The Idea of Chowk

and i see that I am a #1

do i still rate a mention?

Re: # 103

That is a typical reaction to this scoring system...........It is going to ensure that people change their opinions in a manner they appear respectable to the Chowk profilers...........good heavens..this is a subtle way to force the square pegs into the round holes...............but, I am in no mood to take this..............It appears that people want the Chowk to be a nice little Pakistani club where everybody agrees that secularism is about Islamizing the Western Institutions.....................Sorry, I am out of it.................

I remain whole-heartedly supportive of the ratings system. Way to go, chowk staff!! I think the ratings system is exactly what chowk needs to end the evil reign of Gresham`s Law on chowk (``bad currency drives out good``), whereby vocal but empty-headed and/or rude posters dominate while decent and intelligent posters are driven away. In due course this may well make Chowk the kind of a website where one can invite one`s real life friends and family to join for some real humor, real discussions on political and social issues.

CHOWK STAFF: Even as many people say that the rating system should be taken away, the vast variety of chowk interactors who have written posts indicates that it has gotten their attention. Because posters do care about how they are perceived by others. Maybe this will get them to start behaving a bit better on chowk and thus improve the quality of the chowk experience for all of us.

POSTERS: Lighten up. This is not the S&P or Moody`s rating which translates into financial loss or gains to you - this is merely an index of where the Chowk Moderator places you in terms of the quality of your posts. As one who is disgusted by the attitude of those who come to chowk only to insult Pakistanis, I am delighted with the rating scheme. I dont agree with all. For example: Jay getting a 2 or something?? this man whose express purpose for coming to chowk is, as he himself as proudly claimed, ``paki bashing`` should get a minus 273 (which is Absolute Zero temperature)!! But I am prepared to accept the Chowk Moderator`s ratings (even if this puts me behind Romair who I see got raised to a 4!, but what the heck - this isnt the S&P rating as I said. Something is better than nothing, and I dont buy this democracy nonsense that some posters have put forward - in sports everyone accepts the referee`s ruling even if they dont agree with it. They dont ask the sports fans in the stadium to vote.

Oh,
I must say this stupidity of Chowk Staff as ``Pre-Mind Control Strategy``.

I am just checking that what an interact initally scored. I hope it should be `nys`= `not yet scored` , as now the post gets instantly apparent on board.
And how chowk staff is mangaing every interact :
-By checking the content of each and every interact if working well with the conversation going on or with the topic going on.
Or there is an application running which is so much artificially intelligent that can give number by sensing the quality of the interact , but it must be then having many parameters and grammatical and phrase analysis that could shape intellect counting game in a programmatical way.

It seems an advanced Neural Networking application in an Artificial Intelligence manner.

I second Mr.Mitter. This is getting silly.

Chowk Staff:
Please realise your mistake and end this silly game.

Re: # 59

hey sac

i think chowk liked your ``country club`` idea ...

toodles ... dL

the bear gets an interact rating of 4 ! will wonders ever cease -- this doesnt even fit the index-matches-writer`s-(so-called)reputation category

I am not sure, to be quite honest, how to react to this new upgrade of Chowk or whether to respond at all to the newly installed interact filtering/grading system. In many ways, this change seems to be a case of shutting the stable doors after the horses have bolted.

I am not sure what is the hope, which is sought to be accomplished by this new interact grading system, because in theory this approach and the reason behind it makes sense, but nothing theoretical ever works out in reality and reality has always disappointed the most well wished hopes. Leaving aside the issue of judging interacts and assigning a numberical value to them, it would be a sad day for Chowk when its interacts are measured more by their score than by their content.

Chowk`s interact guidelines proclaim, ``please remember that the other Interactor is a person with a valid opinion...`` but to which it adds the post-script that we will judge the validity of that opinion by playing a numbers game. Chowk has embarked on a slippery slope, because it has just opened the door wide to influences of bias and even more importantly, each time a numbers game is played it de-personalizes everything. Chowk interacts were personal opinions and profane they may have been, but they were still valid opinions.

I fear that these new grading system will de-personalize the opinions and only help in creating a segregatated apartheid of opinions on Chowk. The editors were seeking to improve the level of the interacts but it seems that they have caused more damage, instead of preventing damage, to Chowk. For what it is worth, I hope that Chowk editors will remember the old irony, which suggests that tyranny always comes dressed as a savior.

In the end, there will be those who will complain and a few may even leave Chowk and there will be those, who will disregard this grading system and still speak out on issues, with which they identify strongly. In the end, this system will not matter much, because despite the numberical value of the interacts, most people on Chowk will still remember the content of a particular interact more than its arbitary numberical value and thus, Chowk will still be resisting the assult on its ``unflinching idealism``.

Ciao

Interesting new system... I am glad that I am viewed highly by the chowk staff.

Re: # 68

Welcome to the new world of profilers.............now everything would get profiled...the idea is to use the scare of the few (Salim bin Laden) to police and control every one........

Re: # 100

Oye, what`s wrong with chai-paani and maska? See it as a unifying factor. Nothing unites subcontinentals more than chai-paani & maska: it`s a truly subcontinental specialty! Chowk Zindabad!

Re:mubakr#99

First we saw someone offer a bribe. Now we have flattery!!

So this is the strategy to improve your score?

CHOWK IS A GREAT SITE. NO MATTER WHAT.

We should all be grateful for having a place to vent out instead of criticizing it left, right and center. Most of the sites I have visited are bascially a plethora or content and details. Juxtaposing them with Chowk would be unfair given the sense that precedes the basic idea of this site.

AND finally, Chowk, to the best of my understanding and knowledge, has never absolved itself to improving the site. After all, we do WE, the interactors, really give them back with?

THANK YOU, THE BRAINS BEHIND CHOWK!