A bit of a plea...

Likewise, chum. By the by, how IS the forum trolling business nowadays?

Right, so this is before my morning cereal, so I'll try to make this as coherent as possible.

It is a fact that, on paper, negative rates mean diddly squat. In the ratings system the Lidnens have devised (and stuck with despite many complaints), a negative rate is worth the exact same as a positive rate.

In practice, however, this is obviously not the case.

You don't get many forum posts detailing about who gave whom a triple positive rating, or whether or not so-and-so deserved such a thing, or if getting one and giving back 6 is apropos.

Negative rates, however, are another matter.

Negative rates are the social equivilent of an atomic bomb. They are permanent, given out with malice, and are impossible to remove.

And, like it or not, there are many many many MANY people in Second Life who simply "judge a book by its cover" by seeing your score of negative rates and deciding, right then and there, before you even open your mouth, whether or not to talk to you. This is especially true of newer players, who hear through the grapevine that "folks with neg ratings are not to be trusted".

As of today, I have 32 negative ratings. That makes me ranked number 32 out of a possible 17,000. For comparisons sake, if you took that rank to compare directly with positive ratings, I would have 2,934.

Now, I can understand, and even accept, that I can be a bit of a jackass, someone who doesn't back down even if I'm "wrong", a general stick in the mud, a stubborn college kid, and a nosey son-of-a-bitch.

Most, if not all, of my negative ratings can fall into 4 distinct categories:

1) the Club Elite/Federal incident;
2) The Zombie Incident,
3) griefing newbie players,
4) A certain, possibly mis-named "Angel" and her alternate accounts.

I can take the behavior points. I can even take it like a man and accept the appearance points, as sort of a double negative karms for my previous past misdeeds.

BUT.

I simply cannot, will not, and shall not accept all of the negative rates for my buildings.

It's like this. When I log into SL, most of the time I'm doing two things: Building for myself or building for someone else. I don't get out much, I don't positive rate farm, I don't socialize, I don't date, I don't set off firebombs at weddings, I don't grief at the welcoming area. I just sit there, mind my own business, and push prims around.

Over the last year or so, I'd like to think I've gotten pretty good at such exercises. At least other people seem to think so. I get the occasional kudos, pat on the back, and whatnot. It's all I get recognition for, which is 100% okay, because that's all I do.

I'm not asking for more kudos, in case you were wondering.

All I'm asking for from the above-mentioned parties, who KNOW that they triple-negative-rated me, for no other reason than to rate me for my behavior or other ill shenanigans, to give me a Christmas/Chanukah/Festivus/Kwanzaa present and simply remove the negative building rating.

My SL "livelyhood" thrives and depends upon my building reputation, not the other two. I don't like having the nagging feeling that people don't want me to build for them because I might be assumed to be a mega-griefer.

I don't care if you still think I'm wrong about some months-ago misdeed, but I know for a fact you didn't give me a dink on my building score because I can't build for squat.

Therefore, just be the nice guys that you may or not be, and remove my building negative ratings, ONLY IF you triple-negative-rated me. If you truly do not like my buildings, then I'm fine with that too. I just know that most, if not all, of my neg rates in buildings are
for other things aside from building.

That's all.

LF

I think the number of negative ratings given by someone can be way more important than how many they have received.

Why is is neccesary to retaliate with neg ratings. I have never felt the need to do that. The few negs I have given out were earned.

i think ratings should be public. at the very least a person should have a way of easily determining who they have rated and who has rated them negatively and positively. the right to rate should come with accountability.

An interesting point, Jai. I've tried multiple times to get a "fair" price, but I have yet to hit on it.

Every time I quote my current price, I always get the same "That's it? Boy, that's awfully cheap", but then if I raise my quoted price (in my fliers and whatnot), I don't even get any interested lookers. Better to be cheap, I suppose.

Like I said, I wasn't looking for kudos or anything (although thanks just the same), I just don't want those negative build ratings any longer.

LF