MIRS replaces vouching
December 1, 2013
About six years ago the vouching system was implemented to help identify credible members. The idea was that traders can find quality information faster when there's a visible indicator of the poster's credibility, and while it was never a perfect system, it saved traders countless hours by placing an icon next to the username of vouched members.
We still believe in the idea behind the vouching system, but it's clear that FF has outgrown it. Not only is the system built on hard-coded levels (e.g., 11 vouchers assigns top rank, 4 vouchers allows vouching for others), but it's becoming a weaker indicator of content quality as the membership grows.
Today we're happy to announce the vouching system's replacement – the Member Impact Ranking System (MIRS). The detailed ranking formula can be found in the user guide. The structure of MIRS has many advantages over the vouching system. It's simpler because it's based on existing subscription functionality, rather than relying on an additional user action (e.g., clicking a vouch button). It's more democratic because it allows almost all members to affect the rankings, instead of just those who have four vouchers. It's more scalable than vouching because the formula considers the current membership size, rather than hard-coded levels, and it's more adaptive because rank is decreased as a member's subscribers go inactive.
While MIRS and the vouching system rank members somewhat similarly, there were a few differences that stood out when we compared the two systems:
We still believe in the idea behind the vouching system, but it's clear that FF has outgrown it. Not only is the system built on hard-coded levels (e.g., 11 vouchers assigns top rank, 4 vouchers allows vouching for others), but it's becoming a weaker indicator of content quality as the membership grows.
Today we're happy to announce the vouching system's replacement – the Member Impact Ranking System (MIRS). The detailed ranking formula can be found in the user guide. The structure of MIRS has many advantages over the vouching system. It's simpler because it's based on existing subscription functionality, rather than relying on an additional user action (e.g., clicking a vouch button). It's more democratic because it allows almost all members to affect the rankings, instead of just those who have four vouchers. It's more scalable than vouching because the formula considers the current membership size, rather than hard-coded levels, and it's more adaptive because rank is decreased as a member's subscribers go inactive.
While MIRS and the vouching system rank members somewhat similarly, there were a few differences that stood out when we compared the two systems:
- MIRS generally assigns higher rank to members with recent activity, whereas vouching wasn't sensitive to last activity date.
- MIRS credits members who have positive Trade Explorer returns, whereas vouching rarely included non-posting members.
- MIRS quickly ranks new members who post high-quality information, whereas vouching was slow to react due to the small population of "voters" (i.e., only those with four vouchers).
No system is without limitations, but after putting a lot of thought, research, and analysis into it, we're confident MIRS will not only make quality content easier to identify, but also raise the overall quality of information posted on FF. In the coming months we'll be monitoring the system closely, and will make adjustments as necessary. Please let us know if you have feedback!
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