As some of you have already figured out, we added a tool on PDD in which readers can rate how useful or enjoyable they find particular posts.

[UPDATE: Ratings were taken down 15 days after this post went up, so don’t look for them and feel stupid.]

See that row of stars at the bottom of this (and every other) post? That’s where the rating happens. All you have to do is click on the appropriate star to gauge your appreciation. The meaning behind the stars is basically this:

1 star – Lame
2 stars – Somewhat appreciated, but still kind of lame
3 stars – Above average
4 stars – Mint
5 stars – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

A NOTE ABOUT RATING THIS PARTICULAR POST: Rather than rating the quality of this post, please rate the whole idea of having ratings at all, as that will be useful to know. And feel free to comment about it as well.

Why would you want to rate a post and why would you care how well a post rates? Well, that’s up to you to decide.

From the standpoint of PDD administration, we think it will be interesting to see which posts are the most popular. From time to time people complain about posts they don’t like, but that doesn’t mean other people don’t like those posts. This will be a more democratic way of finding out what’s hot and what’s not.

You might still ask what the point is. Once we know what posts are liked and disliked, will administration start deleting unpopular posts? Probably not. But we might decide to highlight popular posts in the future.

The ratings will also allow people who are too shy to leave comments to feel that they are participating. And the overly vocal amongst us will have a way to  express disapproval without being argumentative and also express approval without writing lame comments such as “Me too!”