dBoard 4.0 Release

Your position is a bit like this analogy. I own a bar where I sell alcohol, and I've posted rules regarding acceptable behavior. A fight breaks out and I tell the combatants to take it out to the parking lot, which I also own. They object that since I sold them the alcohol and am therefore to blame for the dispute that I should allow them to settle it in the bar.But there are other patrons in the bar, the fight would disrupt their good time and possibly cause damage and injury, so I inform the combatants that if they don't take it out to the parking lot I'll have to let the bouncer do his job.You and Nwr and others are right that non-anonymous ratings can be another potential source of antagonism and controversy, and I am hearing the feedback, which I consider very valuable because it enables me to think through changes and improvements. I do feel I need the feature for competitive reasons, but I'm also not convinced that it is without any positive merits.I should mention that the member ratings are changing. One change is definitely going to happen: the ratings scale will change back to 1 to 5, from the current -100 to 100 scale. The ratings equation will be the same, it will just be the values that be normalized into a 1 to 5 range.The other change is not definite: I'm considering changing the ratings equation. I have some ideas that seem promising, but I haven't finished thinking them through yet.

The member rating scale is now 1 to 10.The member rating equation has changed significantly. It now reflects the average number of votes your messages receive, for those messages receiving votes. A "like" vote is +1, a "dislike" vote is -1. Another way of looking at it is that it measures how many of your messages draw multiple votes.

Hi Panda,I'm unable to replicate the problem in Chrome - can you tell me which browser you're using?

I'm unable to replicate the problem on either IE8 on XP or FF5. Do either of you have VNC?

Okay, sound's great - can you PM me your ID and password? I haven't used TeamViewer before, but it looks straightforward.

Hi F&L,The various browsers keep improving the security of file uploading, so the appearance of the button and box keep changing. I fixed them once a few years ago to make sure the text was visible, but it sounds like there's problems in at least some browsers again. But as long as the object pays attention to CSS settings I should be able to fix this, and I'll be looking at it soon.At the same time I do that I'll also make a couple related changes. Members will be able to define multiple avatars that they can select from, and you'll be able to upload avatars not just from your computer, but also from the web. I could also provide a selection of standard avatars, but I'd need someone to define those images for me.

The problem with the voting information disappearing when you click on a voting icon a second time has been fixed. Please let me know if you still see a problem. Thanks for all the help, guys.

Forgot to tell you, yes, absolutely, put your password back. Thanks for the assist.

The problem with the visibility of the text of the filename when updating your Avatar should now be fixed. Please let me know if you still find any problems.The other issue of allowing multiple Avatars from which you can select is on the todo list.

This should be fixed, let me know if you still see any problems. Thanks for the bug report!

I think this was mentioned upthread, but anyway, it's already on the todo list. Unfortunately I will not be able to get to this in the near term.

A few minutes ago hurricane Irene took out our power. The battery backup kept the computer, router and cable modem powered up for the 30 seconds it took the generator to come on line. Connection to the Internet was not interrupted."This concludes this test of your battery backup system. Had this been an actual emergency..."

My sentiments exactly. I just called my tennis buddies to say I won't be playing doubles this morning. I think they'll play anyway, two are in the city and don't have country roads to navigate, and the other is crazy.

The denominator in the member rating equation is now total messages over the time period (set to 90 days), instead of total messages receiving more than 0 votes over the time period. Should result in only a modest change in member rating, though it isn't impossible that a few members could see a dramatic swing.

Hi NoNukes,Some things are simple to do, some not. I will think some more about your request to see if I can come up with a simple approach.In the meantime I did something that is very simple that might help at least a little. I added member ratings to the member list page. Check it out: Member ListClick on the rating heading to sort by rating.