Would it be a good idea to allow writers to reply to the reviews on their articles? I think that would be pretty cool, unless it would make the reviewer want to reply to the reply.

Also, I like that voting has been made easier with a simple thumbs-up / thumbs-down system, but since reviews are supposed more in-depth, wouldn't it be a good idea to have options other than +8 and -8 for a review score? I guess the new scoring system is really a matter of whether you like it or dislike an article. Still, I think it's odd that one review saying "this is the worst article I've ever seen" and another saying "this was average and I didn't enjoy it" will both affect the score the same way if the thumb is down.

Feel free to completely disagree. I'm just throwing ideas out there. Discuss.

Its simple, and easy for people to just say i like it or i don't like it.

Replying to reviews is a great idea, I'll definitely put that on the "to-do" list.

As for the vote score, I agree with the point that reviewers don't have much say in doubling the score, however when we designed the new voting system, we took two things into consideration: BOTH the writers and the readers.

On the previous site, writers had more of an idea of what people thought of, but unfortunately the score was based off of the average of all votes, which didn't allow for the "best of the best" content to reach the average reader that came to the site. The new voting system is much more simplistic, and allows for voters to make an easier choice: "Did I like this article or not?". This allows for the best articles to reach the top of the site, and the mediocre ones to stay in the average area. So even though it may not seem like it, the new voting system will allow for writers to see what people think about their article a lot more than the 1/5 system did.

That's a good point. Back when we had the 0-to-5 scale, I actually found myself voting 2 and 3 a lot, and that probably didn't help to move the good articles up or the bad articles down.

This will become a lot more apparent when more people are voting. Articles are going to start shooting up into the hundreds range both positive and negative.

Another point. What really separates a 36.5 article from a 39.2 article? Is that one article really 2.7 points better than the other one. What exactly does that little point differential really mean to the average reader? Does the reader even care? If one article is +134 and another is +96 though, it's more of a "HEY, that one is better than the other one, it's probably pretty good!"

In regards to the "review replies", do you think it would be a good idea to allow anyone to comment and voice their opinion on a review? Or do you think that it would be a bit overkill, and that authors should be the only ones to comment on it?

I think the author should be the only one who gets to post a quick reply to a review. If another writer sees the article differently, they can leave a comment or write a review of their own to showcase their points.

I agree with Manman.

The author of the article is usually the only one who has a lot to say about a review of that article. Any other members who have an opinion about the review can click "yes" or "no" when asked if the review is helpful. (In other words, I agree with Manman and Justin.)

Alright, sounds good. I'll get started on this right away.