New on Thailandblog: rating comments
Since today, the readers of Thailandblog can rate the reactions and give them a rating.
You can do this by clicking 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' at the bottom of a comment (it was there before but it had some 'bugs' and they are now fixed).
Comments
More and more people use Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin to connect with each other. People share stories, knowledge and experiences through these social media. They do this by publishing messages or by using built-in response options. Think of weblogs such as Thailandblog, where readers leave comments via a comment box.
Responsibility
These reactions are important. Often the comments are read better than the posting itself. But visitors who do not respond themselves also read the responses and use them information for example, to plan a tour through Thailand. Therefore, be aware of the impact your response can have. When you write that a certain Thai island is no longer beautiful or that there is a lot of crime, this can have consequences for tourists who read such a reaction. They may decide not to go to that island based on your reaction. So you do bear some responsibility, which you have to handle carefully.
Community
An active community has now emerged on Thailandblog that discusses the various topics. Each post gets an average of 10 comments, which is a lot for a blog. There are now even more than 36.000 comments on Thailandblog.
It is the task of the editors, moderators and readers to monitor the quality of those reactions. Many forums have been destroyed by comments filled with nonsense, insults or personal attacks. As with any discussion, a disc leader is needed to steer the conversation in the right direction, because sometimes emotions run high. At Thailandblog that is a moderator. But the readers can also do their part to safeguard the quality.
Rate responses
To increase the involvement with Thailandblog and to monitor the quality of the responses, you can now rate each response. If you find a comment valuable, you can let us know by clicking on the button with the thumbs up. If you find the reaction bad, nonsensical or hurtful, you can click on the thumbs down.
This social aspect allows readers to correct each other somewhat. But more importantly, the readers can now also award the writer of a valuable comment with a thumbs up.
The next step is to give the commenter the most thumbs up. Because it turns out that this person makes a valuable contribution to the information on Thailandblog.
very good initiative, my compliments, I completely agree
Dear Editor,
Am a loyal reader of Thailand blog, and appreciate this very much, live in Chiangmai where
I recently moved into a dream Villa with all the trimmings, the information I read about the Dutch Embassy and the consulates are very informative for people who live in Thailand and those who go on holiday,, I would like to thank you for this news
I also always read the various topics for life in Thailand, the language is difficult and I am therefore happy with the news in Dutch, if you come to Chiangmai you are very welcome and I put my guest house at your disposal, for you
two thumbs up,
Greetings Pascal
And now don't click on your own reactions to win that wonderful end-of-year prize for most appreciated commenter!
We can see that…
Peter, I had actually hoped for more curious questions/reactions about that wonderful year-end prize!
A fully groomed free massage 😉
Cared for by a well-built Turk (after all, no one ever said anything about a Thai massage or female beauty…), and a beer to recover from the shock?
You will know immediately if the prize winner can take a joke. 😉
Khun Peter, I can assume that the massage has a happy ending.
Nice, although it is of course not a 'perfect' system. This way you can still compliment good contributions even if you do not post (further) comments yourself. Let's just hope people didn't step on their toes too quickly with the thumbs down. Now we are - I assume - mature enough here, but I know that on forums with a “karma” or “reputation” system, for example, there are sometimes visitors who downgrade messages because they do not agree with the content, even if is it neatly and respectfully written. For example: Someone writes that he personally doesn't like a certain activity, and then gets wooed by the people who absolutely love this activity... That makes some people go into their shells, afraid that they will be caught again next time if they say that they would rather go into the jungle than bake on the beach (or vice versa).
But I have faith that this blog will be neat and decent.
There is some kind of double lock on the door. First the moderator views a comment and then the readers have another vote.
Good idea about the thumbs up and at least it gives an indication, but I don't know if it 'monitors' the quality of the responses. Personally, I'd rather read a well-argued counter-reaction than see a thumb, the thumb itself says so little.
