10 Apr 2000 jrennie   » (Apprentice)

What is the point of the dimwit rating? All it allows for is name-calling. Say I just got into programming and am really excited about the idea of OSS. I find advogato, sign up for an account and then begin posting diaries (and possibly stories) that others consider to be irrelevant. As a result, I get demoted to a dimwit. I either 1) feel hurt, leave advogato and never return, or 2) sign up for a different advogato account and again achieve the Observer level. Of course, these aren't the only possibilities, but the point is that the dimwit rating doesn't do any good. It can cause general bad feelings and it doesn't improve the community. Allowing only ratings that "improve" one's position in the Advogato community encourages judgements that are based on longer-term observations. Allowing a negative rating encourages snap judgements based on minimal information.

Looks like the dimwit rating has been done away with. Yeah! :-)

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