I have always been curious about this. Under each person's user name at the left of their post there are either no stars or anything from one star to five stars. Presumably five stars is the best possible rating. If you put your cursor on the stars, it tells you how many ratings that person has been given.

For example, if you put your cursor on my stars to the left of this post (I think I currently have three stars) it will show that's with 18 ratings by 18 different people.

You will find that most people who have a five-star rating, only have been rated by one or maybe two persons.

SO, is it better to have one rating and a lot of stars, or a LOT of ratings and a fewer number of stars?

So far I have not been able to find anybody who has five stars who has been rated by more than one or two people.

To me it just seems like a strange way to rate people and the posts that they make -- it's the same way we rate products on Amazon.

Do you forum users think this is a good feature or a bad feature? Is it helpful in any way?