Suggestions to increase comments/critiques

eoren1

I was a regular visitor/contributor on dgrin for a while before switching to lurk mode for several months while life demanded more of my attention. I returned and started posting only to note that fewer comments/critiques were being offered. I've tried to comment on a number of posts that had 50-100+ views without a single comment but have started to wonder if there is opportunity to improve the forum and increase participation.

What I propose is a thumbs up/down button on posts to quickly rate the thread. This would serve to make a great thread easier to find the number of thumbs (1-5) would show up on the main screen of the forum. It would also give some sense to those who get no reviews that their shots were good/bad/indifferent.

Further, members could be given points for comments/critiques. The thread starter would 'reward' points based on the quality of the review.
Most of this is based on a very different forum that I visit at times: slickdeals.net - you can view any random post in the forums and see what I mean in action.

I hope that this might greatly increase the involvement of the members here and provide for more robust and numberous comments/critiques.
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Awais Yaqub

Are you suggesting something different than "Rate Thread" available on dgrin?

eoren1

Actually, I was not aware of the built-in ratings. Unfortunately, it is hidden in a menu. I have yet to see any stars on the main forum pages indicating that it is used. Perhaps if it was moved to under the menu system or somehow placed on the first post of a thread then it would be used more often.
Thanks for pointing it out to me!
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eoren1

I did try to rate a thread and found that it does not show up anywhere that the thread has a particular rating...

Richard

eoren1 wrote: »

I did try to rate a thread and found that it does not show up anywhere that the thread has a particular rating...

I think there needs to be some minimum number of votes before it shows.

Seems to me the most straightforward way of increasing the number of comments is to comment frequently yourself. Funny how that works....

eoren1

I have been doing just that Richard. Especially on the threads that seem to get forgotten or skipped over. Some of my posts have been 'rewarded' for that effort with long and thorough critiques which I greatly appreciate. Others have fallen by the wayside. The photos in those may be utter crap for all I know or they may just be 'blah'. If we had an easy way to rate that actually showed up for others to see (who would likely then realize this tool was available), then they could tell me a thread was 'blah' without having to take the time comment. If we had a point reward system, they might take more time to critique to build up their forum 'cred'.
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basflt

eoren1 wrote: »

If we had a point reward system, they might take more time to critique to build up their forum 'cred'.
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it exists , but is not in use here on D-Grin
http://www.dgrin.com/faq.php?faq=vb3_user_profile#faq_vb3_reputation
[ bottom section ]
its used on other forums too

on one other forum i am a member of , it is even forbidden to post with only "thank you " .
you must use 'reputation button' instead .