Should ratings (stars) be public or private? Does it cause pre-judgement?

I basically agree with you that it may have negative side of pre-judging someone, though i myself never take it seriously and i have commented/replied to a range of start ratings. My friends are also of different star ratings but psychologically, it does come to mind sometimes that why this person is having low rating? is he/she is realy that bad or notorious? why his/her repute is so low? The reason that i agree with you is my personal experience with some Myloters. I started with 85 and went up to 90 in no time but the very next day, my rating was droped to 78. it realy pinched me that why it has happened. The only reason i figured out was that i participated in some controvercial discussions the last day. But i have never been mean to any one, i never name called or showed disrespect towards anybody. If you have had chance to see my discusions you could see yourself. Only thing i was stressing upon was to make them calm down and show respect for other's views. The result, i got kicked. For this very reason i see star rating somewhat unfair or unsuitable to judge somebody. Any body who can't argue on the forum and is not happy with, you can go on rampage to spoil your rating. I think this is just unfair.

You bring up an interesting point. I think there's really a dynamic of "opposing forces" at work there. Personally, I don't look at people's star ratings when I decide to read something. Several people on my friends list are brilliant writers and very insightful-- but because they almost exclusively tackle "controversial" topics, their star ratings are 3 or 4; one is even a 2, last time I checked. That makes them no "greater" or "lesser" in my mind. What I mean by opposing forces, is that I can see your point about "pre judging" someone, based on their star rating. The flipside to that (in my opinion) is that because star ratings ARE public, I believe many people are encouraged to "try harder" so as to keep their rating up. If ratings weren't visible, folks could post "any old garbage" and nobody'd be any wiser for it... Arguably, this is the way it normally works in public forums... yet, as a buyer and seller on eBay, I am also used to "being rated" and to there being a "value" to knowing something about someone else, by their "public reputation."

After being on Mylot for awhile now I don't see that the star ratings really matter. I have received some very good responses from people with a 5 or 6 star. Today I responded to a discussion and noticed that another responder had a 1 star. I was curious so I read their answer to the discussion and I thought they gave a very good answer. What I am saying is that I don't pre-judge anyone because they have a low or high number. What matters most to me is their behavior on Mylot.

I never looked at that this way. I have star 6 now. and I had star 4. If it would be in real life it would be same as racism. Do you agree? I don't make pre-judgements about rating stars, I just respond to all, once with star 1 and 10. I know that onec like you, with star 10 are better writers and they earn more so I am a bit jelous but I am making my star bigger by developing my writing style.

I see what you are saying about the 'security' issues with other users, but I never look at someones star when they write discussions, respond to discussions or ask to be a friend. I just look at the detail in their reponses/discussions and how active they are. But I do hate when my star is low! It makes me self concious. I was happy when my star was at 10, but since someone has been sabataging me it went down to 7. Its at 8 now but I miss my 10! lol

well star represent how we are attaining ,some how sucessful we are .. in a real world there are so many stars given to the person that deserved to have that like honored students , generals. doctors and even a civilian.. for me the best star is your personality you have and how u handled it..

i guess it all depends, i don't personally look at the stars and care, i look at my own, and my closest friends, just for something to do i guess, that's about it, i don't prejudge anyone for it, because i know there can be some pretty big jerks here as everywhere who just rate for the helluvit, so i personally don't care, but i'm sure there are people who do this just because they think that it's really reflective of what the person does.

This is a very good question! I know there are a lot of people who consider the star rating when deciding whether to respond to something, or whether to accept a friend request. I know that it's supposed to represent post quality or something, but it seems more like a popularity contest to me. I don't really think about the stars unless someone specfically mentions them in a discussion. I just don't think that way. I can definitely see benefit in a system where they were only visible to the person they belong to.

I tend to regard the rating system as a pretty coloured star with a number in it, it looks cute against your name. But recently I have noticed a number of people on here complaining about their ratings dropping, and complaints of vendettas against other members, so perhaps it may be time to rethink the whole rating system completely.

For me, start should be public because it helps us see how reputable the other members are. It also serves as my reputation to reach 10 start so that others would notice that I use MyLot wisely.

dont know that i realy even look at a persons rating when answering a discussion what harm does it do having them there i see none!

I don't take any notice of people's star rating, it is, after all, other members who have given them that star rating by rating their discussions or responses with + or -. At the end of the day I know on sites like these you have people who do revenge rating and I don't want to get involved in any of that. I read a discussion thread and respond to it if it appeals to me personally, I have seen people with a 10 star rating posting silly discussions and I've seen excellent responses from people with very low star ratings. Yesterday I saw a response from someone in a discussion thread who had no star rating at all, I thought there was something wrong with my screen and refreshed it, then went to their profile page and saw some of their discussions which had some controversial responses but I felt their response was fine in the particular discussion I was reading and responding to so I rated them with a + (this member had nearly 900 posts, so it's not as if they were a new user with less than 100 posts which doesn't have a star rating yet). If everyone took notice of people's star rating and decided not to respond to someone's discussion because they had a 2 or 3 star rating, the site wouldn't really operate too well. We have all sorts of people here, many who take the discussions seriously (like myself and yourself hopefully) and some people who like to come and cause trouble and rate people negatively for the fun of it - you don't know who's doing it but hopefully these people are few and far between. I take your point about not wanting to be labelled in "real life" with a rating out of 10. It would not be good for our self esteem at all! I hope I haven't rambled on for too long here! x

Well gee I would love a star. How do I get one. I would feel proud if I had a star. Mostly because I would think that people though my writing was worthy. But so far I have not written anything that warrents any kind of badge. I do see your point though. I might be led to go read someone material if I saw their stars. If I didn't think it was good though I probably wouldn't go back and wonder why they got a star. Do people get them for being popular with making friends. Not a good reason to have a star on a writers site. I do like the idea of the stars being private. A nice satisfying feeling just for yourself and then when people read your material it is because they are drawn to the material alone. I like that.

My cubicle mate, has the same number of post with me, but i have a 9 rating while he has 4. He was very upset about it and he asked me why i didn't rate positve for all his post. I just keep laughing and said, it was supposed to be rate by the mylot user, not me. Then he said he keep adding plus to my post and i should do the same to him. Well, if the same case happen to all mylotter's fren and family member, what is the point of the rating system?

To be honest I think generally people make way too much fuss about the star ratings. I thought it was just some fun thing really but people take it all soooo seriously! As far as I know your star rating doesn't affect your earnings, or if it does it must be only in a very small way - I've certainly never noticed any difference in mine. The only time I notice what colour star someone has is if their post is about the star rating system as so many of them are I'm afraid (no offence intended!) It's just really not a big deal. As for people who fret over their rating going down and stay away from controversial topics accordingly I think that's silly but I know it does happen. Maybe there are people on here who pre-judge others according to the colour of their star but so what - if the ratings weren't there they would find some other way of judging others. Unfortunately some people are just like that.

i agree that sometimes, i'm so anxious with my own ratings that i will never fail to check out my rating everytime i come online myLot. but then, as time goes by, it don't really matter too much for me and i will not refer to the stars to accept friends in myLot. (instead i will check out their discussions, their responses in other's discussions and their participation in myLot)

Personally it doesn't worry me one way or another .. I do not know how the system works anyway. Oh I know we don't get anything till we have made 100 posts and from there hopefully it is up all the way .. in a manner of speaking. When I reached 100 posts I got a "2" star and was told that it was so low because I hadn't started any discussions. So I did that and it slowly climbed but then I got a few best responses, made more posts, started a few more discussions and now it is a 9. One thing I noted today was several people who had a "0" rating, had started discussions ... then when I responded to one of them, the rating went up to a 1 so I have no idea. I just look at the topic of discussion and if it appeals will go further .. if I like it then I will make a response. I generally do not look at star ratings at all .. it is what a person says in their discussion or response that interests me more than what star rating they have. Mylot is not likely to change the system in hurry .. they have not long introduced it .. but it does appear to have caused some problems in the forum amongst some members. No doubt some people will or will not respond to a discussion started by someone who has a low rating. This is a bit like someone told me that some people only request friends who have a high rating .. doesn't make sense to me .. if that is the criteria what about the quality of the discussions.

i also have thought in the same way as you. May be we make a judgement about a mylotter by seeing at the ratings and all. we tend to answer those discussions started by users with a good rating. but its ok to be public as i think. But your view is also right. let we can see only our own ratings and other don't , then also its good.

Yes I agree with you. Ratings should be private.

I very rarely look at the person's star rating before I respond to their discussion. I value my star rating and proud of it. It gives me the satisfaction of knowing that other members see my posts as quality and that they enjoy them. And if people care to look at it and base their decision to respond, then I will greatly appreciate it.