"But it's true, i like very much some skins that are poor rated, and i don't understand some "10" rattings".

Thats because ratings are opinions. Not everyone will have the same opinion. Opinions of the people who use the skins.
Opinions of the people who use the site and skins. A general opinion. Not an exact science. Art is not a science. It is subjective. Ratings are just one way of gaging. Downloads are another. Comments are another. An artists name is another. A screenshot is another. The site that the skins are on is another. All these ways can be used to help you filter the skins to your taste and style. If one particular method does not fit your taste then use another or combination. Ratings work for me but may not for you. But then downloads may work for you but not for me.

Correct ratings do not tell you why I may or may not like your skin. That is not the purpose. Thats what comments are for. If I don't like your skin and don't download it then I am posting a vote for not liking a skin. If I like it, then I may download it and thus posting a vote for your skin. Should I be forced to comment whether I download it or not? NO. I have the same feelings for ratings.

Again. If you do not like the rating system, use one of the other systems.

Bug or no Bug I still think that if you rate then you must comment. It wouldn't take much to program that in . It wouldn't accept the rating if there wasn't a comment. Just my opinion.

That's a pity T-man if you rate and don't say why. At least if you give low rating, you could comment on why without bringing your personal taste forward. For instance, not functional here and there, or whatever you think can be subject to improvement. But then again we are not all teachers. To me all systems you mention are very subjective, downloads don't say something about quality, neither does a rating or subjective comments. Many of the great artists kept on taking lessons to keep themselves on their toes. In order to get better or don't fall back on routines. These systems you talk about won't do that. Once in a while some comments I got were helpful.

I'm amazed and proud of myself that I've been able to stay out of this thread so far....will continue to try to stay out of it. Carry on the fight adni & carlitus!

I can see this is one subject where 'opinions' are so divided a satisfactory conclusion is unlikely. Suffice to say I shall continue to rate skins in my own way. I will not rate any skin 1 - if I don't download a skin I don't rate it, and I don't download skins if I don't like the look of them, so the question is academic.

But it does make you wonder on what basis someone is rating skins so low; do they rate without downloading, or do they download all per se. Perhaps the people involved should question their intent? But as I said before, each to their own...

'each to HIS own'....[it's singular, that 'each']...

koop....'glitch-free' sounds good....

On the few occasions I rated something I always gave an explanation in the skin's/wall's message board.

Sometimes, I even received a nice email in return.

Manners are important, and almost always end with good results.

/me high-fives Davad70, ducks behind the bar, then reaches up for the bottle of JD.

Presently, the way the rankings work is each day, a query is run through the databases to find out what users' skins, themes, etc. have the most downloads per day. The final number is then divided by 10. This tends to favor newer skins over older ones since newer skins tend to have a higher download per day average. But ultimately it favors the active skin authors who are contributing a lot of skins to the community. Eventually, we will also have the top community skin authors which will be determined through Stardock's upcoming "Convergence" application that will allow users to automatically (and optionally) to send what skins and themes and icons they're using to a central database (user information is kept anonymously). The skins and themes in use will be made available to all skin sites. The more sites your skin and theme are on, the better your ranking will be.


is this not how it works?

Hey, T-Man, I'm not forcing your hand. I just express my opinion, I don't like ratings and I say it. I never will like ratings, a good rating is a dead rating... errr, well not quite, but anyway.
The main reason I don't like ratings is known, but let me repeat it: nobody rates according to the same criterias, therefore making ratings meaningless because noone knows what exactly is being rated.
Biff may think that skin X is buggy, so he gives it a 4.
Jeff may thing that skin X is ugly,so he gives it a 4.
But Jamie may think that skin X is lightning fast and give it an 8.

Biif and Jeff gives the skin the same rating, but for two different reasons, while Jamie thinks the skin is a good one for yet another reason. All 3 judged the skin, but all 3 used a different ground to judge it.
How would you have liked in school to have the teacher mark your paper by just looking at how your handwriting looked, or at what color ink you used? Your teachers gave you a mark based a specific criterias they were looking for.

