Vista - Passport failure, but message posts.

> (Incidentally, having been an intermittent user of MS newsgroups for tenYes, You were not signed into passport, you used a newsreader that does not
include the feature. In the early days of Communities, the only way to do
that was the web interface. Now, with Windows Mail, and Windows Live Mail,
it should work (and give your profile stats for when you answered while
signed in) Occasionally, in spite of using the feature, and being signed in,
I occasionally get a failure. When I open one of my own answers, the rating
system usually does not give me a chance to rate my own post. A passport
failure (where I am signed in) shows me a rating opportunity on my own
answer. (though only the person asking the 'question' gets to put the check
on it. 'helpful' and the starred rating is about how other raters voted, as
a majority) (MVP's may uncheck an answer if they care to.)
My post here was based on the idea that I had detected the major problem for
the system, and the reason so many helpers found using it irritating. WLMail
and WinMail answer the speed problem, but not the 'accuracy' issue. The
rating system is not designed to please the helper, it's to serve the
questioner, usually a new user who needs all the guidance they can get.
--

Mark L. Ferguson
..

"Ildhund" <jnllb@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EB94C8AB-3917-44B0-BCD8-E353BC7370DC@xxxxxx

So, all those thousands (?) of regular posters who have been so helpful to
me and others over the years, and who would never dream of using that dreary
web interface, are effectively excluded from the system unless they have
started using WM or WLMail and switch on the support features. I just
checked again quickly: four of the really active, helpful leading lights of
this group show 'no information available' in their profiles. Another one,
with 228 posts on his scorecard since January alone, almost all of them
eminently helpful, is shown as only ever having posted nine helpful replies
(presumably while he was carrying out some of the thorough research we have
benefitted from).

"The rating system is not designed to please the helper, it's to serve the
questioner, usually a new user who needs all the guidance they can get." I'm
sorry, Mark, it doesn't work, and is clearly counter-productive if, as you
say, questioners are to rely on these ratings to determine who to trust and
who not. I really wish that the obviously cash-strapped MSFT folk
responsible for newsgroups would devote more effort to improving the
efficacy of the primary service and less to introducing meaningless - and
intrusive - features like the rating system.
--
Noel

"Mark L. Ferguson" <MarkLFerguson@xxxxxx> wrote in
message news:C587449E-1544-4120-A28C-5A69F9CA9E61@xxxxxx

Also, the option to use the rating system from within WM is buggy, and
often needs to be switched off to keep WM operating properly.

"Ildhund" <jnllb@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news70EAFF5-54BC-428F-B121-087E623A0C8D@xxxxxx

> sorry, Mark, it doesn't work, and is clearly counter-productive
I agree, and was my motivation in posting, (though I consider 9 out of 228
pretty good
You find it intrusive, so you turn it off. Many do so far, and the stats are
so bad for that and other reasons like inexperienced users and haste. Many
posts will see a 'thank you' reply, without a rating, even among posts
qualified as 'questions' My estimates run 50% not qualified as 'questions,
of that, 50% 'follow-up' posts in the same threads, of that 50% lack of
understanding, and you subtract the final 10% of that for passport system
failure. (and of course, 'You can't do that' answers are never considered
helpful.)
Thanks for looking over the problem for me. Getting this passed along to the
dev team was about the best I was expecting.
--
Mark L. Ferguson
..

"Ildhund" <jnllb@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news70EAFF5-54BC-428F-B121-087E623A0C8D@xxxxxx

You sent an email to my msn account ?

--
...winston


"Mark L. Ferguson" <MarkLFerguson@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:30FBB009-143E-4C6E-B04C-2537D9078B4C@xxxxxx