The Rating System

Yeah, you're all for the rating system so long as you can drunkenly find a "friend" to "pad" it up for you and then when you turncoat and act like a 49 year old 12 year old MF you complain.

Take it to the judge.

You sicken me

And my "prayers" were NEVER for you. ASS! >

I gave you a f-in "TEN" even after the crap you pulled and then you still dissed me...on the thread I told you to leave alone because you were being a jerk...

You started your crap by leaving an ugly remark on one of my wallpapers which you vehemently denied making because I had deleted it to save you the embarrassment but when I re-uploaded it your lame remark was there again and you had to save face and I tried to be nice...geez.

Pick a fight with me...go ahead...I'm too tired. I have the flu and I don't need your crap.

Bye and good riddance to the "phony" friend you never were.
>

I think you two need to calm down now before this conversation degenerates. If you want to fall out with each other please do it somewhere other than the message board.

Thanks.

I think my point has been adequately made.

Mine as well...

too cute

I think the rating system should be done away with.

A gold star for you today Johnny!

I have been guilty of rating a skin more than once, only because I forgot I rated it before. And I only rate a skin if Wincustomize rates it low because the author is not in the favorite list; other besides that I leave the ratings alone.

My 2 cents worth.

Well....I have tried to be more subtle in a previous thread. I have given some options for a change in the rating system, a loooooooooooooooong way back...That was wasted time...You have to put up with it. If a rating is more important than the pleasure of creating you create for the wrong reasons. However there are too many rated too high at first look, and too many rated too low. And, the average # of ratings is 2,5 per work...Conclusion: it doesn't say anything about your work, you are handed over to the caprice of the raters. Life is hard.

Anyone that does a Windowblinds theme knows it takes weeks to complete. Hours spent with the anticipation that the time spent will be appreciated.

However, it seems that the ratings have the effect of a moth being drawn to a light. Some authors get a high rating with not so good skins just because they have a name and everyone is drawn to those skins.

Honesty and fairness are essential and those qualities are fading away from the rating system.

I did find out that most skins are rated automatically but never did find out how the high rated skins are done. I am assuming the monitor looks at the jpg and then decides.

Delicious.....most ratings/comments are made without ever loading the skin. I started a thread about this at Skinbase, and learned, quite a few people comment/rate skins for apps they don't even use.
If you want fairness, and equality in all things, you'll need to migrate to another planet, I fear.

Randy...and many skins ARE loaded...I spend quite a bit of time doing that and removing them again [I don't need squillions].

As for rating skins for apps I dont use...I don't...and as you know, over the years I have skinned just about everything....[Haven't done WA3 yet]...but my list would stretch out a bit...with some names many might not have heard of.

Dashboard, DesktopX and Nextstart....That'd be 3 here I haven't...so I don't moderate them...apart from rips, etc, obviously...

Paul, I really wasn't talking about the admins /moderators here.............. just people in general.

Koasati: I for one refuse giving in to dishonesty. I will always defend fairness, objectivity and honest people. And I refuse to fly to Mars to start a fair base So probably sometimes I will post annoying threads here or comments. Or agree with Delicious for that matter.

Yes, indeed, Jafo. Koasati wasn't talking about you, nor about admins/moderators. I think that sadly he is right. A lot of people rate and comment based on the screenshots. I don't know if "most" do it, but I'd say a fair number do.

Delicious: some people have their work automatically submited and bypass moderation. They receive an automatic rating of 6 at first. But as soon as a human gives the skin a real rating, the initial 6 is removed and replaced by the new real rating.

General thouhg: sure, ratings are stupid. But that's a fact of life. Nothing to do about it. I have an icon that I uploaded in two different sections, and althouhg they are both exactly the same, one has a rating of 10 and the other has a rating of 7. Try to understand the logic there. But oh well, I am passed being annoyed by it. It just makes me laugh anymore.

Lecrayon.... I tend to agree also, I was just pointing out, it's a losing battle........... ratings will never seem fair to all. A 10 to you may be a 3 to me, and many rating are based on the screenshot, or as Delicious points out, who the author is.
I remember a comment on a skin simply raving about how much the commenter loved it, how truly wonderful it was.............. a few comments later the same person stated "the skin isn't working for me"

the question of "how high" to rate something is one i grapple with now and then.

i am not a skinner (maybe in the future ) so i rate as a user.

i down load very little these days, and tend to rate and comment even less.

the simple reason for this is that if i download it and conclude "it isn't to my taste", i don't rush off and comment or rate to this effect.

however, on the rare occasions something really moves me, i will and do rate and comment highly.

then i am not motivated by the technical quality of the work (not something i feel qualified to judge), but by the positive emotional impact it had on *me*.

and before someone asks why i download so little, very little really reaches out and grabs me

to me, this is the only honest way i can behave *shrug*

You are right Koasati. I think it is good every now and then to do some wake up calls though. A society or community that is built on "oh, it's there and we can't do anything about it so you have to endure" is like giving in. I think the rating system shouldn't be used to control bandwidth for a start. Right now the caprice of raters is thus influencing what visitors see. To me that's not fair. We all know that some low rated skins are very good to use too. Pity they aren't displayed to them. Now, if you disconnect rating-bandwidth I wouldn't be surprised ratings will be different.

The reason why we can't do anything about it is that we can't change human nature.
The ratings are necessary because we cannot base the quality of a skin based on downloads since you can download a skin and then not like it. But it would still be considered a download. For sure this system isn't perfect, because human judgement is required and we all know that this is a very unscientific thing.

True Paxx I think therefore the rating-bandwidth control argument is valid. Maybe you rating system on your site need to be promoted more!

I think download counts should be abolished. After all, its unfair that a skin gets to be in the top list of skins just because it received a high number of downloads. How is that fair. Just because it does get a high number of downloads does not mean its a good skin. I see many other skins that deserve to get into the top skin list but never do. After all, some people probably just have their friends download their skins just so they can get high numbers.
This is a worthless system and should be aboloshed immediately. Or because they have their name spot lighted in the top author lists makes them get immediate downloads whether their skin is good or not.

I cannot believe that this system of using download counts is still in place. Its a farce, its a joke, it should be removed!

Never go into discussion about stats with Americans....

But there is a certain similarity between downloads and rates. Why favour one and crush the other while actually the meaning is the same?

Are you being sarcastic, Pat?
I do believe the top download list and the top author list should be removed, but I think the download number should still be shown. It's nice to know how many time your stuff was downloaded, good or bad.

Well, I didn't mean to start a battle raging in here, I only want to point out how the abuse of the rating privilege can damage a person's work. If the general public sees that a skin has a low rating, would they not assume that there is something wrong with it and not DL it? As Lecrayon points out, most skins only have a couple or a small few of actual people rating it and the caprice of one person abusing that privilege can have a large impact on the rating of that skin.

there is a rumour that only members with a status of Apprentice or above can rate skins.

i believe level 4 users (have subscribed) can also rate.

the original logic to apprentice or above rating is that only those who have contributed in a positive way (so hopefully mature and sensible people) can rate.

of course, there is the risk my "facts" are out of date, or just wrong