Our forum was just updated today to the newest version, and a new "Rating" feature was added in the update. We had no idea what it was, and I finally figured it out by going to the forum of the company that makes the forum software.
So here's the deal: You can rate the topic of a given thread based on how good you think the topic is. You just click on the original subject line and go down to the bottom of the page to where it says "Additional Information." And there is a place to rate that topic with stars from one star for the lowest rating to five stars for the highest rating. If you are the first and only person to give a rating, you and everyone else will see the number of stars that you voted. As additional people assign ratings to that topic, the number of stars will be averaged out, so you and everyone else will see the average number of stars of the ratings. If you just point your mouse pointer on the stars, it will show you how many people have assigned ratings to that particular topic.
I think this is incredibly dumb, and it sounds like a lot of other forum administrators are already clamoring to be able to either eliminate this "Rating" feature or at least be able to turn it on or off.
So play with it a while if you want to, but we will probably be eliminating it unless you guys can think of some reason why it should be allowed to continue as a part of the forums on this website. It is going to be in effect for at least a week, so please give feedback if you can think of any useful purpose for it. [color] [color]
Does it also come with a feature that allows a user to set his profile or preferences so that he only sees threads ranked 3 or higherfor example? Or what about sorting the threads by ranking? If I'd been away for while, and came back to the forum, it might be nice to be able to hone in on the "good" threads, and avoid the junk. (though of course, there's very little junk on this forum).
Jim,
I did a little fiddling and discovered that simply clicking on the word "rating" at the top of the rating column automatically files the threads by how many rating stars it has, with the threads with the most stars at the top.
I'm sure there used to be a thumbs down icon...if there was I would have put it at the top of my post. I'm doubtful of the benefit of a rating system for posts.
How do you rate a post?
Whether it's about your type of boat? Well that's not much use to anyone else.
On the quality of the grammar and spelling? Who cares about that. It's hardly relevant to the content of the post.
Whether you agree with the post? That's not ranking a post but voting on whether you agree with it or not.
Whether it interests oneself? That is not useful to anyone else either. A post about fixing a hole in a fibreglass hull is of no use to me because I've got a timber boat but may be of great use to someone who has a hole in their Hobie.
Who can be bothered rating a post anyway? and would we want to take any notice of the opinion of someone who wanted to judge someone else's post in such a way.
I suggest removing the rating facilities.
Berthos.
PS. Thanks to Rick and Mary for providing a great forum for sailors. ***** (five stars)
In case everybody doesn't know this, you can also sort the posts in the other columns by clicking on the column headers. An interesting one to sort is "Views," because you can sort from most views to least. So far the winner is Ed Norris' November 2001 post, "Why there's no $3k starter cat." It had 4,641 views.
My "desert" skin's colors and fonts have dissappeared and icons do not show. 
See attached file. I tried going through all my setting but it did not help. Any clue?
PS. I like the idea of ratings.
That's really weird. I can't help, and Rick is out of town, and I doubt if he would know what happened to you, either. Maybe some of the computer gurus who frequent this forum will have some idea. You are the only one who has mentioned having this problem. Did you try rebooting your computer?
Hi JIm,
One usefull area to look into is your cookie settings - perhaps this new version labels its cookies differently, just enough to fail the inspection of your internet security settings. Apropriately enough, cookies now come in many assorted flavors; and Windows allows you to pick your favorites; and comes pre-loaded with a set of 'likes' and 'dislikes' in that area. So if the forum now looks for and stores the same settings in a slightly different flavor of cookie, your own security program *may* be denying the forum any access to them.
Then again maybe not 
A temporary change in security setting in explorer did the trick!!! Mary, I like the new forum and the latest changes seem to be for the best. 
nm
Jim,
Just re-login. Every time they reset the forum, it logs everyone out. In the upper bar you should see the option to Login or Logout (depending on if you are in or not).
infamous quote from American Bandstand ,with Dick Clark as he asked kids to rate the lattest song premiered on the show and rating charts .
As Siskel and Ebert ,---well Ebert anyway -{it is Holloween you never know } --would say ,-----two thumbs down on this rating feature.agree,--
Happy Holloween
oooh ,--he slimed me
http:/
have fun
Carl