Facebook is finally going to unveil the bigger and better new version of their social commenting plugin. The new now old version was updated in October and gave us the ability to vote up or down a comment. The new version of the social commenting plugin is its own entire commenting system like a Disqus or Comment Luv. A new comment system? Do we need one? Well Facebook thinks so and according to according to CNET,
"Facebook will be able to power the entire commenting system-handling the log-in and publishing, cross-promoting comments on individuals' Facebook walls, and possibly even promoting them as well on media outlets' own "fan" pages. Undoubtedly, the Facebook "like" button will be deeply integrated as well."
Facebook's new Credibility Score - A Popularity Contest?
Facebook's new and improved comment system is incorporating a credibility score. Yes. Another number to measure us. The credibility score is a percentage of how credible you are in your comments. Ok. How does it measure this? According to Josh Constine on Inside Facebook, the score is calculated:
"...using the formula (total Likes - total instances marked as unhelpful or spam) / total Likes. For instance, a commenter who has had their comments Liked seven times and been marked as unhelpful once would have the equation (7 - 1) /7, which equates to 85%. Scores are rounded down and are higher than the equation specifies when there are less than five Likes."
The score is found when you mouse over the user in the commenting system. So if you are commenting a lot and people like you and the comment, your credibility is deemed higher. If you are not well liked, then you may want to avoid commenting on the blogs that use this system as your credibility will be low. Does this number matter? To some, very much. If you are given a lower credibility percentage then the users and admins will consider you not credible or reputable. You can be marked as unhelpful and even spam. This matters as if you are a spammer you are running the risk of being banned from Facebook.
Facebook Commenting System - Weeding out the spammers?
We know that on the current commenting systems that despite how hard we try, the spammers come in. It happens. Will it happen as much with Facebook's commenting system? Of course it will but is the risk being a spammer and banned from Facebook a deterrent to spammers? Users have to use their real account to log in. We know that this is not fool proof as there will be fake accounts created and those will be banned. If they are linked to a real account, that user will be banned as well. It is not fool proof however, it is harder to have a fake account.
Now, there are some that could care less if they are banned from Facebook but for others who are active users and also if this commenting system does perform well, banned Facebook users will be unable to comment on blogs that have integrated this system. If a blog has integrated the Facebook commenting system will we see where people will comment more or less on the blog? We will see both I am sure. If people get a high credibility score, we know that they will continue to comment so they can grow their score. This is not necessarily bad as comments on blog create some sensational discussions, as we have seen.
I see the problem with the credibility score being where people like a comment so theirs will be liked back. Credibility and influence are not a mathematics game. It is something that we build and earn not from people trying to game the system. I guess no score is ever perfect and this may or may not have any impact upon us but that is yet to be seen.
What do you think? Is it a popularity contest or is the credibility score valid?