate.)

Good idea. We can even a a special symbol for people that start dumb threads.

Then we can also have a bevy of new symbols for those instances when a Quirky Commentator says something intelligent, or when a Technical Expert slips and says something stupid.

...or would the quirky and technical people be forced to only write posts that are applicable to their designation?

Quirky people would only be allowed to post quirky comments, and Tech Experts get their hand slapped for any attempts at quirky humor.

Sounds complicated.

You should have your own symbol.

Doesn't it make you dumb if you respond to a dumb thread?

I certainly will not claim that responding to a dumb claim will never make one appear to be dumber. It often will. And yet there are those times where complete idiocy just has to be answered or the absurdity will continue as our emperor parades around in no clothes.

Oh, have you met bwd111?

I like trying to be helpful when possible and like getting a GA once in a blue moon, but I don't like the thought of getting graded on every reply. I'm sure most Newbys can recognize a helpful reply when they see one.

How about we give each post a grading from 1-10 and then organize the answers so that the best are first and the worst are last or we have a button to organize the answers as we see fit. Then readers of the posts would not have to drill all the way through inane or off topic posts. The discussion should be about adopting ratings like rotten tomatoes for movies or the IMDB ratings for movies. Now how we chose what is best could be based on technical, humour, or sarcasm. Oh hell this is getting too complicated and I like KISS approaches. So for this idea ....SPLAT.

save time, mark me as a heckler

Now thats a good answer!

Would you like an Apple instead of tomato?

Heh, why is this off topic? Run out of tomatoes eh???

I vote for every good answer gets an Apple!

^{_{(send from mobile phone)} No not an Apple!}

How does one determine who is or isn't an expert? Most "experts" are self proclaimed.

Already given, is that an expert is anyone whose designs always work at dwg. rev0.

Alternative: an expert is someone who knows a helluva lot about very little...

Some give negative replies discouraging good/useful suggestions/ideas/efforts. If a person cannot judge feasibility of a suggestion,he/she shouldn't comment at all but can ask clarifications.

IMHO that deserves a GA.