Good evening Crow and thanks for the question. I am going to take a shot at answering both these questions. However, before I do, here is the 101 on 5-star voting:

a) All members have an opportunity to rate each other from 1-5

b) Members can change their vote at any time. If they think "Bob123" is becoming more valuable, they can change their vote higher. If they think "Bob123" is becoming less valuable, they can change their vote lower.

c) No matter how many times you change your vote for Bob123, only your last vote counts. This prevents vote rigging by having someone vote multiple times to manipulate your rating.

d) The system takes the total amount of votes and divides them to give Bob123 his rating. Votes are tabulated in real-time. Assume Bob123 has 15 votes for a rating of 3.5

e) The system also awards Bob123 points for his activities on the site ("activity points"). Posting, rating members, reporting violations, etc. Points can also be deducted for having a post deleted as a violation. Activity points are tabulated in real time. Assume Bob123 has 200 activity points.

f) They system multiplies his rating (3.5) x his activity points (200) to get his total points (700)

g) Bob123's total points of 700 determines his authority level, which is a treasurer (250-749).

h) It is very important to remember that Bob123's total points will fluctuate many times per day due to additional votes being cast for him, as well as, his activities on the site.

I) It is important to remember that all of these can be taking place at the same moment you are voting for him, causing you to think you just caused a wild swing in his rating and/or total points.

With this 101 in mind, here are my responses to Crowlee's scenarios below:

1] I would see his go up by a few points but he wouldn't. I would play with the stars and see it go up or down on my end but he didn't at his.

I think the answer to this one is simple. When you were casting your votes, the changes take place in real-time on your PC because you are the one making the changes. The other member would actually have to refresh his screen to see the changes being made.

If he was hitting refresh, then Paul will find out tomorrow if there is a lag.

2] I see 8838 as your total at the moment. But get this...I click 1 star and you are 8412...2 stars, you are 8518, 3 stars 8628, 4 stars still 8628...and NOW your 5 stars is only worth 8735.

I'm going to answer this in 2 parts:

a) Why The Big Movement When Voting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5?

One very important thing you have to remember is the fact that - at this early stage - your average rating will be more volatile. Why? If you only have 10 votes cast so far, the 11th vote can substantially affect your average rating because it represents almost 10% of your score.

For example, if you have 10 votes from other members at an average of 4.0 and an 11th vote is cast as a 1, your average vote comes down to 3.7.

That .3 reduction multiplied over 2000 activity points that many of you have equates to a reduction of 600 total points. As such, what appears to be an attack is actually volatility because one person didn't think highly of you.

On the other hand, if you have 100 votes from other members, vote #101 will have next to no affect on your score.

As more and more votes are cast, the volatility will flatten out. Thus, don't worry about it in the early stages...but have fun watching the swings.

b) When Crow changed his vote back to 5, his total points didn't go back to 8838. Rather, they were now 8735.

Without a doubt, while Crow and the member were going through this exercise, somebody else cast a vote for the member that reduced his rating to a slightly lower number, resulting in a slightly lower total points.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
George