Ratings Abuse

Monday, December 8, 2003 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News

Skins, Themes, Icons, Wallpapers: All of these things have ratings associated with it. Ratings are designed to allow users to better find things that are of higher quality while helping new skin authors improve on their skill set.

Unfortunately, the ratings system is imperfect. Only those with Apprentice access or higher OR have WinCustomize subscriptions can rate skins. But some people abuse their ratings priviledges. Some people will give a 1 to a nice skin and many people will give 10's to terrible skins.

There is even what appears to be the occasional use of rating trading. Where authors will agree to vote on each others skins in exchange for high ratings for their own.

Let me be clear: We can see the ratings. That is, we know who rates what. And they are cross referenced. The Admins actually get a visual cross reference of what a user rates things. So if User A is giving all of User B's skins 10s (or 1s) and vice versa, it's pretty apparent what's going on.

Here is the standard of which rating should be done:

It's a 1 through 10 setup. 5 means average. A 10 means you think it's one of the best skins of all time. A 9 would be one of the best skins of the year.  Most skins should get between a 4 and 6.

We have begun prooning ratings to try to make them somewhat more representative.  Giving your friend a 10 on a bad skin is not helping them. It is definitely not helping other users who simply conclude that the users here must just have terrible taste. We don't want to have to threaten removing ratings priviledges from users so please, just try to be fair and honest in your ratings.

Thanks!

34 Reply 2 Referrals
First Previous Page 2 of 2 Next Last
docx
Reply #21 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 11:51 AM
You should do rates like winamp.com does. it has user favs and staff favs. I think a rateing should do itself. What I mean by this is the more down loads it gets the higher the rateing. That would be a more honest way of rateing it I think. If the skin gets 20 d loads a day compaired to one that gets 100 the rateing sys would work as people actually thought it was better and wanted it on there computer.

Judge
Reply #22 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 12:31 PM
Personally I prefer the favorite system used by deviantart. The 'rating' then is the number of fav's a work has. This also gets around the problem of the initial rating awarded to a submission - everything starts out with no favs.

Tombalaci
Reply #23 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 2:27 PM
@docx: That's just impossible to make work. The downloads of a skin usually depends a lot on what the skinner wrote in the description. We are not rating the writing abilities of skinners. I usually download anything that looks of interest to me, especially if they are cursors. I would rather rate something AFTER I downloaded it and tried it. Screenshots can be deceiving, but once you have it and you have tried it, there is no deception.

I think every skin should be rated by staff, or "higher" level users. Then every lower level users' ratings that are outside the range of the "elite" ratings should be ignored. That would solve the problem of dingbats rating a 10 to their "friends" and rating 1 when they are pissed off...


wulfn1
Reply #24 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 2:32 PM
Odd Tombalaci, that you use the word "dingbats" when referring to those with the ability to rate skins, especially as the only ones who have that ability right now are the elite few in ranking positions.They're also the ones "abusing" the ratings.
I'm sure you're one of those who feel we cits should not be able to post comments either. *Shrug* Bummer huh?

Tombalaci
Reply #25 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 2:57 PM
Actually, anyone that buys subscriptions can rate. It's not what you are that makes you able to rate, it's that you have paid. So if the rating range was restricted to actually heavily contributing skinners (hence elites), than we wouldn't have this problem. I think that they would be much less likely to "cheat".

I don't know if you paid attention to what I am, but I am at citizen level, also. I just don't like that appearing next to my name. And some of us know how much I like to comment on stuff.

karma tba
Reply #26 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 3:06 PM
I can relate to the problems ANY rating system can cause.I am not a graphic artist but I create and post music on AcidPlanet.com.That site suffers from the same type of rating abuse!Thankfully for WinCustomize contributors their work can be SEEN and the user can judge for themselves.Unfortunately with music the user see's the rating and reviews BEFORE hearing the music and if it is unfairly judged they don't bother to listen.I feel due the visual nature of this site "the cream will always rise to the top" regardless of ratings.By the way I personally ignore the ratings....I just download what I like!

