This entry is inspired by the post Is it just me, or are are there more "trivial" blogs appearing? No, actually it's inspired by dated topic discussed in this thread - quality of SDN blog posts. I completely share Michael's concerns regarding waterfall of "trivial" blog posts.
SDN blogs is quite unique system - in recent 3 years certain community standard was set for quality and content of blogs. Sure, not all blogs are technical (re-read posts by mario.herger/blog), not all blogs relates to SAP or SAP products, but majority of posts has value either as interesting documentation, or solution description, or insightful thinking or just as funny reading.
Now the situation is changing. We see more and more "blogs ... which seem to slip through the cracks in terms of relevance". I can't say for sure what are intents of these posts' authors: either just to please personal ego with yet additional 40/60 points or to mark author/company presence in SAP world. But sure the result is just boring non-valuable content created exclusively to serve author agendas rather then SDN community. In public blogging systems such blogs slightly dies, at SDN the situation is different - we have one start page for all authors, we have RSS feed for all authors, so in fact we have one SDN Community Blog. Yes, I know that I can subscribe to individual author's feeds, but tell me frankly - do you try this on your own?
I firmly believe that we have to re-incarnate blog rating system, but it's necessary to avoid mistakes made in previous version:
- Any rating may be supplied only along with one of comments (not necessary first) from given person; it should be impossible to rate blog without comments and it's unnecessary to comment blog more then ones.
- It should be possible to provide both positive and negative rating. There are should be clear visual indication of "dislike this post" as opposed to the previous version with stars that has only positive sense at sub-conscious level.
- The total rating is not an average by all marks but rather a weight average, i.e. rating of commentator is justified by forum points s/he has. Yes, this is not a true democracy; there are certain preferences. But think a bit: we almost ultimately trust the opinion of SDN editors, and in most cases this is just one person who probably doesn't know a subject discussed in post. Will you trust less Michal's or Sravya's opinion about post in XI category, or words from Rich's mouth about ABAP-related post, or Armin's reply to WebDynpro post? Will you trust less to people who help you daily on same subject in forums? I guess answer is obvious. On other hand with such system we prevent possible hijacking by fake comments sent by author to himself via "bots". I mean, we can't prevent this totally, we just can minimize impact of such unfair misbehavior
- Obviously, post's author can't provide rating.
- The number of commentators from one company should be limited, i.e. only feedbak from up to 3-5 persons working in one company goes in total rating. Let it be persons with highest rating by forum points, it doesn't matter. We just must limit the "noise" in total rating created by replies like "Great post! Keep up good work" from author's co-workers.
- Post without comments rated solely by editors (as currently). But trust me - if one see post with no value and has an option to express own frustration the s/he does. Anyway, I do not consider rating system as whole automation tool or complete replacement of editors' job. It's just a tool that provides "suggested rating" as aggregated feedback from readers.
- Revisit maximum/minimum for points. There are How to get ready-made filter for your Web Dynpro Table with minimal coding ?. And there are ones that do not deserve even 2 points
- Most importantly - after final assignment of points show points awarded atop of post! I insist! Why we see points in forum posts but not in blog posts?
Till this rating system will be created I feel free to leave whatever sarcastic feedback to Generic Value Help Services in Web Dynpro - A Bird's eye view. If SDN editors respect bloger freedom to post a crap, then they must respect my freedom to comment a crap. "Beginner" category is of no excuse for me - if beginners find the post valuable then they are free to send positive comments to author.
P.S. Dear bloggers! If you say something publicly, be ready that you may get negative feedback. Otherwise just don't blog.
P.P.S I'm personally ready to negative replies to this post 🙂
