Reader feedback mechanism

Sue's idea of a universal "rate this article" type survey is intriguing, and I think would be very valuable, but there are technical problems that would need to be worked out. The solution of these technical problems would also resolve, to a large extent, the problem of ballot stuffing for controversial articles.

The main technical problem is that, if we want to collect statistics on users, and not just opinions (something I think would be necessary) we have to solve the problem of double counting respondents who rate more than one article. One way to do this would be to collect the URL of the respondent. Then, if the same URL responded to more than one survey, we could count the statistical data only once - or, we could check in real time if the URL had rated an article, and, if so, not display the statistical questions. Either of these solutions requires technical complications.

Statistics on users would be important, not only for our general understanding of our readers, but also for understanding criticisms of articles. For example, we might find that high school students rate an article high, but readers with MAs and higher rate it low.

Collecting the URL of the respondent would also be a defense against ballot-stuffing for controversial articles. If the same URL tries to fill out a survey form for an article a second time, we can simply show him the same form he already filled out. This also enables him to access his answers, and change his mind about his rating of the article.

Another technical problem I foresee is that we would need to identify the articles being rated - not just the specific article, but also the projects and categories. This would enable projects to gather statistics on all their articles. The projects and categories to which an article belongs could, presumably, be collected from the articles.