Ode to the Rating system

The rating system sucks, that's clear
I wish it far away from here
Who cares what others think, or don't?
I'll say my piece, as is my wont

Oh Letty, do not not fear thy thread
Is sunk! I swear it shall be read!
Though thumbs have made thee fear, I see
The tags shall bring it back to thee!

The thumbs but take thy thread away
From those who do not wish to play.
But those who do, and tag it well,
Shall find it in despite of Hell,

Or dark of night, or Hurricane,
Or trolls, or politics...(the bane
Of threads in that past A2k
Where first thy wireless learned to play)

And, even if they tag it not,
I tell you, lost is not the plot,
Let them but sort them by All Time,
And New Posts add them to this chime,

Then every time that Letty posts,
(Or anyone) to thread she hosts,
She'll leave her lovers little crumbs
That show them where to seat their bums!

And, failing even that, they'll see
If they but click where Letty be,
On topic list, or Posts, I swear,
Her Wireless thread shall be right there!

(As for the Devil doing well?
He always said he'd reign in Hell,
It does us naught to speculate...
In others' hand there lies his fate.)

So Letty, let me free your heart
From fear of loss of wireless art,
Your faithful listeners you'll snag
If you can get them but to tag!

My movie scenes were once at the top
Considered entertaining
Now minus tens have made it a flop
But hey, I'm not complaining.

One thumb up, more thumbs down,
It's a new game in the making
So, I'll wear a smile, I'll never frown
Hey, we've still got picture-taking.

Now I understand the green,
It's not just Irish, it would seem
But just a way to make it clear
That absence makes threads disappear

Thanks, McTag, and Deb, and Spot
Continue to give it all we've got.
Let's concentrate on the negative lot.

If those who hide behind the scene
And mark things down then it would seem
They haven't the guts to come out and come clean.

(wow! I am overcome with how well y'all write poetry)

Letty - there's good news in this rating system: you can trace who voted for whom using which names >
http://able2know.org/topic/120955-1#post-3361240
> so it's a shortcut to finding out how many names the polynomial twit downgrading your posts currently has active on this site. Why anyone would want to do that is one of the great mysteries of the universe, but don't let it bother you - there's just no accounting for the insane.

P.S. not only can I not write poetry, I can barely write prose - but mathematics comes in handy on occasions like this one. Good to see you

It seems our H.S. is a ferret,
And one that deserves constant merit.

Un-for-tu-nut-"Lee"
Is a dummy, you see
So I guess we must just grin and bear it.

So many take voting personally
when it is rarely meant so;
'tis a method of organizing interests,
collapsing views for better flow
for each person; if you organize
your posts by votes, you'll know
consensus will be fluid except
for the top and the last, below.
If you organize by new posts, those
you don't want to follow won't show,
except in tiny print. It's not really
about insulting people now aggrieved, no.

Oh I hate, I hate, I hate to rate
Another member’s post
Down, but golly gee I see
the game and trivia roast
Is a necessity.

Otherwise all those fun things
Take up the first five screens
And takes forever then to find
The sealing wax and queens
And threads on cars and politics
And the state of Arctic ice
And what I had to eat today
Or whether someone’s nice.

We need a way to organize
And bring it to the top
Without the ugly seemingly
Rating something as a flop.

(Especially when it isn’t)

In time it all will be worked out
And then we’ll say hurray!
I won’t need to vote it down
To keep a thread at bay.

Love it Osso!

I liked Foxfyre's better, poetically speaking, though I don't want to change the system, just want it understood better.

Thanks Osso, but you made a good point that rating a thread down isn't personal. (It's pretty hard making that case for rating down somebody's post though.) I guess my preference would be to have an ability to collapse a thread for which I had no immediate interest without feeling like I'm appearing to say that the thread is no good. But I can adapt to a new concept too and will if that is the way it will be.

There once was a website from Nantucket...

FF, I get what you mean about individual post 'downs'. I've only done a couple of those, I think (who can count with all this newness to absorb), related to a certain high level of what I take as obnoxious re site behavior, not re opinion content - am planning to keep that pretty spare. What I've been doing instead - a little - is giving a few people a temporary time out via the ignore system, while I get my patience and equanimity back. I don't think I'll make any of that permanent, but reserve the privilege.

Aack, no poem.

So,

Making choices
by many voices:
a way to control
the contents of
the salad bowl.

It doesn't have to rhyme to be poetry.

Reply to osso, wild Bill, and the Fox.

If you don't like the thread, stay away.
"The best way to win's not to play".

A negative mark's like the bite of a shark
And yet it's not personal you say?

I have looked in sad eyes and detected,
The hurt of a child who's rejected.

Those are the ones who hurt in return
And the whole world is thusly affected.

I want you all to know that I appreciate the contributions,
and you don't have to agree with me to be valuable.

I like the thread,
it need be said.

I already marked
it valuable to me
before you suggested
I could leave.

That to disagree
is not to be allowed?
Farewell, I'll take
my cloud.

I do agree with you, Letty. It feels bad when my thread or post is rated down and, for me, I hate doing it to anybody else and actually try not to. But I also like to keep up with new posts and topics, and that is difficult to do when there are 30 or 40 threads of little or no interest to me monopolizing the first several pages when we log in. So, I would very much like the ability to remove a thread of little interest to me from my queue without having to hit that thumb's down. There may be no technical solution for that now or ever, but that would certainly be my preference.

If my preference is never accommodated, then the next best thing is learn to live with the system.

Let those who feel compelled to judge...
Do so and I will hold no grudge
I say "Go Crazy! What the Hell"
Your use of thumbs reveal yourselves.....

I'm sorry that I vote them down
I mean no disrespect,
but Lovatt's, Stinker and all that jazz
for those puzzles I have no affec-
tion.