Are there not Great Answers that deserve more than 1 point?

Only in a perfect Fluther. However, determining the ones who deserved more would be either 1) A popularity contest, or 2) A pain in the ass.

I do agree with this thought though. There are some fabulous answers that I wish I could give tons of lurve to.

Another, ahem, Q&A site had a system that worked like this. As your score on the site increased, so did the weight of your votes on other people’s answers. The system worked pretty well, IMO, but there was some grumbling about elitism in it.

I understand. I have no use for As your score on the site increased, so did the weight of your votes on other people’s answers. system.

I understand the impulse and have had it many times myself. But I’m afraid it would lead away from rather than toward a better fluther.

What I do instead, sometimes, is this: for a truly great answer, I wait and don’t click “Great Answer” until it’s had 5 GAs already. That way it has a better chance of getting GA’s by users who can still increase the score. Most jellies who’ve been around for a while have already had all the points I’m allowed to give; I maxed out a long time ago. So my GA’s are firing blanks, and they take up space that someone else could use. After they’ve had their 5 that count, then I add mine.

….But it is sooo obvious who these people are. I can’t say I deserve as much as them no way.

Anyway @Jeruba I didn’t know that there is such a thing as maxing out.

I know, I totally agree that my answers are amazing and deserve so much more recognition.

@flo, that limit is one of the things that make this site so excellent. No matter who you are, you can award only so many points to any one individual member. That number is about 100—about 20 GA’s. (I think it’s “about” because it might not come out even, depending on how many come from GQ’s.) After that, your GA’s to that person still register in the GA total, but they don’t deliver points.

That’s why after a while you can see your record of GA’s go up and up, but almost nothing gets added to your lurve score. It’s harder and harder to increase. There are days when you might get 40 GA’s and gain only 15 points. This is a good thing because it keeps us from just boosting our friends infinitely high and otherwise gaming the system. Newcomers gain quickly and older members progress very, very slowly.

And you know about the 5 per question, right? Only the first 5 GA’s per post have the potential to add points, and they will add points only if they’re given by someone who still has any points left to award to you. After 5, they all add zero. So a post has the potential to add 25 points to your score, but it does so only if all 5 of the first 5 GA’s come from people who haven’t maxed out on you. Therefore it’s not only possible but easy to see 5 GA’s for a post but no change in score.

That’s why I wait on great great answers—so maybe newer jellies with points left to bestow will mark them and add to their score.

There are some answers that are worth many multiples of -1. It all sort of evens out. Onward and (only) upward.

Postscript: You can see many past discussions on this topic by searching on such terms as “lurve limits,” “max lurve,” and “maxed out lurve.”

On The site I run with Dog we had it where you could donate your points to other people. You could give them all to someone if you wanted to. It was actually pretty interesting to watch how people used them. Some people gave all of them away and some hoarded.

When I find an answer that really pops my cork, I send the writer an IM. Recently it is happening less and less often, so I try to acknowledge the occasion when it occurs.

You’re right. Great Answers deserve more than one point.
I have gone back in time, and subtly influenced Ben and Andrew, and they made great answers now worth 5 points!
Hopefully, I didn’t change anything else in history.

hey, what happened to the twin towers??

Great, now I am having flashbacks!
* shudder *

The thing about that idea is that the last place I went that had such a system, people generally only give the maximum; they rarely gave/took just 1 point.

The best moderation system I’ve seen is a certain site I frequent that you can give +/-1, but each rating has a description as well (Funny, Informative, Insightful, Troll, WTF (availiable in +1 or -1!), flamebait, and others), and whatever descriptor is in the majority is the tag applies (no tag for a tie). Unlike here and… the-site-that-shall-not-be-named, the ratings max out at +/-10, and you can set your preferences to filter (and thus not display) any comment under a certain rating. Between that and the nature of the crowd there, the place doesn’t even need moderators; the peer-review process there is better than most sites that actually are moderated!

Note that any answer here worth more than 1 GA will typically get lots of people each giving their own GA, so any answer that deserves a lot of them will get a high rating anyways.

Nah… it’s pretty good the way it is. If I really like someone’s answer I can always PM them with my love and praise.

