Do you pay attention to people's ratings?

Do ratings factor into how you judge a person you do not know? Or do you feel ratings are too unreliable under the current system for gauging an individual's character/building skills/appearance?

I never look at the ratings. I say "hi" and take it from there.

Only in cases where someone displays negative behavior in game.

I voted other because I do pay attention, but only to the number of negative ratings a person has given.

I give each person a chance no matter what. However, if someone is 'snooping' around or acting weird, I use their ratings as a general vibe in how they might act.

I don't really judge anyone by ratings for a few reasons. One reason being the fact that there are people who have nothing better to do than neg rate people for no reason. So alot of nice people have been neg rated when it was uncalled for. The second reason is because I have a mind of my own and will judge people by how I am treated by them and how they treat others. If I were to judge anyone by ratings, it would be to see how many negs they have given.

Opps Aimee I said Yes too quickly.

Yeah I look at people's ratings, but seldom judge 'em based solely on their ratings.

But I do make an effort to rate people when I find a positive reason to.

I don't rate people negatively - but there is one person who I forgot to rate negatively, and if I were to spontaneously run into him I would.

I usually only pay attention to negatives given. In fact, I usually only look at a person's ratings if I'm suspicious of them or suspect a griefer.

Only negatives - positives are useless..

If someone is nice to me I'm nice back regardless of ratings..

Since the new thing seems to be people being paid to neg rate everyone at events, I agree that the amount of neg rates someone has given tell us more about the character than ones received.

Same as Khamon: I pay attention, but only to the amount of negs they have given.

I'm never sure exactly what the ratings mean. I mean I get them from guys in clubs trying to hit on me. Someone I don't know rating me positively in building makes no sense if they haven't seen anything I have built. Ratings are a nice way of showing appreciation, but that does not mean I'd appreciate what the rating was given for. So its better for me, at least, to just talk to someone.

I generally don't even look at a person's profile when I'm dealing with them.

If something seems to get squirrely in dealing with them -- they are being an ass, they are asking too many questions, they are griefing, etc. I might then look them up.

Then I might note their given negs contrasted to their received, etc.

I think most people study profiles the way dogs sniff each others' privates. They can't help themselves.

So of course they look at ratings. That's why the triple negrate is often a very good message to send to someone when they've behaved abominably on the forums -- it gets at their vanity in a big way because they hate their girlfriends and boyfriends seeing those negs hanging out. They'll often do anytihng to get rid of them.

No. I barely look at profiles, I just take people at present pixel value. There are people I have known in World for a year and just looked at their profile recently. It doesnt really matter.

I loved when you trip negged me.

The best part was finding your land and trip positive rating you with a really supportive message, waiting a while, then changing it to a trip negative with a "ok, not really though " message.

I had a blast.

Thanks Prok!

They mean nothing to me, my buddies and I tripple neg rate each other.

I don't even look at my own ratings.

So if anybody has been trying to put me down with a neg rating, I'm sorry I didn't notice.

Why would you "think" this? How could you ever come up with evidence to back this line of reasoning. Profiles are indeed meant to be looked at...that's why they are called profiles. But I think at best, most folks that bother to even look at them, would do so very quickly, to see how new a person was, or to find specific information.

As far as triple neg-rating someone because they argued with you in the forums, unless they are actively griefing you, it's pretty much a cowardly, schoolyard type of thing to do. The only people I've ever neg rated were actively griefing and disrupting events that i was hosting or attending, and I sent them an IM first, asking them politely to stop their negative behavior.

Same here - it's the only thing that I do look at. If someone has given tons of neg ratings, I'm generally cautious about being around them because my guess they are not the most tolerant people in the SL world.

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Now that a bunch of people posted I will give my 2 Lindens:

I haven't rated or neg rated anybody since the big changeover in the ratings system. I instantly dismiss a person's ratings as unimportant if indeed I even notice them at all. Here are a few reasons why:

1. People are triple neg rated and tripple pos rated in categories as a generalized complement or generalized insult. This renders the numbers themselves meaningless (people who never build getting a pos or neg rating in building for example)

2. Cliques of popular people may pos rate each other in great numbers, and coordinated attacks (including alts) may neg rate someone in great numbers. In both cases the ratings do not reflect the reality.

3. Some of the finest builders in Second Life spend much of their time...BUILDING rather than socializing. The reverse may hold true for active socializes. The results is a build rating that does not always reflect reality.

Sometimes the ratings are right on the money. But there are so many wrong ratings in profiles that they are no longer a useful tool.

Nope. Ratings are so useless I don't even look at my own.

I base my opinion of people on speaking with them personally.

All of this, plus the Prokofy's and AL's and so forth of the world, are exactly why I only pay attention to one statistic: Negs given. It tells far more about a persons attitude and behaivor than anything else in game.

The only other time I ever check ratings are before I take action against a suspected griefer... I don't file an AR or something if I get bumped in sandbox, for example, unless it's clear that the person is just a griefer... IE, a handful of pos rates given, fairly young, and a TON of neg-rates recieved.

There are ratings?

Usually the ratings ho's will have a large amount of ratings in all 3 fields, so those don't mean anything to me. If someone has alot more ratings in a particular category (for instance, a high building rating and mediocre appearance and behavior ratings), I'll safely assume they must build pretty good. If someone has given alot of negs, I tend to stear clear, as said person is either a griefer or entirely too judgemental and self righteous.

I tend to not pay much attention to neg ratings received unless it's a pretty large amount. If you have 10 neg ratings, then it could be assumed maybe you got gang banged. If you've got 68 neg ratings, either you're asking for them literally or you really are trouble.