Richard Jenkins wrote:
...
1)
If you take a look at the Kudoz history of some of the senior/long-term members (going back five years +) you'll notice that many Kudoz questions were originally posted as NON-Pro. It was much more common then. Many well-established translators have thousands of 'easy' / 'non-pro' Kudoz points. This ratio does NOT show up on the visitor profile page of these site users; the ratio is calculated on PRO points only. Should these more established translators therefore be penalised because of this?
As the system would have to be re-programmed to show ratios, there's no reason why it shouldn't also be modified to deal with objections such as those you raise.
The easy solution to your first point is to calculate K/Q not on the total points since 'day one' but instead on the points attributed in the last X months. That way the ratio will take account of long-term changes in the way the system, askers and answerers all function and give a better reflection of an answerer's 'current' reliability in the context of the system 'as it works today'. For starters, X might be set to 12 months, for example - although an analysis of existing KudoZ data might reveal advantages in using a shorter or longer interval.
Richard Jenkins wrote:
2)
If you don't like your ratio statistic or the particular answer that you have given then you can simply 'Remove' your answer by hiding it. Equals: one less question answered, slightly improved statistics. That's a serious flaw in your proposal.
Sadly, there will always be liars and cheats on this site (and everywhere else in life, too)
.
There are two safeguards already built into the system: answerers have to give a reason for hiding an answer; abuse can be reported to a moderator with a view to having the persistent offender chastised in some way.
A third safeguard could easily be built into the system when programming the K/Q function - simply include hidden answers in the value of Q
.
Richard Jenkins wrote:
However, ratios do reflect attention to detail and a statistical, precise mentality. That's good
.
Yes indeed, and those are the qualities we need to highlight in the KudoZ system, rather than putting all the emphasis on 'total points since birth', as we have now.
MediaMatrix
[Edited at 2007-09-17 15:05]
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