Gaming the system, is there a way to have both useful ratings and conversion of readers to editors?
Thank you all for your thoughtful suggestions about the Article Feedback Tool. It's a real pleasure to meet you, and I am sorry that I couldn't join this conversation sooner. (I just started working for Wikimedia recently as product development consultant on this project, and am still getting oriented.)
Wittylama, I appreciate your concerns about the potential for gaming ratings on Wikipedia. As Eloquence points out, there is always a risk of bias in user ratings like these, but we are exploring a number of remedies to address this issue.
Our current direction is to de-emphasize the ratings in the next version of the AFT, and to invite readers instead to offer specific suggestions for improvement (so their feedback can be more constructive and useful to editors). You can see some examples of that new direction in this new slide show from Oct. 11th, which we updated based on recommendations from the Wikimedia team. To that end, we're looking at services like GetSatisfaction.com for inspiration.
I also really like Jorm's "work list" idea and will aim to integrate that concept in our next round of designs. In coming days and weeks, we will post more wireframes and prototypes -- and seek more feedback from the Wikipedia community, including everyone on this thread. And I will respond next to Wittylama's questions in the newer thread you just posted. Feel free to ping me if you have any more recommendations: we thrive on feedback!
If you thrive on feedback, please do respond to it, even if you disagree with it.
