This section of my guide for फैन्पॉप users details the ratings system and was last edited on 26 May 2008.

As with any web site, फैन्पॉप is only as good as its content. Some content - what I think of as the soul of the site - is generated द्वारा users in the fora and in टिप्पणियाँ on the rest of the content and cannot be rated. But the rest of the content - the body of the site - has a ratings system. The whole principle of the ratings system is a democratic one: if enough people vote, the really qualified items rise to the top. That's why everything that can be rated can be sorted in a सूची from highest to lowest ratings, so that आप या anyone else can see the good stuff first.

The importance of rating
Rating is voluntary. However, there are four reasons to rate content:

1) Rated content makes फैन्पॉप work. फैन्पॉप is organized around spots, and spots can contain a lot of content related to the spot's topic. Every spot has the ability to sort its content in a number of ways, including "highest rated". As और content is added to a spot, the और important it is for someone coming to that spot to be able to perform that "highest rated" sort on the content, particularly for new प्रशंसकों just starting out to discover a new topic. If there's no way to distinguish between all the content in a spot without looking at it all piece द्वारा piece, the site becomes mostly pointless. You'd do as well sticking to a खोजिए catalog like गूगल या Yahoo if आप have to sift through a long सूची to find the good stuff. Ratings are integral to the value of the site.

2) Bad content get suppressed. This is the flip side of the coin; since good content gets promoted, bad content drops further and further down the lists sorted द्वारा "highest rated". This saves people from seeing something really awful right off the bat, and reduces the chance that a new user checking out a spot for the first time will turn away from the spot in disgust because of a few experiences with bad content.

3) Users get recognized. As और people rate the content on the site, those who post the content that gets good ratings will gradually earn पदक for their contributions. This is Fanpop's way of encouraging good participation in a spot. We, as users, define what is good in that पूर्व sentence, simply द्वारा our ratings. When we rate something highly, not only is the user who पोस्टेड it that much closer to getting a medal, but और importantly, that user knows that someone on the site appreciated what they've posted.

Similarly, those who post content that gets bad ratings can use those ratings as a guideline for their future submissions: "people didn't like that, so let's try something different with the अगला submission". Without giving poor content a low rating, the user who पोस्टेड the content can't get the message and will have no reason to try something different अगला time.

4) You get recognized. फैन्पॉप keeps a tally of how many ratings you've given, listed on your प्रोफ़ाइल page. Every time आप rate, that number goes up, demonstrating to the फैन्पॉप community that आप are participating in making the site work.

What to rate
So, the सवाल may come: what should one rate? Well, first of all, there are certain types of content that can be rated on फैन्पॉप (others cannot). The following types of content can be rated:
* links
* videos
* soapbox articles
* images

The following cannot be rated:
* spots
* picks
* मंच threads
* मंच posts
* news
* fans

अगला one should consider what sorts of things to rate. Usually, one rates on the quality of the content alone. This is fine as long as the content works in the spot in which it is found. If there is a problem - a non aesthetic problem - with the content, it almost certainly should be reported, and not rated. See the link for my और detailed explanation of reporting.

How to rate
So, you've found something that works for the spot in which it is found, आप have a reaction to it - positive या negative - then आप should rate it. How do आप do that?


Each of the types of content आप may rate - links, videos, soapbox लेखाए and तस्वीरें - have a band of five stars with a legend "You rated:" above it. If you've already rated this particular content item, it will दिखाना the rating आप submitted. If आप haven't, it will दिखाना the circles as grey outlines, with "rate this link" superimposed.

Whether you've rated a link already या not, आप can rate it (with one exception - see below). To rate, click on the तारा, स्टार that represents the rating you'd like to give the content. The stars rank in increasing order from left to right, so if आप wanted to rate the content three stars, you'd click the middle star, while two stars would be the सेकंड तारा, स्टार from the left, and four stars would be the fourth तारा, स्टार from the left.

