All new super magic

Written 05:48:51 08/02/2007 by captainpete
7 comments
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There is a new RSS feed for experiences. Caching is working on the feeds now which makes life easier. The old URLs for the RSS feeds will continue to work but the new URLs are recommended (they’re a little faster). A few people are joining up! Sweet! I look forward to seeing what new places will appear over the next few months. There have been some interesting experiences appearing already.

I haven’t finished the site yet. There are still things to fix. I’ll keep you updated via the news as always. If you have any suggestions about the design or function of the site then send me an email :) Thanks to those who have already.

  • Warlust (about 1 year ago)

    Hey Captain, just an idea to run past you about the five-star rating system. I’ve been a long time member on other boards that have this system and almost all of them changed it to include a ‘5+’ rating. This is because most things are pretty damn good, for example I would rate the Hanmer Hospital at five stars, but what to do when I find that rumored underground mental asylum in Hawkes Bay? I think that would defiantly be a 5+ – what’s your take on this?

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    • Captainpete (about 1 year ago)

      That’d be a 7 star location :)

      It’s a tricky one. Star rating systems sort of work but everyone has their own opinions about what the stars mean. Some never give a 5 and some always. The other issue is people giving 3 stars for average. When votes happen this way it appears to be “on the fence” but 3 is greater than 2.5.

      I’m thinking of moving to a six star system. Because people are used to 5 star systems and would most likely only give a 6 for something supreme. This will also mean people have to decide either side of the fence if they want to vote.

      The sixth star would be the 5+. What do you think?

      So far, all the rating system does it take the average vote. The other issue we have to solve is how to calculate the true rating of content. There are all sorts of theories out there about conservation of opinion, normalized sums and and even using the power method to assign a VoteRank. Most of these approaches seem a little excessive. The one we end up using depends on how we feel about the following issues:

      Is there voting equality? Do we adjust for users vote distributions? Should we apply a final transform to ratings? Should this transform be scaled based on the number of votes?

      In the mean time I think we should change to the 5+/six star system. What do you think of these issues?

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  • Warlust (about 1 year ago)

    Cheers man! Sorry, I don’t understand the question ‘Is there voting equality?’ what does that mean? As for changing to the six-star/five-plus system, I’m defiantly pro. you think twice about dishing out a 5+ but could easily be liberal with the 5. If it’s technically possible, I think a 5+ is better than a six because it doesn’t just mean one more than five it means ‘put your socks on and get the fuck to this place now!’

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    • Captainpete (about 1 year ago)

      Haha, yea was chatting about that with Dirtyfilthy before. At the moment there are no labels or numbers, just the stars, but I think we could have the six star being a 5+ or some modified graphic. We’ll have to screw round until we find something that fits.

      Voting equality is where everyone gets the same voting privileges and their votes count for equal say in a matter. I think we equality in the rating system is best. On one of Dirtyfilthy’s old projects he weighted a rating towards average. So enough people have to care to vote in order to sway the rating. I’m going to figure out some way to have this happen in addition to the 5+ system proposed.

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    • Captainpete (about 1 year ago)

      Have made a change. What do you think of the new stars system?

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  • Warlust (about 1 year ago)

    Wicked! I think it’s much easier to give a fair rating now. Cheeers man!

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    • Captainpete (about 1 year ago)

      No worries bro :)

      reply