Still think thumbs up system would be better. Simpler, cleaner, and 100 up votes tells you a lot more about the quality of a deal than a 5 star rating which might have 1 OP or noobie vote or 100 votes.
Not sure I want ratings on all topics either, just the deal threads.
+1
I'm not quite sure what the point of stars on non-deal threads are. This thread has three stars - what does that even mean? People only like half the suggestions? Half the people don't like any suggestions? Thread was defective, but replaced under warranty with minimal hassle?
I'm unsure about the utility even on deal threads. Look at the Shutterfly master thread for example - some deals posted there are good, some are duds. What does a full-thread rating accomplish?
And regardless of all this, I think the OP should not be able to rate their own thread, or three-quarters of threads will have a 5-star rating from an average of one vote.