Introduction
Buyer/Seller feedback is something that has been requested quite a few times, but in all honesty, it wasn't easy to implement. But the past week I finally had some free evenings so I started programming. And lo and behold, here it is: a feedback system for buyers and seller in The Mall.

I will turn this thread into a sticky soon, and turn it into a "Feedback FAQ".

How does it work?
I knew you'd ask that. On auction sites, it's a bit easier to implement a feedback system because you always have a clear seller and clear buyers. Here in The Mall there's no such thing. So I had to figure out another way people could give others feedback. I could simply choose for letting anyone give feedback for anyone else, but I'm sure that would open the system for abuse and it would be a helluva task moderating the feedback system. So I did something else.

When you give someone feedback, you give him/her feedback in a specific thread. You can compare the thread to an auction on auction sites. So suppose someone creates a thread for selling widgets, and you buy one of those widgets from him and want to give him feedback for it, you go to that thread and click the "Leave feedback" link under his username in that thread. But in order to be able to give him feedback in that thread, you must have made at least one post in that thread too. This prevents people from abusing the feedback system.

Likewise, if the seller (or thread starter) wants to leave feedback for a buyer, he goes to that thread and clicks on the "Leave feedback" link under the buyer's name. Which is another reason why the buyer must at least have made one post in that thread.

One huge difference with other feedback systems, is that you can edit feedbacks you left for others any time you want (just click on the "Leave feedback" link again and the system will detect you are editing your feedback) as long as the thread is available.

Be aware though that whenever someone leaves a feedback for someone else (or edits a feedback), a confirmation email is sent to the person receiving the feedback! If the person receiving the feedback never sold something to the buyer, he can send me an email (instructions can be found in the confirmation email). Because feedbacks are always linked to threads, I can simply go to that thread and check it out. If it isn't clear in the thread a transaction has actually been made between the two persons then that's valid reason enough for me to delete the feedback.

The feedback system is only enabled in The Mall section. In all other sections it's disabled.

Feedback Score
A persons feedback score is the percentage of positive feedback received to the total amount of feedbacks received. So a feedback score of 90% means 9 out of 10 feedbacks were positive. Neutral feedbacks do not count towards the feedback score. This means that if you received 11 feedbacks, of which 9 are positive, 1 is neutral and 1 is negative, you still have a feedback score of 90% (because 9 out of 10 feedbacks - not counting the neutral - are positive).

The feedback score only appears on a member's feedback page. Inside threads the score is represented by 5 stars followed by a number between parenthesis. The number between parenthesis is the feedback total, or the total number of positive and negative feedbacks (again, neutral feedbacks are not counted). The stars only show up when a member's feedback total is at least 5. (Partial) green stars mean a members has mostly positive feedback. (Partial) red stars mean the feedback is mostly negative. More green stars is good. More red stars is bad. A few examples:

(26) - This person has 26 feedbacks and a feedback score of between 95% and 100%
(12) - This person has 12 feedbacks and a feedback score of between 90% and 95%
(83) - This person has 83 feedbacks and a feedback score of between 55% and 60%
(9) - This person has 9 feedbacks and a feedback score of between 35% and 40%
(16) - This person has 16 feedbacks and a feedback score of between 15% and 20%
(5) - This person has 5 feedbacks and a feedback score of between 0% and 5%

Detailed Ratings
The feedback system also allows you to give a rating for specific details of the transaction (like shipping costs, speed if payment, communication, etc.). Unlike on some auctions sites, this information shows up immediately so if you are the first person to give someone else these detailed ratings, he/she will be able to see how you rated him/her. After the first ratings, the feedback system will show an average of all ratings.

Viewing a person's feedback
To view a persons feedback, simply click the feedback score under their name.

Viewing the feedback you left for others
To view the feedback you left for others, click the feedback score next to your own username, then scroll down to the feedback list and click the "Left for others" button.

OH, I forgot: I have tested the system as good as I can but I'm sure it still needs tweaking and additional work. So please keep in mind that I might even reset all feedback as long as the feedback system is in its "Test" phase.

Also, I know there's no quick option to view your own feedback yet, or to view the feedback you (or anyone else) left for others. I'm still working on that.

(As well as the option to view the feedbacks as buyer or as seller - it's built in already, I just haven't made any buttons for those options yet)

Will this be retro active?
Meaning...I bought a car from a member here a few weeks ago...can I return to that thread...and leave him a positive feedback?
Or will this only work on deals from this day forward?

------------------
--David

Black '86 GT-under construction
Silver '87 GT-daily driver

quote Originally posted by dcfox: Or will this only work on deals from this day forward?

Nope, you can leave feedback in all threads available in the Mall.

Now that is pretty slick Good job Cliff!!!

Thanks...I left a note about a glitch in your feedback

This sounds like a great option! Thanks for all the time and work you put into this Forum.

quote Originally posted by dcfox: Thanks...I left a note about a glitch in your feedback

Thanks! I also saw a small mistake in the confirmation email I got when you left a feedback.

LMAO...it's a learning process...mistakes are allowed.

quote Originally posted by dcfox: Thanks...I left a note about a glitch in your feedback

I'm not seeing the "jittery" behavior of the rating bars when you try to adjust them you talk about. Could you please elaborate?

when I placed my cursor in the middle of the bar...the whole block started jittering back and forth...but only on those 2 bars.