Suppose, after an article about Thai politics, someone responds 'If they continue like this, nothing will ever change for the poor people'. Thumbs up – does this mean people agree with the comment? Or does this mean that people do not want change in Thailand because structural development, for example, is driving up the general price level and could endanger the supply of cheap young prostitutes? Thumbs down - does this mean that people do not agree with the response, or does it mean that they agree with the response and do not like the end result? Does it perhaps mean that people actually think the government is good, and do they not agree with the commenter that nothing will ever change? Or perhaps neither agree nor disagree with the commenter, but a negative thumb only means that people (rightly) believe that the response is unsubstantiated?
A lot of profound questions for this fast digital society, I realize that. Also put a thumbs up option with the article, I'll save myself the trouble next time! 😉
I may have missed it somewhere but what does (OBV x voice(s)) mean?
Is this the total number of votes given to a comment?
OBV is based on – indeed the total number of votes.
So Ronny, if someone is at -1 based on 7 votes, they got 3 thumbs up and 4 thumbs down from different people, at least I hope so.
It's fun, but it does give the editors a lot of work.
It's true what you say, Bacchus. And it doesn't cost us any work, everything goes automatically. You can also vote only once. That can be circumvented, but cumbersome (nothing is 1% waterproof).
About the appreciation we can add each other:
We can appreciate each other's bits. Positive or negative. What does that measuring each other add? That adds that we get to know what most of the readers and bloggers think about the topics raised (if we didn't already know, or at least could suspect, if not read about them). If I want to earn a lot of appreciation I write only what pleases them.
Suppose I live somewhere where people think they know that the earth is flat. I stick a note on the door of the town hall: “And yet the earth is a sphere!” I would be wise to do so unseen and not to write my name under it. (This topic touches on whether or not to write under a pseudonym). It will turn out that the whole village falls over me: for I have struck them in their supposed hold.
You will probably understand that I have chosen a subject in the above that is not controversial on the Thailand blog. If so, then the moderator (not only regarding offensive example topic but also) immediately declares my whole piece 'out-of-topic' and removes it. And if all my piece had escaped his watchful eye, I would score nothing but minuses with my audience. More so than will be the case now anyway. That -that I don't get all the negatives possible- is actually a pity. Not that I necessarily want to kick in the shins, but because it must of course be the case that I - and anyone else - must be allowed to deviate from a norm, a behavior or opinion that generally applies in the group. Particularly if it can be demonstrated that the relevant 'deviation' is based on fully tenable conclusions and actually deals with incredulities that have come to light. But such a reckoning is not just received with thanks.
With each other being allowed to take the measure, there is a danger that at some point we will only read the confirmations on the Thailand blog of the expats' generally supposed knowledge, of -the same thing said differently- of his holy houses.
PS. Somewhere in the 50s - the sputnik was already spinning - a book was published (in the Netherlands): “And yet the earth is flat!” That book is interesting. Not because of his position, but because of the standard ways that exist to defend the implausible (call it: the alleged knowledge). Next time I will write about a controversial subject instead of about the round earth and then you will also see those kinds of non-arguments in the columns of the Thailand blog.
Dear Willem, I understand your arguments, but I think you are going a bit over the top. I don't think it is the intention of the editors and/or founders to turn this blog into a sluggish group of friends.
Let's be honest, I don't know if this added rating tool will achieve the editors' intended goals of more engagement and quality.
What it does do is provide an extra opportunity to assess a reaction without getting into endless yes-no stories. In addition, on every blog you have a group of readers who – for whatever reason – are less likely to jump into the pen. This group is now offered the opportunity to contribute to a discussion in an easy way by assessing the opinion/reaction positively or negatively. Now that I'm writing this, I immediately think of a quality improvement, but this aside.
If you're participating in a discussion for the sole purpose of stroking your own ego, then you should do what you write: speak with the prevailing opinion. However, a sane person who likes to give his opinion will not be influenced by a thumb more or less in any direction.
Dear Bachus,
Thanks and appreciation for your response. Sorry I didn't respond sooner, but my computer was freaking out again. With your somewhat more optimistic assessment, of course, you have at least as much right to speak as I do with my fear that the most commonly heard -and the least thoughtless- opinion will only win even more over the insight. What I completely agree with you, of course, is that a sane person would do well (I say it now in my words) to uphold his quality of input by not making concessions to popular misunderstandings or foolishness (and pretending willfully or stuck in it).