Anyway, I am not arguing, I'm done doing that. I know it won't change. I'm just explaining my view.

Oh and

hey paxx...whats that icon??

please tell /me !

Jafo.. 'their' is more politically correct then 'his'. If you use 'his', then what about 'her'?

Ratings are over-rated inclusions of someones discontent. These maybe induced by emotions not covered by the usual emoticons available. Many WPs are the hard work of well intentioned but abysmal budding young artists. They do mean well however their talents lay else where. As for the direct ratings of said same WPs the system is caprisious at best and often biased by the selection committee. Listen To Dangeruss. Read his comment. Same opinion. Ah, me, what a day.

About the rating system we have many conversations before and the most of us we understand well that unfortunately “it is here to stay”.

I may have been misunderstood, because this thread wasn’t meant to be an argument about the rating system, but a conversation about the strange, at least, behavior of some people, who have the permission to vote.
In the other hand, I must make it clear, that I didn’t start this thread for personal reasons or to accuse anything related with the functionality of the site, but I start it, because I saw a wrongdoing against some authors.

The phenomenon still goes on today subdued and it is not a system bug, but if you think that it is, ok, let it be.

We are not living in a perfect word and I have never expect, that a thread like this one, could change the bad and unfair behavior of some people.

P.S. I am writing all this, because I care and love this site, call WinCustomize, if you don’t mind.

Paxx, I agree And Adni, patpat, friendly tap on your shoulder..Don't worry be happy

Fuzzy...if ya gotta be 'PC' then it's 'each to his/her own'....[beware the wrath of the spellchecker]....

But in actual fact, the 'his' is as embedded as 'mankind', etc., and it's actually beyond 'PC' to overdo the issue.....else the 'Wo-per-daughters' of the world would each spit her dummy....

In case I'm being too obtuse....'Wo-per-daughter' = 'Wo-person' = 'Woman'....

This is a real opinion https://www.wincustomize.com/window.asp?Cmd=COMMENTS&Lib=8&SkinID=3796
I prefer this comment. This persons is directly, but must be more specific (i think). Is best a negative comment not without comments

Glitch or no glitch, someone still had to rate everyone with a "1". So we still have a midnight rater.

It happens sometimes that we admins forget to rate a skin when we approve it. It then gets posted with a rating of 0. It happened to me a couple of times.

Carlitus....I'm not even sure whether that comment was supposed to be good or bad.....talk about 'obscure'.....

But if you ever find 'real' offense with a comment, it 'can' be deleted...

When it is autoloaded (non-moderated) you get a standard 6 with 0 on the rater. So when someone gives you a 1 you are are brought to a 1.

"The phenomenon still goes on today subdued and it is not a system bug, but if you think that it is, ok, let it be." - adni

Yes, it is a bug.

"Glitch or no glitch, someone still had to rate everyone with a "1". So we still have a midnight rater. " - WiseOldMan

Is it wrong to rate a 1 because its so low on the scale? Should we not be suspicious of everyone who rates a 10 then? And again. The problem that you saw was a bug in the system. But yes, occasionally someone does give a rating of a 1.

I am guilty of forgetting to rate a skin then uploading it. The "broken' system which Pat is working on, would allow you to moderate a skin without a rating. It would go up as a "0". If the next person gave it a "6" it would show the rating as a 3. To get it to a "5", the second person would have to give it a "10", which I have gone in and done once in awhile when I realized that I forgot to rate it. It is a system problem.

Of course, there is the possibility that somebody will go in and give a skin a low (or high) rating if they did/didn't like it. There is no "fair" way of doing ratings since they are all opinions.

A fairer way would be to exclude the top and bottom 20% of ratings. But would that be technically difficult to achieve? Wouldn't work with only a few ratings though.