I have a couple suggestions for the rating system: <br /> <br /> - User Rating is not showed when there has been fewer than 5 votes. <br />Why? For many reasons, for one I dont think it is justifiable for a user to make a user carry a "one star" image when there has only been one vote. Let at least 5 persons vote before showing "the value" of the person. <br />For example, one might be new, and enter for the first time into the boards, make a comment that someone doesnt like, and automatically someone votes a "1 star" on him. So, even if he has only posted once, he is carrying that "one star" all over the boards where he posts. I guess he might even consider applying for a new username. I think its sad. Ratings should not be showed for just one vote, or two. Make it a minimun of 5 votes! <br /> <br />- Re-vote. Either allow for users to change their vote (after one month) or to vote again (after one month). <br />Many votes can be precipitated, and then you cant change it. If not change it, I would allow voting once a month on users. For the same reasons as above. A newby comes, makes a stupid comment, and you punish him with a one star. After a month he has proven he is not an idiot, but there is nothing you can do to change your 1 star vote you gave him, that would be sad. []/forum/images/icons/frown.gif[/]

Those are some very good points! I agree fully. []/forum/images/icons/smile.gif[/]

I have another question about the rating system. <br /> <br />Can you disable this feature? <br />One of my sites is a support site... and when I mentioned it as an upcoming new feature... the users said they didn't want to rate each other. <br />They got a philosophical about every human has value and worth. LOL <br />I just thought it might be fun... didn't know they'd take it to heart. <br />So can that feature be "switched off" in admin? If not, bet it could be hacked.

I havent seen how the templates work, yet. But I am quite sure that you could just remove the voting and display option from your templates. []/forum/images/icons/wink.gif[/]

Yes, I agree on all counts! Great ideas... now someone rate me!! []/forum/images/icons/grin.gif[/]

yes, fully agree. I don't want to use this feature, so can it be disabled. I'm still thinking about using the message-rating, can this be disabled, too? <br /> <br />If I don't disable them I expect the same reactions from my users []/forum/images/icons/crazy.gif[/]

Since we're a support board my users Don't want to rate users or posts. They agreed they might like to rate a thread in our "jokes" forum... but don't want to make anyone feel bad if they've taken the time to start a thread. <br /> <br />Don't know if the templates will allow the rating system to work in just a specific forum or not. May be "on" or "off" and that's it. <br /> <br />Awwww. Warms my heart. []/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif[/]

I havent seen the template system, so I dont know how it works... <br />But I would rather being able to turn it on/off through template editing rather than by a config setting. <br /> <br />Why? Because thats the power of template! If you have lots of [:blue] if "on" then... [/] then the template gets more complicated, is not as easy to edit, and the result is that you arent gaining as much. <br /> <br />What I envision (I have no idea how Scream has made the templates) is, for example, a template with all the options available. If I dont want to display the ratings row, I open the template in dreamweaver, and delete that row. That turns it off because it is not asking for those variables. <br /> <br />I guess there are several ways templates could have been made, so I dont know if this will be the case, but I wish so. []/forum/images/icons/grin.gif[/] <br /> <br />On the rating sytem ... I guess I would also disable it till those suggestions I first made (top of thread) are done, otherwise these features can be the cause of much conflict among members.

You are right Mateo. This one isn't an on/off setting for that exact reason. Same for the moderator column on the main display. For the templates to be as clean as possible these will require a template edit. <br /> <br />For those worried about maybe removing something and forgetting what to put in later if they want to turn it on there is an easy way to do this. You can just surround the block you want to remove with HTML comment tags, so that portion of HTML won't get displayed. Then if you decide you want to turn it back on, you can just remove the html comments.

Sounds good Rick. This seems to be the most logical way of doing things to me. []/forum/images/icons/smile.gif[/] IMHO []/forum/images/icons/wink.gif[/]

This template system does sound very exciting. <br /> <br />So there are probably lots of things that you can comment out if you wish. <br /> <br />Are we still on track for a public beta on the 19th?

Yes, you can comment out, move, add pretty much whatever to the templates. <br /> <br />As far as I know on the public beta, yes. Rosemary and Dave I believe are trying to get things documented while I work on getting the existing bugs squashed.

Also some critical word on the voting: <br /> <br />I really hope that the User Voting can be switched of by the admin. I do not like that at all.... I think this is ment to be fun but it can turn out easily to be a unfriendly system.. Communities can develope strange habits sometimes, especially aggainst newbies. <br /> <br />Aren't there better new features to include than this one? []/forum/images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/] []/forum/images/icons/eek.gif[/] []/forum/images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/]

>> [:blue]Aren't there better new features to include than this one?[/] << <br /> <br />I'd have to agree on that point. This feature is one that was always voted against with W3T and in all honesty, is as close to a useless feature as we're going to see.