Again...

I mean almost all the latest wallpapers.

Some strange people here the last few weeks...
(Goes voting high to to do at least some justice.)

Maybe the rating 'level' should be raised to Journeyman only? ... that would sort most of these problems out.

Maybe it should be limited to those who make submissions, that infers some kind of knowledge of skinning at least. If people are going to abuse the system then the whole exercise becomes pointless.

It has always been the case that the child-like minority try to spoil things for everyone else. > They seek to destroy what they cannot comprehend.

Perhaps these newcomers have an axe to grind of some kind? There has been one or two 'odd' incidents recently. Some investigation is required methinks.

Insanity = the same behavior over and over again with the expectation of different results.

excerpt from 28 Days

It looks like they hit the newest additions. At least on the walls and windows.

yes!! it's true > i'm not a professional wallpaper designer, but the past sunday i uploaded 3 wallpapers. Two of thesse wallpapers was rated very lowly 5 minutes after the upload.
I don't like this, as one of the wallpapers are well designed (in my opion).

But this is not a recent fact!!! > > > > > > > The past year was happenned the same!!!! it's a disjustice wen you spend lots of hours in a desktopx skin and are inmediatelly poorly rated.

I respect the opinion of all the people, but not some immature actions.

Adni, it seems I have been hit also on my newest additions. I agree that there needs to be a checkpoint on the ratings. This amounts to nothing more than vandilism or equates to graffiti on walls. It is obvious that this was done intentionally and not with a pure recognition of skins. At least there should be a tell tale sign of the person that rates so identity is known, otherwise you have a system ruled by one. Makes you wonder if it is the same person as in the past or a new person at the pulpit.

Everyone is paranoid and think that everyone is out to get them. When in reality it appears to be a bug in the system.

It appears there is a bug when the submission is moderated that sometimes the admin rating is placed in the rating table and sometimes its not. If it failed to get put into the rating table and someone comes along and rates it a 1 or a 3 then the submission takes on that rating because there are no other ratings to average it in. I will try and get that fixed as soon as possible.

So everyone please chill. Contrary to what you may believe people are not out to get you! Quit being so damned paranoid and accusatory!

A bug with a spanner in the works opened up a can of worms and a whole lot of mixed metaphores got out....but will be nipped in the bud, the tide will be stemmed and.......[I better stop]....

*whistle*

Well thank heavens that's what it was. Thanks for the quick response.

I am wondering how you call those people, who are rating 1 or 3, to other authors works, works which have been modareted by excellent artist as the admins and they have rated at least with 5 and that's why those works are here in WC.
The healthy people never vote what they don't like, because they know, that a bad vote is hurting the non profit authors!
I guess that the word paranoid goes perfect with those people and not for the rest of us, hard working authors.

isn't paranoie where some happens. If there's a bug in the web dinamics pages, i don't konw; if there's a bad rating system, i don't konw (in a wallpaper i received 2 rates, initialyy is always 6, after the 1st the rate is 8, and after the 2nd the rate is "4" 4?????).
Sincerelly i only vote when i like the skins. If i don't like, i don't rate. If it is some people that rates very lowly, it's a disjustice the descendancy by "8" to "4" in only one rate. IF there's a bug....
Another observation: i tink that the people that makes the rates are all skinners, the people that only download any enjoy the works surelly don't rate

Showing concern over abberrant voting is not being paranoid. Who has the right to put down someone else's work because of personal opinion? I wouldn't presume to give any work a rating of 1, no matter how much I disliked it. I prefer not to vote. That is my choice. If I find a piece of work I consider excellent, I am not afraid to give a high mark. But to give a low mark to someone who has put in a lot of work, well, my conscience would not allow that to happen.

Perhaps the sentiments expressed here should not be merely dismissed as paranoia, but seen as valid arguments.

Ratings are highly overrated. It wouldn't bother me one iota if they weren't even a part of the site.

Listen to Dangeruss!!!

one loses the desire hours and hours used... no rate.. no ... nothing ... bad times to use skinning as a escape valve...

First of all, thank you Pat (T-Man) for identifying the bug and taking measures to fix it. You have got an awful lot on your plate these days and I feel bad that I interrupted you. Thanks again for your help.

When this issue was brought up earlier today and in the past, I think that we all assumed that it was a malicious act rather than the bug that it turned out to be, because WinCustomize is by and large glitch-free. (Jafo, should that be glitch-less?)

Ratings are important to the end-user part of our community. Many people use them. I think experienced users and certainly artists know what they like and the ratings are trivial. But newbies are influenced by ratings.

I have noticed that, over time, the ratings tend to become a fairly accurate gauge of the quality of a skin, wall or whatever. It takes a while, but we get it right more often than not. IMO, of course.

Fuzzy Logic: "Who has the right to put down someone else's work because of personal opinion?"
I'm sorry to burst your bubble but isn't that what ratings are all about? Everybody rates according to their personal tastes, because there are no rating guidelines.

"If I find a piece of work I consider excellent, I am not afraid to give a high mark. But to give a low mark to someone who has put in a lot of work, well, my conscience would not allow that to happen."
What kind of ratings do we have if people only give positive ratings? If everybody that rated only gave 8's and 10's, then every skin would have basically the same rating in the end.

Mind you, I'm not totally disagreeing with you. I agree that low ratings can be very disheartening. It is no surprise to anybody that I think that I agree with Dangeruss: this site could do without ratings.
The download count is already there as an indicator to popular skins.

anyone can rate with their conscience, i never vote negative, others always ratting negative. I aprecciate if a skin or wallpaper is poor, this is the way of personal knowledge of skinning. But, the disjustice is the preference of negative rattings, including if a wallpaper or a skin is good.
But it's true, i like very much some skins that are poor rated, and i don't undersand some "10" rattings

The download count says a lot, but of popularity rather than skill or artistry. Not quite the same thing. How many skillful but unknown artists fail in their aspirations due to the 'opinions' of a small minority? Is a famous artists work of greater quality simply because it hangs on more walls? Perhaps the rating system is misunderstood.

each to their own...

i need to install again Babylon Translator on my computer, but with your explanations i learn english very fast!
Obiously my first impression over my skins are the usability that i find and the graphic impression; after, if it is useful and grateful for other users, for this reason i upload skins

"The download count is already there as an indicator to popular skins. "

Download counts are not accurate either. To first determine if a skin is decent you may need to download it. (Screenshot alone does not tell all). So you could take Adni or Treetog, they could make a horrible skin yet it would most like get thousands upon thousands of downloads. Does that make it a good skin. No. Ratings are another way to measure a skin based on the opinions of other people who have used the skin.

I don't know why I'm responding to this because its just beating a dead horse. We have improved the system. There are a few bugs that need to be tweaked. We are not going to get rid of the system and we are not going to implement every idea that is brought forth. This is our rating system. It is here to stay.

Ratings, however can be a certain critic that lets you look at your work in an objective manner. However, I agree that if someone rates someone's work, I would like to see why, in order to get better (if ratings go low) or get a boost (if ratings are good). In fact many people see rating as a competition element, which actually is not the goal for submissions I hope. And that's where I agree with Carlitus: "But it's true, i like very much some skins that are poor rated, and i don't understand some "10" rattings".