Karma to the rescue – CarAdvice comments
July 1, 2009 by Paul Maric
While a great portion of CarAdvice readers enjoy trouble free reading, there are always a few who spoil it for everyone.
After surveying readers and gauging their opinions of Australia’s leading automotive website, we realised a great deal of you are getting annoyed at the comment wars started by some contributors.
Currently only 0.018% of our readers ever comment! Most scared away by negative comments.
We have been working on several systems that aim to curb troublesome, childish comments and we have implemented the system we believe works best for readers and commentors.
Behind the scenes, staff are now able to edit and delete comments with far greater ease. In addition to the new comment modification system, commentors will be able to edit their posted comments up to three minutes after posting, or until the next comment appears.
The best feature of all though is ‘comment karma’. The YouTube style system takes a democratic vote on poster’s comments. If enough negative votes are collected (9 more than positive votes), the poster’s comment will automatically be buried and made invisible to readers.
We believe the the new system will encourage posting within our comments code of conduct and will curb insolence.
Of course, we will still work to remove comments which are offensive and fall outside of our comments code of conduct. The new system will simply bridge the gap we currently face with some commentors.
If you feel a comment is inappropriate, simply give it the thumbs down, if you feel it’s constructive and deserves to stay, give it the thumbs up.
Happy commenting! If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
Print it: 
Oops. i took it that the “Vote” prompt was “Agree/Disagree” with the post. I didn’t realise I was voting people off the island! Sorry! I’ll have to be more careful! Some people’s comments I’ve really disagreed with so I voted against them, but I’m not against their input. I enjoy hearing all sides.
Maybe you could change the prompt to be more specific.
“Appropriate?”
Keep up the good work,
NacaYoda.
Philip:
Try it, it won’t work.
The rating system only allows one rating per user, per IP address.
It doesn’t matter how many windows you open, you can only rate the comment once.
Well done CA, that put people like me with Tyretts Syndrome on notice ;)
Alborz – why not have the “karma” system, but make the results hidden to everyone but the moderation team, thus eliminating those who just go instant thumbs down to anyone who says something positive about Holden or Ford for example… that way the system might be more effective without having people getting offended by their comments being given thumbs down for no good reason.
I agree with Richo’s response. People should only vote if they read the comments, not scan for those with a pile of red cards stacked on their name.
I’m a little confused, I see someones comment near the top of an article, then lower down(Frugal-one), one has up/down thumbs and the other doesn’t! Then I see another comment(Bav Miss) that doensn’t have any thumbs at all. Have I missed something here?
This system obviously still needs some bugs take care of, but I think I’m slowly getting the hang of it.
It has been a while since I last commented simply because of the same reasons listed above – too many antagonists – and while I sometimes poked fun in someone’s direction, it was only in jest and the sane ones here knew how to take it, other’s though…….well, enough said!
I agree with Frugal One – The only reason a comment should be deleted is if it breaches the Code of Conduct – as it states in simple terms using plain english what type of comments are and aren’t acceptable as well as what will happen to anyone who breaches them.
I mean from a number of comments I have read on this site since the Thumbs Up Thumbs Down voting system was introduced.. and its obvious that people are reacting to who is making the comment rather than what is being said
For example: When Bavarian Missile or Wheelnut make a comment [I used them as an example as they appear to be regulars on this site ] they receive more thumbs-down than they do thumbs-up.. yet when someone else makes a similar comment [or shares the same view/opinion] they receive more thumbs-up…. if Bavarian Missile or Wheelnut agrees with someone who made a previous comment which received thumbs up; they still receive thumbs down
Yet if it was the comment that people were responding to or offended at then both of them would have received a thumbs down.
Maybe BM and wheelnut should start using another alias, Patrick? ;-)
Paul, I would like to say that I have rated individual comments more than once. I don’t think that system quite works. It won’t let me do it immediately, but if I go back an hour or so later I can.
One comment per person would fix all the problems.
Singling out the comments (examples) of the users you have is that not some form of breach of your own COC or perhaps a form of bullying ?
Perhaps you could concentrate more on the core aspects of the site and focus on Car Advice rather than internet etiquette. You could perhaps be more transparent as well and have a Lucky Bastard Competition so I regular poster to the forum could attend a car review with you and perhaps provide a report as well. I for one would be happy to do this I have a corporate drive day on this coming Tuesday @ Sandown that I would more than be happy to provide a report on the days events.
Lets all vote Bavarian Missile’s comments down so they get removed straight away!
