UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums Resources and Customizing Admin Zone What's the point in Rate This Topic?

When a user rates a topic and gives it 5 stars, well, what's the point?

I just enabled it on my site and can't see any use for it. Is it possible to search topics by rating, sort topics by rating, view top rated topics, anything at all with a rated topic?

If it's just a way to stick 5 shiny stars next to the thread title then I might as well disable it because I can't see any worthwhile reason for it being there.

Don't read this wrong, I'm not sounding off, I genuinely want to know if I'm missing the point here.

The point is this is one feature LONG asked for - as with a decent percentage of them, once we get it some of us don't see the point, hence the on/off switch in the CP.

For those who like the feature - for some people who like reading forums, a 1 star rated topic may get skipped in favor of a 5 star rated topic. There are some forums I read on a 1-3 times a day basis - if a topic is rated low I'll maybe skip it, on the other hand, if it's rated high and I see there's lots of replies/page views, I'll definitely read/respond.

But other than displaying it doesn't have any other integral functions then? Rated topics searching, listing, grouping, etc.

It has about the same purpose as giving users titles. Warm fuzzies man; it's all about the warm fuzzies.

I bequeath this topic with a star rating of 1 out of comedic spite.