Wikimedia Bugzilla is closed!

++ Article Ratings ++
I think all articles should have the ability to be rated, eg like videos on Youtube, and [http://www.google.com/help/knol_screenshot.html knols] on Google. The reasons for this are twofold:
1. It lowers the barrier to entry for feedback/editing of articles. Users who - for whatever reason - don't click the edit button, or don't contribute to talk page discussion, are much more likely to offer a rating of the article. This benefits editors of wikipedia because it allows us to gauge the opinion of the silent majority of Wikipedia readers. This in turn makes it easier for editors to quickly see which articles need improvement and which don't on a global basis.
2. It offers another method to judge possible quality of articles, and by its nature will be more widespread than the current ad hoc grading system. Ratings are not a replacement for this system, but rather act as a complement to it. While in the short run, high popularity (ie high rating) does not equal quality, in the long run great articles (in the eyes of say FA reviewers) will inevitably become highly rated.

The key drawback here is that a vote is only completely relevant for the version of the article it was actually intended for. Thus, votes would decay with subsequent edits, with votes from more recent versions of the article receiving a higher weighting. A possible idea is if the user clicks on 'Rating' they see a graph of the rating over time, reflecting the dynamic nature of the article. Furthermore, users should be restricted to one vote per edit, so as not to bias the rating. Abuse would be detected and not tolerated.