Rating Articles on SearchWarp - Articles with Stars Upon Thars
Posted: Saturday, September 17, 2011
by Bruce Horst
WryteStuff
"If it doesn't make you laugh, if it doesn't make you cry, if it doesn't make you stand up and shout, then what's the point?" Years ago when I was running a video production company, the editing bay where I often worked 20 hours a day had a sign over it with these words.
I've been thinking about these words this week as I've had quite a few discussions about the star rating system on SearchWarp.
For myself, it's been a major pain over the years. The stars would appear on every article without an explanation of what they meant. I would occasionally write publicly about how the stars were calculated, but even more frequently would I talk with the editors to reinforce what these stars were supposed to represent. Probably there's no one feature on SearchWarp that has had as much discussion and ire as these stars.
It's reasonable to assume these stars represent quality. Everyone knows that. But who's definition of quality do we use?
Spelling and grammar are important, but are any of us here to become better spellers when that task can be left to machines? Some of the most inspirational writers I know have trouble with grammar and spelling, and I'm certain teaching them to be better spellers isn't part of my job description (I am dyslexic, after all.) A few years ago I offered to buy one of the most prolific writers on SearchWarp Microsoft Office, because what he wrote was great, but it was often filled with mis-spellings and grammatical errors. Very embarrassed, he declined.
For a long time SearchWarp editors were required to rate each article on two separate criteria: content and formatting. This became too subjective and we decided we needed more concrete guidelines.
I spent a lot of time as a service center manager giving performance reviews, grading employees on a scale of 1 though 5, so the 1 through 5 scoring system on SearchWarp was never new to me. My boss had a saying, though, it was "Don't know what a 5 is, I've never seen a 5, wouldn't know a 5 if it walked through my door." I think what he was after was always trying to get his subordinates to try harder. Life isn't about just trying harder.
Google has stated for a long time that quality means "unique and compelling". Under this definition, even the most compelling writing isn't high quality if it's plastered all over the Internet. More recently, Google has put out the statement that articles which show both sides of the story are higher quality. Hmmm.
A definition of quality that has worked better than anything else for us is 'items written for passion and are personality driven rather than profit driven.' You may not know this but SearchWarp receives more than 10 times more articles written for profit than articles written for passion or are personality driven. Those articles don't usually make it onto SearchWarp.
We've now added the editor rating/star rating back to articles on the new Spaces design, and we've enabled people to rate articles while leaving comments too. I think the bottom line is that it's a healthy tension to have editors and readers rate articles, and writers have the ability to call us out when they believe they've been rated unfairly.
For myself, I know what a 5 looks like, and it has a lot to do with the words on that sign that hung over my editing bay years ago.
This Article has been viewed 767 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More commentsSo, we each have our own algorithms? I like that. I like being able to rate a comment, too. My ratings never have anything to do with whether or not I agree with the content either. Because of the subjectivity of ratings, I surmise they are inconsequential in the end. The best rating is a sincere comment, apart from the copy and paste genre. The SW Team is the BESTEST! Regards, SuziYou nailed it, Suzi, everyone has their own algorithm. Ultimately we use editor ratings for a few administrative functions, but nothing very consequential. Thanks Suzi!
Hi Bruce.
I take a one day break from SearchWarp and you go and change something! :)
Adding back the stars is probably a good thing in the long run, but I find I have a hard time not giving someone five of them just for putting in the work. Maybe I will have to try to be more discerning in the future. And see, Fran gave your article three out of five stars. If she can do it, I can do it too. :) But not this time! Seems to me that you always write with passion.
Hugs,
Dianne (HEY where are the five stars I gave your article?)
i love this site......
my best,
sue
Yeah, and it seems this site loves you!
GRIN....
Love the stars. We are stars. And I love my fellow stars.And we all love you, the big kohuna star.Ditto from me Bruce! Nice Horse lady :-)
Great words...Stand up, Wake Up, get your Goal!!! I am influenced with swami Vivekananda. I have found good work here in this post too.
I am the President at MD Consultants Of America.
NafeesThank you for your comment.
I am slowly getting the idea. Let me try to give you 5.Thanks for the 5 stars!
I like the stars, dresses up the article. And as far as google or any other internet
conglomerate is concerned, I do not write for some internet machine or program
that cannot tell one word from another as far as human character goes. It doesnt
even know the english language unless programmed.
I write from inside of me for me and the readers only, not some program.
The most beautiful knowledge is the written word created by life, not some machine
Maybe thats why language is my only forteYou make me want to shout, "Amen!"
Stars? We were supposed to rate with stars? Ha - couldn't resist writing that. At least you explain when you make changes - unlike other Internet entities! Yeah, like everyone here, I keep coming back. Maybe someday Google will figure that out - that going back repeatedly to a Site is a good thing.Hmmm. I'd guess that most of the stars on SW are of your doing!
I'm losing confidence in Google figuring out what makes a good website, but maybe someday...Thanks Bruce for you awsome comment on mine.
Don't worry about Google, its just a machine
A good website is determined by the one's who created it and
the many who love to visit it and that's a fact Jack, Ha
Kellie
where do you see the stars?Under the title of the article, usually.
More comments
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.