What if the numerical rating was defined as follows: 5 - Image is perfect, suitable for framing. 4 - Image has minor flaws or issues. Reviewer should point them out in their comment. 3 - Average piece, Neutral, No Comment. Image won't be ranked higher or lower based on this. 2 - Image has some problems, but they could potentially be fixed 1 - Image has major flaws, little or no artistic value Now I realise this will lower the 'normal' ratings given to items in the gallery, but has the potential to give people more feedback.. Comments?

Sounds good to me :)

Sounds good to me too... But the question is how many people will start changing the ratings? Another thing is I think alot of people just give a comment without realizing that they didn't choose a rating, I know its happened to me, so there are a couple of images I probably meant to give say a 4 instead of a 5. So maybe to fix that, the rating is set blank and to submit your rating/comment you have to pick it other wise there will be a popup telling what you forgot to enter.... I hope everyone can understand what I mean :) AofD

you can currently go back and rerate/recomment any piece at any time, and your new submission will just replace the old one

Great idea Roy! -Trav

Uh, Roy? You do realize there's a problem over at the sister site, don't you?

sounds good to me S

awhile back this thread came up in the complaint section and a small group of us agreed to save 5 ratings for the truly incredible images. i've brought up the "blank" option so that, if someone wishes, they don't have to place a rating at all, like AofD remarked on. There is also the many who ignore the rating and regard the comments as the REAL critique, and again, those who could care less :) which is one of the things i love about this community. The diverseness of it. Making it a REAL community. very cool! ed

YOUR IDEA IS PERFECT...All art is rated that way in the world outside of these pages...The problem we have is the "evil" tempered comments that have nothing to do with the art work...I've seen too many good postings with a 1 for subject matter or "political incorrectness"...It's a pity but too many good artists will not post because of the "rock throwers"...Everyone wants an honest statement about his/her work but no one wants slander.

I think the comments are far more important. Sometimes I'll give a high rating because the idea is great, even if there's some flaws in the picture. If a picture is done to death (fems in skimpy clothes) then I'm going to expect a lot more to give that high rating. I also look at the artist in question. If they are new, I'll post a higher rating as encouragement. As time progresses, I'll be more picky about the score I give that person. I'll still comment on what I see, regardless of the score I give. Even though this is an art forum, the message can be more important than the technical skill. Dilbert is hilarious and I rate it a 5 even though the art is poor. Mary Worth is superior in skill, but boooring, so I rate it a 3. Since we can get comments without a rating now, (thanks to Wonder Roy) I'm much more inclined to ask for just comments. Ratings are too subjective. (Besides, my ego couldn't handle the 2's that I'd get for my work.) Comments I can work with, literally. Comments help me improve, not number ratings.

I agree with Crescent. Any ratings system is fundamentally insulting. Quantifying one's work is useful for contests or sporting events, but not art. Even sports that have an artistic component, like figure skating, have a built in fail-safe for extreme "high-low" scores: either are automatically eliminated. It's true that members might rate according to personal political, religious or sexual tastes and ignore the artistic merit of a piece. They do it all the time. There's nothing more valuable to an artist who requests feedback that the good-old-fashioned written word.

I agree with Crescent and Mark. I don't like ratings at all. Maybe because at school (many years ago!) I got all the low ratings ... ;-)

i do disagree, because the system is optional to begin with. those people who don't want rankings and/or comments are free to disable them.

It's not optional if you'd like to post a helpful comment but not a rating if they have both enabled.

What's the point of a numeric rating system? What's the pay-off? What's the goal? Are people including these numbers in some resume? What is a "score" supposed to do for an artist? Get him into Poser college? One will choose to take a closer look at a thumbnail based on one's interest not some digital average. These numbers literally serve no purpose. And are way less useful than a worded critique.

when roy isn't OVERLY swamped, as usual, with is consisent magic, he may add an option to the viewer of an image to ONLY type a comment, or only a numerical rating.