You're imagining kind of a worst-case scenario. Usually the impact of ratings systems is a little more subtle. Facebook gives you the ability to upvote (but not downvote) posts. Posts with a lot of upvotes are more likely to show up on your news feed, but if you actually go to the forum where that post was listed, you can read everything that has been posted.
Stack Exchange is a different type of best, because it's really tailored to Questions and Answers, but when you go to a page, answers with a lot of votes are at the top, as is whichever post was marked by the originator of the question as most useful. If you keep scrolling down the page you can find more and more answers. Usually the top 3 or 4 have useful information and then it trails off. Amazon keeps all the reviews for a particular product, but the first page is always the ones that the most people said "this was helpful." Done correctly, it can make information more accessible. I completely skipped the recent "Dances for Weddings" thread, because it's not something I'm really doing now, so I have no real expertise or need for this information. However, if I'd been able to wait a couple of days and then just read the 3 most helpful comments in that thread, I probably would have. On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 3:06 PM, Chip Hedler <[email protected]> wrote: > The reason I didn't like the idea is because I'm against voting, which I > think would prejudice readers toward a post based on its author as opposed > to considering the content of the post. The best way to honor respected > folks in an open forum is simply to feel respect toward them(and reply if > you feel so moved), not to make their soapboxes taller than everyone > else's. I don't want to filter out a voice just because it's seldom heard > and therefore slower to gather points. If the less-voted-for get filtered > out, how would anyone besides the favored few ever be able to gain votes? > > Chip Hedler > > Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 08:40:52 -0500 > From: Lindsay Morris <[email protected]> > To: "Caller's discussion list" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Callers] Forum vs email list? > Message-ID: > < > cagnhc2lm5ima_fx3o9_2kz2mjxfivwdgb-g-0njngfia02f...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Today its 29 hate-the-idea, 7 like-it, 7 not sure. I'll let it go. > > Really, all I wanted was a way we could vote people up, so we could give > more weight to the opinions of the especially respected folks here (and > filter the email flood down to just those people). > > I wonder if there's any other way to do that? > > -------------------- > Lindsay Morris > CEO, TSMworks > Tel. 1-859-539-9900 > [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers >
