I see a vicious circle developing regarding the "Not Useful" issue. It is very frustrating that people keep marking opinions as "not useful" and some of us have complained to Toluna about it, but I don't really see what they can do. No-one, not even Toluna has a right to decide if someone is right for marking an opinion "not useful" as the marking of an opinion is in itself an opinion. A lot of users tend to use this site as a private message board and this is not what the site is for, so someone who leaves a "Not Useful" in that instance may be correct as the the message is not actually offering a useful opinion on anything. Similarly with actual opinions that may only be 1-4 words long, well that could be construed as a "Not Useful" opinion as some of them just ask a question of people and give a one word yes or no as their own answer, again this isn't actually a useful opinion. Having said that, some people mis-understand the concept of the button and mark opinions "Not Useful" simply because they don't agree which I think is the bigger problem. I don't really care if people mark my opinions useful or not, but now it is being tied into the points system we might all see a drop in awards which is why my problem is not with the system itself, but with the points being decided by it. Possibly a solution is to be able to see exactly who marked your opinions and what they marked it as, but then that could turn into ill feeling between members if someone takes exception to a "Not Useful".
Good golly Magnius what a long blurb. Valid yes but it almost tongue tied my brain reading it. Maybe they should just get rid of useful or not and then points should be awarded on the way it is currently with a minimum number of words and they just have a system that picks up if some repeats the same thing over and over to try and dodgy. In saying that, that probably wouldn't work either. Not sure if there is a great simple solution to it
I agree - its seems hard enough to get points (although Ive not been collecting them long) without being penalised if someone just doesnt agree with your point of view and marks not useful. I dont know how the system is changing so I suppose well have to wait and see.
Perhaps it could be changed to a "Rating System" rather than the current useful/not useful words. Other sites seem to do it with stars and numbers. if one doesnt like an opinion then you can rate it from 1-10. Im not fussed either way because I dont take much notice if someone marks me Not Useful. As i see it, its a game with some people.
But Toluna CAN do something about it - abolish the not useful option - as we all know, it is used too often when people mean ''i disagree''. I think Toluna really need to think carefully about BOTH buttons in conjunction with a new way of awarding points...after all, in the nicest possible way,we could give points to all those we are fond of, out of loyalty, rather than because they have written some stunning postings! Back to the not usefuls, yeh magnius you are right, there is enough ill feeling sometimes s as it is without knowing who marked what with what!!I guess we have to wait and see what Toluna come up with, and then let them know if it doesnt seem feasible.Lets face it, the points are hard enough to come by as it is, if they make it even harder, many people may decide to leave the site altogether.
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