The Linden Need for Ratings

Personally, I'd like to see LL do these things:

1. Wipe all ratings completely.
2. Raise the cost to something quite high, to minimize mining and alt griefing.
3. Add a rate category for Design to accommodate clothing and textures
4. Add a rate category for Scripting
5. Rates can only be applied to the appropriate object, i.e.
To rate someone's building skill, I must rate them through their building
To rate someone's Design skill, I must rate one of their textures or outfits
To rate someone's Scripting skills, I must rate one of their scripted objects
To rate Behavior and Appearance, I must rate their avatar.

To my mind, this allows me to rate someone for a great scripted object, for example, via a friend who might have one. The rating would go to the creator, not the owner. Thus, you can start building a good reputation through what you make, as well as through how you are as a person. The fact that you must rate the appropriate object eliminates a great deal of the rate mining through large groups, i.e. clubs.

I believe this also addresses the 2 main categories of players - those who socialize primarily and those who create content but rarely go out. Both groups now have an opportunity to earn ratings based on their method of gameplay. Players who belong to both groups have an even better chance, and I believe this encourages players to get involved more completely.

Just my 2 cents...

I am casting my vote for WIPING RATINGS COMPLETELY. I agree that LL has it backwards: the older ratings were the ones earned! The only people that benefit from keeping the last 6 month ratings are the rate whores that migrated from other games and most of them have been here for less than 6 months!

hmmmm......how's about turning the whole thing around so that ratings don't show up for 6 months? that way only the old "meaningful" ones will be on your profile and all the hoes drop to 0.

I think you have a good start to a possibly sucessful system there... It puts the bennefit on the side of those that do good things for the community, which I believe is where it should be.

Just a side note....

Who else remembers when ratings were free???? LOL

Wait a time did exist when they were free right?

I think it did... *ponders*

Hey, the one I gave you was a pre $25 one. Does that invalidate that I thought you deserved it? Do you think I'd really pay $75 to rate you AGAIN?!?!?!

kathy, your first statement answers everything. "some people have other things to do with that money." it is a matter of choice. playing the ratings game is as much a choice as going to clubs, making a house, making content, organizing events, becoming a land trader, playing UL or DL. SL provides endless of options of how to play.

if someone chooses to rate rather than buy hoochie hair, that is a choice. if someone decides to buy L$ on GOM to do both, that is a choice. for a long time i chose not to put a lot of RL money into SL and i was a wandering nomad. then when i realized how much i played SL, i cut my cable tv and took on a tier in SL.

it is so silly to fight for the (OH! SO) poor basic account holders who want to have a 1000 L$/wk ratings enhanced income for their one time 9.95 account and their right to mastu-rate each other for free.

Bah! yes you heard me! BAH!!!!

everyone knows very well i didn't deserve it then and i still don't!

i wish they would add the cybersex category already!!!

i think all 1 L$ ratings are a misfit with post 1.2 SL. they were given out quite often as candy and a handshake. giving them did not cost anything (RL$) and the return on them was not anyhting real (RL$). so we have three ratings - pre 1.2 ratings 1L$, post 1.2 1L$ rating, and the beautiful 25 L$ ratings. only the last category should remain.

I suppose I'll have to start being a decent person, won't I? I don't think I've yet gotten a single 25 L$ rating.

Agreed, either eliminate the system or make a real correction. The 6 month solution diminishes ratings to a superficial gesture so why have them. This new system says, if you create a build worthy of rating then the value lasts for 6 months only. A great avatar? 6 months. A kind act? 6 months. Griefing an event? 6 months.

There is merit in allowing a fresh start by wiping a neg rating after a time, but the positive ones are differently deserved and intended. Anyone can mess up and end up with a neg, but the positive ratings are for many older members merited.

Is the SL world so superficial and shallow that our good opinions of one another last only 6 months? Linden folks seem to think so.

I think the sole reason Linden clings to maintaining a rating system, no matter how flawed, is because of a misguided belief that neg ratings help curb bad behavior. If they have a crowd control issue then hire more liasons. Don't expect the citizenry to police one another.

The current rating system had become a "job" folks worked it to make money. Have ratings o n appearance and behavior but unlink it it to any bonuses. But as Cutter has indicated ...have ratings on objects or scripts..textures clothes ........yes .....rate content. and give bonuses for this. ---Gee .....paying money for content ...now theres one way to get this world moving faster ......Content ...content content ..rewards rewards rewards. If I was the developer ..this is what I would be paying folks for ..........

> What are the possible reasons why the folks at LL can't abandon the concept of rating?

It's a fun game for people to play; it stimulates the club economy; and it gets people in the world, meeting people.

If you take it away (and 25l$ a vote is effectively taking it away), you could be putting a spoke into a major part of the SecondLife economy.

Not definitely, not certainly, put possibly.

Azelda

Just completely re-do the idea. Make more ratings, of a more broad scope. The three ratings really have little practical use when evaluating someone. Make them more skill based. Instread of just building, devide it up to Buidling, texturing, clothing, scripting, etc.. And what the heck is up with "apperance". What does that have to do with anything? I don't really care what 100's of others thing of someone's appearence. I have eyes. And if you are going to wipe, wipe it all or none at all.

Could not agree more.

We must move toward a free market.

Welfare cannot be allowed to exist. The free market must be preserved at any cost.

Sigh...

SKIPPY LIVES!!!!!!

Rating, like Dwell, has always been a terrible and highly exploitable, bit of nonsense. But arbitrarily changing the rules in the middle of the game is far worse.

Ratings Decay is nothing less than an abomination. The message it sends, loud and clear, is that the incredible contributions of time and talent by the oldest members (who literally created this amazing and engaging world out of nothing) are now relegated to the dustbin of history.

Why stop here? We may as well dismantle the Beta Tester monument and replace it with a Ratings Disco.

Anything done more than six months ago has no lasting value? In this day and age, six months seems way too long a time period. I'd like to suggest that the Decay timer should kick in after six minutes.

Better still...let's dump Rating and Dwell and Stipends and Bonuses, AND wipe the servers! I'm quite serious. Delete everything, including Inventories. Then we'll see where the true creativity lies. Let's turn SL from a business back into the virtual world it was intended to be.

I can see it now. Everyone come to our club and bring the beautiful wood cube you made. We'll line em up and we'll rate each others' cubes.

Naw, just get rid of ratings altogether.