Nothing against you BM, I just think it would be a laugh. It seems to upset you.
Call me cruel :D
(I don’t expect this post to last long!)
Maybe you could trial the idea of one person one comment, maybe two at the most, this would stop repetitive bores ruining the site for others, and also stop the bickering.
It might also encourage more users to comment.
Doug is another that hasnt read or understood the new system.
Your theory will fail as long as BM continues to post comment on topic non abusive and not inciting arguments the post remains.
Perhaps CA should IQ test people on this site before they can post. Nothing against you Doug :P
I admit I haven’t read the comments code of conduct.
“If enough negative votes are collected (9 more than positive votes), the poster’s comment will automatically be buried”
The above is what I was basing my (clearly tounge-in-cheek) comment on.
No wrong Doug !
As I said read !
Quote ” alborz Says:
July 1st, 2009 at 12:44 pm
You can use the Thumbs up and Down to agree or disagree with comments based on what they say (not because they break the conduct) – however by simple law of logic, if a comment is informative, the agreement disagreement will even out, and no more than 10 people will disagree compared to those who have agreed. ”
You will see some of BMs posts remain without the voting system ,now you know why!
Perhaps you need to read the COC, inciting an argument is in there!
If IQ tests were given to the .018% who post omments, then only .0018% would remain.
Problem with that approach is, even highly intelligent people can post utter crap at times.
Non-registration is the problem; anyone can use any name and any e-mail address and post 20 comments in a row.
The thumbs system might help a bit, but when a perfectly good post like “I really like the new Mazda 3″ gets thumbs down votes it really does make you want to ban the voter for abject stupidity.
Sorry PC but I still don’t think you understand the meaning of my original post:
I stated “Lets ALL vote Bavarian Missile’s comments down so they get removed straight away!”
Hypothesize with me:
If all readers did vote an individual’s comments/posts down, wouldn’t this mean that the posts would automatically be hidden as soon as there were more than nine ‘Thumbs Downs’?
This is how I interpret the sentence “If enough negative votes are collected (9 more than positive votes), the poster’s comment will automatically be buried”
The quote you posted indicates that over time most post should have an even number of negative and positive votes.
This is true, I already understand that posts will remain if feedback is more or less even. I hadn’t stated otherwise – However this is not the case in the scenario that I suggested – where all voters give negative votes.
‘Inciting an argument’ is a strong phrase in this case. I’d call this a discussion – but I guess that’s up to the moderators. I’m simply clarifying the new ‘vote’ system – does this not add to the discussion?
There must be something in the code of conduct against insulting poster’s intelligence, or discriminating against people with low IQs. Everyone should have an opportunity to post.
Unless of course your comments are also tounge-in-cheek!
And no I still haven’t read the code of conduct. I’m at work and will check it later if I’m still interested.
Doug have seen my posts on this thread that have no voting system on them ?
This is why………..
quote alborz Says:
July 1st, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Each comment that gets “hidden” will be reviewed by our Staff daily. So no legitimate comments will go missing. ”
My comments got reviewed straight away yesterday and were reposted in minutes because the system works.
Your first post isn’t worthy of a comment!
I think you need to rename the “Vote” prompt for this functionality. I believe people are using it as an “Agree/Disagree” system, not realising it is actually a vetting tool.
The prompt for casting a vote should be more relevant.
- Okay?
- Relevant?
- On topic?
At present I think people are using the tool, incorrectly, to rate whether they like the content or not. Disagreeing with someone’s opinion is different from voting them off the island… Clarify the interface folks.
OK, 1 week in and plenty of valid on-topic comments have been maxed out negative, yet dozens of off-topic, or abusive or spurious spams still remain.
It would appear that although a fun little tool, this hasn’t really had any positive effect on the quality of comments.
What are the thoughts of other readers?
Please leave comment, so that this might evolve, rather than just voting.
Two weeks in and it’s now gone altogether. Is this permanent or temporary for tweaking?
Personally, I haven’t found much difference in the quality of posts – too much abusive off-topic garbage gets left on.
DesignEng Says:
July 1st, 2009 at 1:37 pm
But I don’t see how giving a “registered user” tag to those that want it, so that they can protect a unique identity from being plagerised, would have any negative impact on the casual/once off poster.
There are sites out there that have registered and unregistered users.
alborz Says:
July 1st, 2009 at 2:04 pm
DesignEng, yes that is the next option along our path to have a working comment system.
OK guys, BRING IT ON!!