Update the "usefulness" sorting algorithm?

Talk Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by neurobot01, Sep 24, 2014.

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  1. neurobot01

    neurobot01 Maven (1,289) Jan 25, 2014 Germany

    If too many users switch over to sorting reviews by usefulness, it seems like we'll end up in a feedback loop of top-rated reviews getting ever more upvotes, so that even if new reviews get upvoted by users who sort by recency, they won't stand a chance against those most-upvoted reviews. It would be cool to tweak the sorting by usefulness such that some weight is still given to recency (decaying over time), so that a few of the most recent (0-vote) reviews still show up on the first page for users sorting by usefulness.
     
    #1 neurobot01, Sep 24, 2014
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  2. metter98

    metter98 Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,303) Aug 29, 2006 New York
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    I thought that usefulness is the current default sorting method. So maybe it could be added if users don't manually switch from sorting reviews from usefulness to something else like recent, high, or low it could skew the usefulness ratings.

    Could a global preference be added so you do not have to manually resort each time? I definitely prefer sorting places by recent ratings since they tend to change over time.
     
    #2 metter98, Sep 24, 2014
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  3. brentk56

    brentk56 Grand Pooh-Bah (5,099) May 13, 2004 North Carolina
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I would like to have this feature as well. I am not sure that usefulness is all that useful, frankly. I am seeing some evidence that reviews that offer a different perspective on a beer get downgraded, regardless of the quality of thought that goes into them. I typically look at the recent reviews and the comments by the top reviewers and find the combination of those two much more useful than the usefulness feature.
     
    #3 brentk56, Oct 1, 2014
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  4. mactrail

    mactrail Grand High Pooh-Bah (8,999) Mar 24, 2009 Washington
    Mod Team BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Just as you can set your view to "Reviews only" I would like to be able to set the view to "Most recent" and be able to change as usual (see "Top Reviewers" etc.).
     
    #4 mactrail, Oct 1, 2014
  5. Thehuntmaster

    Thehuntmaster Initiate (0) Sep 2, 2009 South Africa

    I agree on reviews not being voted useful based on the quality and rather on whether the user agrees with the score. I do however remember Todd saying something along the lines of "If you don't agree with a review ... down vote it". So it appears that this was the intention. Although I could be misunderstanding what is mean by this phrase.
     
    #5 Thehuntmaster, Oct 1, 2014
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