A rating system
Mar 20th 2006 07:44:41 pm
Swap-bot needs a rating system. I am thinking of trying something based on Yahoo’s Rating an Object design pattern.
I envision a system that somehow shows you the name of of your swap partner after you receive your item and allows you to rate the swapper. The rating would take the following into account:
- quality of swapped item
- the swappers ability to swap on-time
- what else?
This rating could then be used to allow people into or deny people from entering a swap. The swap creator could specify a rating of at least 3.5 (or any value) to enter the swap. I would think that the rating limit would apply to anyone with at least three swaps under their belt (eg: less than three swaps and the rating does not apply to them, they automatically get into the swap). All ratings would have to be public and some sort of appeals process would need to be in place.
The only question I really have is: at what point can the ratings begin? Since we have to reveal the name of the person you are rating, at which point in the swap process do you want to see the name. We’ve discussed before that you should see this name after 30 days, but is this too long after the swap to start rating?
Ideas and feedback please.
Categories: Feature Discussion
Nicole young on 21 Mar 2006 at 3:45 pm #
What would be great is a feedback system like ebay.
Amy Roche on 22 Mar 2006 at 12:16 pm #
I was going to suggest two weeks after the swap ends. I think that’s plenty of time. However, then, my concern comes up with what if someone just sent something late and then gets bad rating rather than just ok rating? Is there a way that you could structure questions for it to give a certain rating than someone just making up the rating? Like if someone is mad they don’t get their stuff right away, they might be more apt to give the worst rating which i think the worst should be giving for those who don’t come through at all.
teresa on 23 Mar 2006 at 5:36 am #
This would work as long as the information is accurate. In my case, i mailed two swaps off on time but was in an area without internet available, so i was unable to update the swap-bot sent category until today.
One thing i would like to see, when you pull up the partner screen, is there anyway to have which swap they are tied to in the header or footer of their address? I print my partner screen and staple it to the print of the swap so i can keep all the swaps straight.
This might be helpful for all of us who are participating in multiple swaps.
melanie on 23 Mar 2006 at 8:57 am #
i think that is a great idea travis johnson. you know i used to date a guy named travis johnson…hmmmm haha
Lain on 27 Mar 2006 at 9:37 pm #
Ratings would be great. I have gotten ripped off so many times after sending out really good stuff! Would love to know that I’m going to get some minimum level of stuff in return.
pumpkinoodle on 30 Mar 2006 at 1:49 am #
Can’t you just have it display a dialog asking “Received your swap? Click here to leave feedback and rating!” That way, people get to self-select when to see their swap partner. You could also have a “Haven’t received your swap? Click here to contact the swap moderator/send an anonymous swap-message.” You could enable people to send an email to their partner without knowing who that person was. Also, usernames, in general, would be a great addition…
Valerie on 10 Apr 2006 at 9:01 am #
I like the idea of having a rating or feedback system, although I’m curious as to why a 5-star system would be used, rather than the positive/negative/neutral systems that many feedback systems use. Although the 5-star system allows for a little more flexibility in ratings, the positive/negative/neutral system does simplify your choices a bit. With the numbers, for example, would a 5 mean that the swapper did exactly what they were supposed to, or that they went beyond what was expected. People are sometimes hesitant to rate something at 5 or 100% unless it really blew them away, so I wonder if most people would just get 4’s if this happened.
I’m not sure about the idea of allowing users with 3 or fewer ratings in automatically to certain swaps though. Would they just appear as zero until they’d been in 3 swaps? And what if they’d been in 2 swaps and were horrible swappers? Allowing them into another swap would be a reward for being a poor swapper, while also being a possible punishment for the coordinator. I think it’s fine to start everyone off at zero, and then let the swap coordinators decide the ratings threshold for their swaps. If they don’t want to deal with beginners, then they should have that choice.
In terms of what other information would be needed for the ratings, I think a comments area would be extremely important. Just putting in a number rating doesn’t tell you very much, but having a brief space to add a little explanation would help, especially if this is shared with others, like on a swapper’s profile.
As for when this rating system would become available, it might seem bad to show the name and ruin the swap susprise, but the function of having this rating there is probably more important. Ideally, it should be available at the time of the sending deadline at the very latest. There could also be some sort of status component, in case the swapper sends before the sending deadline. Normally, a swap organizer tracks when the swappers send and receive their swaps, so it would be great if this could be incporated into the system. Perhaps swappers would log in and let the system know exactly when they send and receive their swaps. These dates could be visible to the organizer and perhaps the swap partner as well and could even allow for a tracking number to be entered. And if a swapper never sends their swap, the sending deadline would kick in, so they would not be protected from getting feedback.
I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on all of this. I appreciate your having created this system, to automate all of this organization, and it would be great to include even more features into it all.
Robin on 26 Jan 2008 at 9:52 am #
The whole idea is awesome except one thing The one part about quailty of swap item. To me this could cause alot of hurt feelings. Me I will ner send used items only brand new or never been open. What I send could be awesome to me, but the person you swap too could say it isn’t exactly what they had in mind. I don’t know maybe it is me.