Weird. Which browser are you using? If Internet Explorer, which version?

quote Originally posted by dcfox: Here's a pic showing the spots that make it jitter on my end...

I tried but could not duplicate the jitter you are talking about.
BTW I am using IE7 version 7.0.5730.11

[This message has been edited by Fierotaz (edited 07-07-2007).]

I tried to screen capture the jitters...but that didn't work.
However...I was able to snap a pic of the screen jittering with my camera.
Here's what it does...



BTW...I'm using Firefox...not IE

[This message has been edited by dcfox (edited 07-07-2007).]

Just tried it with Firefox 2.0.0.4 and did not experience any jitter... I did leave all my feedback bars as positive and changed the feedback rating to negative and I see it adjusted your score down.

I'm running the same version of Firefox.
No idea why I'm having issues...but I can deal with it.

Taz...I'm seeing 100% when I look at his rating.

BTW...as soon as I get the package...you'll be getting a positive from me.

[This message has been edited by dcfox (edited 07-07-2007).]

quote Originally posted by dcfox: Taz...I'm seeing 100% when I look at his rating.

That is probably because I had changed it momentarily from neutral to positive to make sure it changed back. Now it is back at nuetral and he has a 33.3 percent negative hit.

by george...you're right.
you'd think that a neutral would have no effect at all on the rating.

quote Originally posted by dcfox: I tried to screen capture the jitters...but that didn't work. However...I was able to snap a pic of the screen jittering with my camera. Here's what it does... BTW...I'm using Firefox...not IE

If you take the hula dancer off your monitor, it should be stable again. Something about women and shopping in the mall get's 'em all excited.

I have to go back and read more carefully, but while reading Cliff's feedback, I noticed that his was 66.7% or so. Seems that too great a value is given to the neutral votes. I understand that of 3 votes, the neutral counts as 33% but that's almost as big of an impact as a negative rating. Let's see- I'll be the first to give him a neg!

Yeah, I was wondering about neutrals. If someone has 5 feedbacks of which one is neutral (and the rest positive), should he have a 100% feedback?

Oh and dcfox, I think I know where the jittering is coming from. I'll fix it soon.

Gotta give you the so I can leave a feedback.

I think that a neutrals only effect on a rating should be by the statement typed.
A neutral shouldn't effect the rating numerically at all...positively or negatively.

For example...if a person had 3 positives...3 negatives...and 3 neutrals...I think they should have a zero feedback rating...the same as if they just had the 3 positives and 3 negatives.

quote Originally posted by dcfox: I think that a neutrals only effect on a rating should be by the statement typed. A neutral shouldn't effect the rating numerically at all...positively or negatively. For example...if a person had 3 positives...3 negatives...and 3 neutrals...I think they should have a zero feedback rating...the same as if they just had the 3 positives and 3 negatives.

3 positives and 3 negatives would actualy be a 50% feedback rating.

But I agree, neutrals shouldn't count towards either. I'll change that now.

you're correct Cliff...I had a mathematical brain fart there for a sec.

Good idea Cliff.

Thank you cliff

anyway of having the # of feedbacks listed like how ebay works?

[This message has been edited by Back On Holiday (edited 07-07-2007).]

If you click on the feedback percentage...the total # of feedbacks is listed there.

Ok...I have GOT to check this out. Great idea, and as a programmer myself, I will be forced to leave nothing but positive feedback for the time spent on this....I know it isn't a quick process, and I would be afraid to find out how many hours you really spend on it.

Interesting!

Got a question. With this feedback system, if I go into a thread and leave a comment, lets just say I post a "." in that thread, I will be able to leave that person a feedback even though I never made a purchase? If that's the case then this setup is still open to abuse and is going to make your moderating job a lot harder. I have a feeling that you will be deleting a lot of feedbacks and having to do a lot of investigating into threads.
I do give you props for your effort though.

[This message has been edited by JimmyS (edited 07-08-2007).]

I accidentally deleted this entire topic and had to restore it from a backup but that means that today's and most of yesterday's posts were lost. Sorry 'bout that.

ok lets try this again. yesterday you were at 90.0 i gave you a pos and you went to 100%.
that should have been somewhere in between

before i rate you, you are at 91.7. lets see what happens

*****
i gave you a pos and you are at 100%.
if you have even one neg then you can never be 100%.
i'm going to switch my vote and see what happens.

****
i changed my pos to neutral and you went from 100 to 91.7
****
i changed my neutral to neg and you went from 91.7 to 84.6
****
i changed my neg to a pos and you went from 84.6 to 92.3
***

very strange.

[This message has been edited by buddycraigg (edited 07-09-2007).]

quote Originally posted by buddycraigg: ok lets try this again. yesterday you were at 90.0 i gave you a pos and you went to 100%. that should have been somewhere in between before i rate you, you are at 91.7. lets see what happens ***** i gave you a pos and you are at 100%. if you have even one neg then you can never be 100%. i'm going to switch my vote and see what happens. **** i changed my pos to neutral and you went from 100 to 91.7 **** i changed my neutral to neg and you went from 91.7 to 84.6 **** i changed my neg to a pos and you went from 84.6 to 92.3 *** very strange.

I had made some changes which might explain what you were seeing (because of some cachin) but to view the true percentage, just click it and you will open the feedback page.