What a horrible idea. I’m the kind of person who always wonders what is wrong with him because I never get that kind of recognition. I’m a sort of slow and steady person. Not great. Just persistent. The only reason I have the lurve I have is because I spend more time here than anyone else. I wish I were the kind of person who could get extra points, but I’m not. I’m just like everyone else, and with our current system, I don’t have to feel bad because we are all the same.

Your idea makes me shudder. I’ve been in situations where there is some kind of system like that, and it sent me around the bend. You probably have a secure sense of self, so it wouldn’t matter to you if you never got any extra points or whatever your system would require. The only way I feel good about myself is if I never think about how I compare to others. It is horrible; simply horrible to compare people in public. I hate being judged, although it happens all the time. Some judgments I can ignore. Others, I can’t. To think I wasn’t helping people would just kill me. I’d leave fluther, and fluther means a lot to me.

@flo Yes, like @Jeruba I understand the impulse. There are some answers I wish I could give a hundred GAs to, because they are not just great answers but are ubergreat, ultimate, awesome answers. The single GA I can give them, even if I’m not maxed out, doesn’t seem like enough, but I don’t know how one would set up a scoring system here that could be tailored to giving any particular answer the exact amount of lurve it really deserves. Steady wins the race. People accumulate points, lurve, by the degree they participate and by consistently asking good questions and by consistently providing good answers, or at least funny, entertaining ones.

Geeze, tough crowd.

@XOIIO If you think this place is tough, you ought to see the site I mentioned above!

No, points aren’t worth shit anyway. If you feel an answer is more credible than another, then simply tell the person concerned, either within the thread, or via PM.
This preoccupation with points does nothing for me.

@ucme When you look at your points, do you see them as evidence of the work you’ve put in? Maybe even a sign of the esteem with which your fellow jellies hold you? You are the trickster of fluther, it seems to me, and in your place, I would see my lurve total as a sign of the appreciation people have for consistently making it a lighter place.

@wundayatta Whilst I agree that a certain degree of mutual appreciation is clearly present & indeed welcomed, the points themselves are purely cosmetic. Why, they may as well award bananas or sausages, or some other food based treat. My point being, the sentiment, for want of a better word, is way more appealing than a structured points system.
Anyway, I thank you for being civil & slightly complimentary, I think.

@ucme I’m quite serious about the compliment. I do appreciate your humor. I also agree that the unit of the appreciation is irrelevant. However I do think the implication of appreciation that lurve gives us is significant. All of us want to be liked or appreciated, and whether it’s for hard work or wisdom or friendship or pity; it doesn’t really matter; it is an acknowledgement of our presence and participation, and I think that is meaningful all on it’s own.

That’s why they get multiple GA’s. So no, great answers shouldn’t get multiple GA from one person.

No. The egalitarian system works just fine here. It would be different if you came to Fluther looking for answers from a certified panel of experts, but that’s not what this is. A collective is just that. Each member has valuable insight to contribute on different subjects. Each is worthy. Each is equal.

MIlo here; So my understanding that some are more equal than others (primus inter pares) is incorrect?

@Milo if you don’t mind, could you stop bragging? Please?

@wundayatta: MIlo here: Note that I said “some;” you have to stop making unfounded assumptions. (Although, it is very difficult not to notice where I stand in the pecking order, I know.)

@Milo unfounded assumptions? You are way too modest!

@wundayatta: Gorgeous by the Stockbridge Bowl and Kripalu this week-end. (Although since my mother’s death, I have fewer occasions to do the ride. I am about to take a beautiful drive to our transfer station.)

Ah, the “transfer station”. It sounds so… exotic. So hinting of trains and mass transit, so 40s-ish. I’d have visions of people coming and going, flapping signboards, wisps of steam, Ingrid Bergman looking out for a lover, Humphrey Bogart looking for Ingrid Bergman…

Or at least I would have, if I didn’t already know that a “transfer station” wasn’t “a dump”.

@CWOTUS: Wasn’t it Bette Davis who said, “What a transfer station”?

@jerv – Good answer! +6 to you :-p

Did you all know there is sooo much about the points as @Jeruba detailed? Wow.