New Rating System

we can only have hearts and owls if the is a corresponding steaming pile of poo

The rating system in my opinion is only worthwhile for it amusement value and I question if any changes in how the system work would change that.

Now it is a good indication on how greatly the people who bother to vote on a thread disagree with you or dislike you and little else.

On some threads Hawkeye and I are in a contest to see how great a negative numbers our postings can generate.

Hearts & owls.

You know what I'd prefer, if I had my druthers?
Do away with thumbs up & down altogether. (As a thread "rating" function. Not necessarily for individual posts.) There is too much confusion about their actual purpose & also considerable bad feeling caused (whether some want to acknowledge it or not) by this system of "rating" threads.

Replace them with a symbol (a red bullet? ) indicating a high level of current participation in a thread. By "participation" I mean a high level of both posting & also reading activity (which, to me, has always been the real indicator of interest in a thread).
I actually think this would encourage more people (particularly new or less confident members) to instigate their own threads. I'd also like to be able to indicate that I have no interest in a thread (& be able to completely ignore it) without "downgrading" it (thumbing down).

Nah, msOlga. I peruse all threads in a day, at this point, over five pages of stuff. Over the day, I want to click off the ones I don't care about.
My feelings about this are common.

You peruse every single thread, osso? Wow.
My gosh, I have neither the time nor the inclination to even contemplate that!
I doubt all that many other A2Kers do, either.

Take note that my first post on this thread had already have one down vote.

This voting system is good mainly to indicate how many immature people your stands on the issues had pissed off and little else.