What do the ratings mean, though? The five stars are explained in the link, but I'll go into और detail here:

One तारा, स्टार indicates that आप think the content is garbage. It's offensive not because it violates any of the terms of service या is miscategorized, but because आप feel it has no intrinsic value.
Two stars indicates that आप think the content is blah, uninteresting, sub-standard and/or mediocre.
Three stars indicates that आप think that the content is OK. This covers a broad range from "I think it's appropriate to the spot, pretty standard content" to "I think it's pretty good".
Four stars indicates that आप think the content is great. It's superior to the usual content आप find in the spot, and you're impressed द्वारा it. You're likely to save this content to your favorites.
Five stars indicates that आप think the content is EXCELLENT. It's the best content it could possibly be. Not only do आप save this content to your favorites, but आप टिप्पणी दे favorably on the content, give प्रॉप्स to the user who पोस्टेड the content, and share the link with all your friends, all because आप can't help it - it's that good.

Note: The only kind of link आप cannot rate (of the four types that are possible to rate) are लिंक्स that आप पेश to the site yourself.

You can't rate your own content!

Such content will still दिखाना आप the aggregated ratings from all the other users who've rated it, but where आप would normally be able to rate, the five circles are grey.

Common ratings etiquette
While आप are not required to do anything with regards to rating, there are a couple of basic etiquette points to consider when rating.

First, be consistent. Determine how आप are going to approach ratings and apply those criteria consistently across the site.

Second, explain ratings of a 1 या a 5. If आप rate content a 1 या a 5, etiquette insists that आप should always provide टिप्पणियाँ explaining why it's garbage या why it's awesome, respectively. Without such feedback, the user who पोस्टेड it (as well as other फैन्पॉप users looking at the same content) won't know what it is about the content that they should avoid या try to recreate in future postings. Then they have to guess, and when users have to guess what to do to please you, they're very likely to get it wrong. It becomes like rolling the dice and hoping for double sixes: extreme ratings result in blind gambling if आप don't provide comments.

Recommendations for ratings
As I said, आप may rate however आप like. In addition to the common etiquette considerations above, I offer the following for consideration when आप go to rate some content on Fanpop:

The one तारा, स्टार and five तारा, स्टार ratings represent extremes: the stuff आप really despise, and stuff आप प्यार so much आप want to take it घर to meet your mom and dad prior to taking your relationship to the अगला level. As such, I recommend that आप use either of these ratings sparingly. If everything आप rate is at the extremes, it makes your ratings much less meaningful than if आप were to rate only a few items at the extreme. Worse still, if many users rate at the extremes (not just you), there can be a situation where most content is either absurdly highly rated या absurdly lowly rated. In such situations, the primary purpose of ratings (#1, at the चोटी, शीर्ष of this article) is defeated. Ratings aren't worth spit if crap content, so-so content, and pretty fair content are all rated one star, nor are they worth much if good content, really great content, and the absolute best content ever are all rated five stars.

I encourage you, when rating, to consider ratings as part of a curve, like so:

This is a graph that represents how many of each type of rating is given. Simply stated, most content is likely to deserve three stars. Some content will be significantly better या worse than that, and those rare cases would deserve four या two stars, respectively. One तारा, स्टार and five तारा, स्टार ratings for content should be really exceptional. Rating with such an approach increases the likelihood that the really, really good content will have the higher ratings, and the really, really bad content will drop to the bottom of the ratings rankings.

How to read ratings
Each type of content that can have a rating shows आप the aggregate rating, combining all the ratings of all the फैन्पॉप users who've पेश a rating for that content. This number is shown in the green circle, ranging from 1.0 (all raters think it's garbage) to 5.0 (all raters think it's the best thing they've seen). If no one has rated the content, it will appear as a grey वृत्त पढ़ना 0.0.

But the other thing to keep in mind is the number of users who have rated the content. While a 1.0 may indicate the dross of the site and a 5.0 may mean something that आप just have to see, they mean little if only one user has rated it. Ratings become और meaningful the और people have rated the content. So content rated 5.0 द्वारा 3 fans, while it may be fantastic, isn't necessarily so. It could easily be that the user has फ्रेंड्स who rate the content artificially high. Certainly such content is likely to be less impressive than a 4.3 rated द्वारा 120 fans, which is almost certain to be very, very good. Similarly, content rated a 1.7 द्वारा 3 प्रशंसकों could be low quality, but it's less certain to be bad than content rated 2.3 द्वारा 67 fans.


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Here's लिंक्स to other parts of the guide for your quick reference:

* link

* 1: link

* 2: link.

* 3: link

* 4: Picks: this is the generic name both for the मतदान सवालों that आप see on the site and for the जवाब आप can pick to that question. Papa has created a link.

* 5: link

* 6: link

* 7: link

आप may also want to see:

* link feature

* link