New Interactive Features Coming?

[VideoGameCritic]

I might finally be following through on my promise to make the site more interactive.  I've set up a separate database server and am able to query it from my web server.  That's a pretty big step.

Here are the features I have in mind.  Next to each review I could have thumbs up/thumbs down icons to let people indicate if they agree or disagree with the review.

In addition, I could have readers "vote" on a grade they would give a game.  They would enter a letter grade and the average grade would be displayed next to each game.

I'm not sure if I should just implement one of these or both.  What do you think??

I do not currently plan on tying this feature to the forum user accounts, mainly because it's a different server that I don't control so accessing that info could be hard.  I would probably be easiest to limit the votes to per IP address (one vote and one thumb per game).

Down the line this could open the door for people to enter comments after each review.  These would need to be moderated obviously.  Comments would not appear automatically.  You would click on a link that says something like "17 comments to view".  Still brainstorming.

I have a little steam so hopefully I'll follow through on this.  I'd like to get something working in November.

I'm open to suggestions.

[Tron1]

I like the thumbs & votes. Don't like the comments

[Rev1]

Would a scale be possible for people entering their own reviews (like click on the number of stars or drag a cursor to a certain grade)? I like that idea better then just typing in the letter you think. I don't think you need a like/dislike button and a grading scale but I'm honestly not sure which one I would like better. Either one would be fine with me. Comments are okay although I don't think I'd ever read them.

[Atarifever1]

User grade is an idea I like a lot.  I actually do like the idea of using grades, as that lets the "user grade" be directly compared to yours.  It's still going to just be a score, and as I have said at length, that isn't that much information.  However, in the aggragate, it can at least act as a metric of how close your opinion is to your readership. 

Comments will give more information, but I don't really like that idea a lot if it isn't tied to an account.  People just commenting are pretty well known to be pretty bad. I think it would be a TON more work for mods (unless you got a lot more mods).  And it would be more forward facing than the forum, and, thus, even more important to moderate carefully.  If it wasn't tied to an account, you'd get tons of people coming out of the woodwork to call you a moron every time you dared to give a game any score they disagreed with.  Given the number of old reviews on here, that could be A LOT of comments.   

Thumbs up and down, I don't know.  That doesn't tell us much (which is why I also don't like it on youtube videos).  Do people not like the game? Not like the review? Not agree with the review because it is low?  Not agree because it is too high?  Not like how the score and text work as a set?  Maybe a "rated too good/ rated too low / rated just right" option?  Then we could see that, say, 50% of people agree, 35% like it a lot more than you, and 15% like it less than you.   

[ZetaX1]

I think I like the idea of a "user grade" better than just a thumb up or down.  Present it with the number of "grades" that are being averaged, something like "Average of 38 user grades: B-".  Maybe word it a little more concisely then I just did...

[Verm1]

I like the idea, but I agree that it should be restricted to forum members and not open to anom users.

Whether there should be an option for forum members to anom grade though (or whether the members name should be displayed)?

[Vexer1]

I like the vote idea.

[VideoGameCritic]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  Now I know I should focus on the voting feature.  It's coming along well.  Hopefully I will have a "beta" page soon for testing and feedback.

I noticed somebody requested a "slide" widget to set the grade.

So my next question is, should the grades run from A to F, or A+ to F-?

[ptdebate1]

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]Thanks for the feedback guys.  Now I know I should focus on the voting feature.  It's coming along well.  Hopefully I will have a "beta" page soon for testing and feedback.

I noticed somebody requested a "slide" widget to set the grade.

So my next question is, should the grades run from A to F, or A+ to F-?[/QUOTE]

A+ to F-. I like how A+ is very unattainable due to the high standards, and how F- represents only the games that are, like, terrible to the point of being morally offensive.

It would also be neat if you could do a "Critic's Choice" article where you list your top 10 favorite games, or simply all the A+ scores you've ever given (pending re-evaluation).

[JustLikeHeaven1]

A+ to F- of course!!!