Cliff Pennock

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.