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Worms in the member ranking?

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by toivo talikka

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In the process of trying to post answers to the Tech Q&A I suddenly realised that it is not just Tech answers that count in the rankings.

TR seems to reward bloggers who zoom past members like myself who has not bothered to start a blog, or rarely takes part in hot discussions.

I had a closer look at the top of the list and found a couple of anomalies:

- someone very close to the top who joined last month and has no discernible activity whatsoever

- another case where the only activity seems to be a number of blogs filled with questionmarks

Interesting. Should I have started a blog about the idiosyncracies of the community rating meter instead?

18 replies

by ontheropes

I'm new here myself, haven't done anything worthwhile and HAVE done things I wish I'd thought about further so what's up with being as high as 24!!

Sheesh

Yeah, hey great, I started a lame discussion, (blaming it on my meds), tried to help out on a few simple Tech Q/A posts and woohoo I'm into the top 100 for some freakin reason.

Mostly I've just been reading a lot of discussions for entertainment (apotheon cracks me up) and just posting here and there when I can figure out what the heck everybody else is saying. To even be on the chart is pretty ridiculous compared to what other people are doing.

Let's see:
Number of answers 42
Number accepted 3 (7%)
Number rejected 6 (14%)
Not rated 33 (78%)

May be that ranking thing goes by how much time you spend on TR. I've got one of those stay-at-home, bolts through bones, injuries right now so I can stay here all day if I want. I've been spending a lot of time checking this place out trying to decide whether I like it or not.

by toivo talikka

Maybe you hit the nail on the head with this one - possibly it is the time that counts. Sometimes when I try to look at the Q&A in a category this irritating advertisement pops up - Visual Studio of course. One cannot get past it easily, it is so irritating that I will stick to my Open Source alternatives forever.

Maybe it is the time that counts, we get rewarded for being subjected for advertisement. :-(

by oneamazingwriter

I could wind up in the top 100 and then this place would surely collapse! (I just read this entire discussion and got annoyed when email came in to interrupt me.) From what I read here I will make certain that I don't reply often to any discussion!
Sorry to hear about your leg, Neverbusted. It sorta calls a lie to your name, huh?
Although the ranking system leaves a lot to be desired, it's typical of what goes on in employment anywhere. The one who dances a lot and makes a lot of noise winds up at the top. (No offense meant to any who get there justifiably.)

by jdclyde

https://www.techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=8&threadID=187858&start=0

Someone had congratulated me on being the sites "#1" poster, and to that point had completely forgotten that there was more than just the ranking for sections of discussions.

When I went, the number one member for TR was some clown that all he had EVER done was link to external blogs, each blog being MAYBE two sentences.

They are suppose to be fixing this, but until then, if you want to be the #1, all you need to do is link to blogs, or post a bunch of short blogs.

I have no idea WHAT Zhudong (#3 right now) did, because "he" hasn't blogged, discussed or TQ&Aed.

Clearly shows that this ranking system is to be ignored.

Not to mention, if they list me, it really shows it is out of wack. This should point to members that has something to say, not say a lot! :D

by smorty71

There are several factors that go into our algorithm of member rating. The activities you mentioned, discussions, tech q&a answers and blogging are part of it.

Where the algorithm can be "manipulated" is with the blog import feature (where you import your external blog with an RSS feed). The import process brings in all of the blog posts from your feed. So if you have 20 posts, you get "credit" for those in the meter.

It is clearly something we are working to resolve. In fact, we are beginning a pretty substantial overhaul of some of our community tools right now (look for more on this in the next couple of weeks).

We are also in the planning stages of a total revamp of our recognition system. We will be adding more activities into the algorithm (maybe closing your tech q&a question, having a certain number of contacts, starting a Workspace project, etc.) so that it becomes harder for any one activity to affect the meter as we're seeing now.

by jdclyde

the guy in #4 that has done NOTHING?

Is it like was guessed at, that they just view a lot of ads?

Not a single post,blog, or question. hmmmm.

by smorty71

:)

Actually, we're looking into why that is. One theory is that member imported a bunch of blog posts (they do have a blog title and description that they entered) that they deleted.

Our system still counts those posts for a certain period of time.

If it is that scenario, then we should see that member drop off the list pretty quickly.

by dr dij

imagine if we had a realtime tab of who thought the creatinism (woops, I meant creationsim) theory was correct. I guess it would be up to the person who starts the thread to put the question to ask?

then we could see if people agreed with Apotheon that it is OK to steal music, and other copyrighted objects, etc.

by jdclyde

ideas of what would make an interesting member?

As I had stated in the other discussion, the only reason I looked at the list was to see if it would direct me to a valuable member, but just posts in different areas. That was the source of my disapointment.

I could see NOT revealing your final choices, as then you could again get people try to manipulate the system. (still don't understand why they would, but they do.)

by toivo talikka

I just got up and realised that all that I ever wanted to know about the member ranking system but never dared to ask has now been answered. Thanks guys!

Just like in the 80's when a problem was passed to the ICL developers in the tall building in Bracknell in the afternoon, we had the answer here in Oz by the morning.

In the digital age when everything is converging into content in the mobile (cellular) phone or music and ads in xPod, whatever we can do to stay afloat as a community, in addition to serving our fellow members, we should do.

by jdclyde

I have done this before as well.

I needed some recipes for a dinner date (wanted to impress her!) so just before going to bed I posted the discussion asking for them.

When I woke up, I had 30 replies already, and that over doubled through out the day.
[b]
I STILL say the member profiles should have a place for the COUNTRY and time zone of members![/b]
(you still listening Smorty?)

by ontheropes

were to disagree with him in a poll he'd change his mind on any subject he discusses. Unfortunately his discussions of the Windows OS have become an evil influence on me and is turning me from the true M$ path of enlightenment. He must be stopped.
Who knew Linux was anything besides mebbe a forest cat or a stupid breed of penguin or sumthin? Why wasn't I informed? Didn't somebody put out a memo on this?

by ontheropes

maybe I'll be ABLE to read it because I just bought a copy of Linux for Dummies at Borders. It seemed like an appropriate title and it was the ONLY Linux book they had.

It includes a DVD with a full distribution of Fedora-Core 3, Knoppix and ISO images for SUSE, Mandrake, Linspire and Xandros.

I'm sure I'll be posting questions in Tech Q&A. Please have mercy on me.

by jdclyde

by mistake....

when he is going down a thread and doesn't see me in it before hand, then he is stuck! ;\

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