There has been a recent complaint about how the ratings system currently works. It was suggested to make the rating vote anonymous. What do you think?

personally I think if the voting, if it is anonymous ,the comments should not be, we wouldnt' want anonimity to be an excuse for comments that are unconstructive. --criticom--

I started the thread in the complaints forum about the rating system (because I'm a newbie and hadn't noticed this forum yet, heh). My impression so far is that there are a LOT of images here that have dozens of perfect 10 scores, and I don't think they really deserve that. (This includes my OWN artwork, by the way.) Sure, there's the little note that says "If you give everything a 10, the ratings become useless", but OBVIOUSLY that hasn't worked. When I see an image that I think is worth a 5, and it has a bunch of perfect 10 scores, I hardly want to identify myself as the "streak wrecker" by giving an honest rating. Instead of rating that piece, I'm just going to cruise on to the next image, and when I finally find one that I DO think is worth a 10, sure, I'll vote on that one. But there's no reason whatsoever that I'd cast a rating for something I think is worth a 5. Identifying the rater does NOT encourage honest ratings -- it encourages HIGH ratings. If we want the rating system to have any meaning whatsoever, this must be changed. Rating votes must be blind. I feel certain that this would not only encourage more honest ratings, it would encourage more ratings, period. I agree, however, that the comments should not be changed. If someone wants to leave some "helpful advice", that should to be tagged with the commenter's name. If I was running the site, I'd wipe the ratings off every single piece here and start fresh. Dan

I understand what you are saying drsiemens. But I feel that if it were to become anonymous... some people would start giving out bad ratings (1-2) to people who they don't agree with on a forum or whatever. The fact that the rating is Identified sorta puts a damper on someone giving out "hateful" ratings. I Agree that alot of images are totally over rated...but one of the problems is that you shouldn't feel affraid to post your 5 rating even if the image is at 10 or high 9.x. I myself probably give out more high ratings than I should...but I usually look up that persons "portfolio" of images...and judge from there. I might give out a high rating to a "average" image if that person is new to poser or if its more of less there first try. Maybe I am wrong in doing so...but I rather pat someone on the back and encourage them...then give a low rating...cause quite frankly...some people take it harder than others. So my basic opinion is that I rather have everything Identified...the rating and the comments.

What about if the anonymous rating system were used, with the top and bottom XX number of scores thrown out? That might help tone down the "spiteful" votes. And of course, a user would only be able to vote once.

that sounds like a good idea rcook,again provided the commentor is reconized , I say implement it and see how it works out. --criticom--

If someone wants to give my image a 1 or 2 -- whether it's because they just don't like the image, or they don't like something I said in a forum, or maybe they just have an irrational hatred of people named Dan -- heck, that's FINE, that's their prerogative. I mean, that's life. The fact is that the current system does NOT encourage a full spectrum of honest ratings. At it's worst, it encourages shameless brown-nosing. At best, it encourages people to only post a rating on those images they truly feel are exceptional, meaning that most people will simply not bother to rate an image they find merely "average". This is such a basic concept, it's amazing to me that the present system was implemented in the first place. Again, I'll use myself as an example. I'm new here, and only have a few images posted so far. Yet I've got ALL 9s and 10s on my images. I myself would only give most of these an average score. Now, I can accept that there are a few people out there who truly believe my work is the most fantastic thing, that it really deserves a 10. But there have GOT to be tons of other sensible people out there who agree that my work (and MOST of the work posted here) is really only average. However, these people WILL NOT post such a rating given the current system. When ratings of 9 and 10 are the mean and the mode, something is seriously wrong with the rating system. Bottom line -- if you want brown-nosing and falsely inflated ratings on all your images, keep things the way they are. If you want ratings to provide a better, more accurate and well-rounded sense of your image, stop tagging names on ratings. Dan

Ohh...one thing I thought of...(a bit off the subject) it would be cool to have the size of the image (in pixels) under the thumbnails. for example I love images that are 1024x768 and larger. Having the size of the image next to the thumbnail would be a great way of zero'ing in on those images. (probably more complicated than it seems to implement though) As for the Rating system...I'll fold...let's go anonymous :) Its true that the ratings being anonymous would produce more ratings. But I never really gave much importance to the ratings in the first place. Because alot of the people here, like myself, are fairly new to the whole "3D image" world. So alot of the votes in the first place are going to be off track of what the image really deserves simply because we (including myself) don't have the experience to judge the image for what its worth from a "3D Art" point of view. Personally...I think the best thing would be to only have comments anyways. Without the number rating in the first place. But perhaps instead having a counter under the thumbnail to show how many comments the pic has received. Cause personally, I love to just browse through the pics sometimes just to see peoples comments on different styles of images. Anyways... yes ok...if we keep the number ratings...let try them anonymouly. Solo22 solo22@citenet.net

wow...lot of typos in my last post....please no one RATE my post....hehehehehehehe :) :) :)

Well, you guys asked for it. Now the ratings system is anonymous. Let me know how this works for everyone.

hummm... just realized something... The number rating is now anonymous...but we are still stuck to leave our name behind because most people have both the rating and the comments activated. So if a person has lets say...2 comments and a rating of 10...and I had my rating of 7 for example...its still pretty easy to pin-point who dropped the average rating. (I know its sounds paranoid...but I'm sure some people would do an all out search to find out who dropped the rating..hehe)

One suggestion was to allow ratings without a comment, and comments without a rating. I'm looking into that one right now.

WHOAHH!!! you added the Image size in Pixels...:) :) :) THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is great!!! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! Solo22

Yep, that's the latest. Enjoy! :)

Rcook, I think it's an excellent idea to allow ratings and comments to be submitted independently. And yes, as Solo22 pointed out, it may still be possible for people who keep up to the minute track of the ratings/comments on their images to discern who gave a lower rating. But so what? It's still a substantially better system (more anonymous) than what was in place before. Thanks for listening to my suggestion, and for the responses from the rest of you. I think this will be a good change for the whole community. Dan

Heya... I've always been a big fan of the additional check box to disable a rating on your comments when you leave them. I second who ever suggested that up there. But, before we try anymore changes, I'm interested in seeing how the current system works out. Thanks and best of luck with this... I'm basically one those who enjoys the ratings, but doesn't really care one way or the other... It's the comments I find valuable. I even appreciate the lower rates on mine when their applied with a valuable comment or critique... gives me something concrete to work on.

One of the next features I'm going to work on is allowing either a rating or a comment or both.

I had a post of some I wanted to submit, but the forum bot ate it... as Kate would say: Dagnabbit! I'll think it through after catching some zzzz's and try to repost later. 'Sides, I know everyone is fried and busy... no need for me to add to the workload, on a Monday fer gods sake. Rcook, everyone... later and have a great day. G'night.

By all means, Ironbear, lay em on me. Might move them to a new thread tho. :) Russell

When I first noticed the problems with "over-positive" ratings, I figured it was probably because people wanted to comment on images, but not take the time to bother with an honest rating. Therefore, they just give a 10 and then do what they really want: just leave a comment. I think that may be the biggest help to good ratings.

You can now rate an image or leave a comment or both. Russell

Thanks, the changes so far are huge improvements, I think. But I noticed that when you just want to rate something, and not leave a comment, it STILL tags the rater's name in the comments area. Even though the exact score isn't sitting there right beside the rater's name, it's still not "anonymous", especially not on new images, where a single vote really stands out. I think people need to be able to rate images completely anonymously. Record the total number of ratings given and the average rating, that's it. Dan