wulfn1
Reply #27 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 3:20 PM
While I'd love to debate this further, we're wasting valuable space here. Suffice to say I disagree with your view of the ratings. I think I pay plenty. I think the subscription to this website should be integrated with the rest of the stardock OD and subscription prices adjusted accordingly. I think any kind of rating system that can be utilized by only SOME of the people who use the actual skins is a biased rating and won't ever be a true representation of the skinner's skills and artistic talent. I was not the one who intimated that those without WC Rank were possibly dingbats and incompetent to rate skins. I did not suggest that the general public(someone surfing in off the web with no vested interest in the stuff) should be able to come in , view the site and rate sites.
While you consider yourself a "regular cit," you are a skinner, and therefore able to recieve apprentice level at some point. I am not. I utilize what is available to me to beautify my surroundings. I pay for that privelege with my OD subscription every January.
I accuse you of nothing. I point out only that you made a derogatory comment that refers directly back to the elite group you are promoting.
I still say it's not strange that the few make the decisions for the many, it's bureaucratic perogative.


MarkSnyder61
Reply #28 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 6:33 PM
Yeah I agree that there are favoritism going on...I couldn't count the number of bad ones that got high ratings.

karma tba
Reply #29 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 8:23 PM
Everything posted here is for public consumption...let the skins speak for themselves....in others words...a skin's rating should be based on the number and frequency of it's downloads.

Rocky Nimda
Reply #30 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 8:34 PM
"It's a 1 through 10 setup. 5 means average. A 10 means you think it's one of the best skins of all time. A 9 would be one of the best skins of the year. Most skins should get between a 4 and 6."

If 1 is the lowest score someone can get and 10 is the highest, how does one get a score of "0" (ZERO)? I have seen lots of zero scores lately, what does this mean?




[brazen weep]
Reply #31 Tuesday, December 9, 2003 9:21 PM
Thanks, Ess Sorry if I jumbled your words. It's true, an animated gif converted to a DX object most likely would just be for entertainment, and I would only post those "simple" ones just for the sake of sharing. But for someone to come along and vote a "1" on it is purely because someone considers it "unoriginal". Unoriginal, perhaps, but I didn't see anyone else take the time to convert it to a DX object before, so why WOULDN'T I post it? But a "1"?!

I recommend a simple system like:
"Click here to recommend this object to other users."

And a tally of recommendations for each object:
"This object is recommended by 2 Admins, 11 Apprentices, and 21 Citizens"

Then, you could more accurately judge for yourself what the interest is in a particular object.

moshi
Reply #32 Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:26 AM
[brazen weep]: may i quote the WC Mission Statement from here: https://www.wincustomize.com/index.asp?Cmd=about

Ownership: You own the materials you upload. This cuts both ways, we assume you made what you uploaded and we will not sell your property without your permission. You must not only own what you submit but the subcomponents of it unless you have permission from the owners of the property you are submitting.


what you did was taking an animated graphic made by somebody else without giving credit to the creator and without including the permission of the creator (if you ever asked for it, what i doubt). that´s what is called ripping in the skinning community. hence the low rating.

[brazen weep]
Reply #33 Thursday, December 11, 2003 4:39 PM
Hey moshi, credit would be given if I could find the original author of some of these animated gifs. But guess what? They're not copyrighted ones, they are ones freely available from almost any online GIF archive. If I had any way of contacting the author of these, I would. But from what I can tell, the only ones I convert are freeware GIFs that appear on MULTIPLE websites with NO author credits. Hence, you should do a little research yourself before passing judgement. Or next time, don't vote. You're not making ME feel bad, because like I say in EVERY object these graphics are simply "converted from graphics available elsewhere on the web". Your low rating does NOTHING but hide the object from users who normally would be interested in the object. Stop trying to play God. I don't see you contributing anything to the site except a single screenshot. Spend your time doing good and sharing with other users instead of playing the part of a bad Detective.

glowdarkly
Reply #34 Friday, December 12, 2003 9:19 PM
Here's my 2 cents worth on the "ratings" debacle. I think the true "artists" in the game (Mormegil, Adni, etc) do it for the enjoyment it gives them, not the ego boost that so many apparently are seeking. I have done ONE skin, just to see if i could even do it, and they are a lot of work, even in a simplistic form. The true artists know if they are doing good work, and I really dont think its for admiration, but love of the work.

Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

  • Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
  • Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
  • Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
  • It's simple, and FREE!
Login
First Previous Page 2 of 2 Next Last

Home | About | Privacy | Upload Guidelines | Terms of Service | Help
Copyright © Stardock Corporation. All Rights Reserved.


web-wc01