Seeing stars

Users of the forum may or may not have noticed a row of 5 stars at the bottom of posts. These stars are there for registered forum users to rate the content of the post. This feature has always been part of the forum and is a feature that we currently have no plans to remove.

What does it mean?  One star which is for comments that you feel are not for you to five stars for posts which you feel are excellent.

There have been some concerns that this system could be open to misuse so here are just a few points on how to get the most from it.

• Although you can do it, we would suggest that it is best not to rate your own post, leave it to the other forum users to decide. 
• If you see a post with a star rating and you disagree with this, by clicking on the star that you feel is more appropriate you will change the rating. You may notice on some posts that there are half stars, this is because the system averages out the total ratings and gives you the middle value.
• If you don't get any ratings or a lower one than you would hope for, don't worry, everyone is entitled to their opinion and some will differ to your own. Not everyone who reads the post will notice or use the star ratings.
• Don't feel that you have to rate every post, however if you are really impressed with a post it is great to give them recognition by awarding them a positive star count. If a post has not ticked any of your boxes and you want to tell the author that, a one star rating would suffice.

As with many things on the forum, this system may not be popular with everyone but when used correctly it can be a useful tool. I hope these points are useful and you can all make better use of the stars, please feel free to rate this post accordingly!