Do you pay attention to people's ratings?

That's a pretty good way to put it, actually, Prokofy. I have to admit that I read just about everybody's profile with whom I come in contact, if I'm not too busy. I love profiles; they're this little bit of a chance at absolute vanity given to all of us, to decide how we want people to see us, what we want people to know about us, etc. (My profile is really boring, by the way, as most anybody who has seen it will attest. But maybe I'm being vain in insisting my profile is boring, i.e. "I'm too important to write a really complex profile"... who knows.)

Yes, I look at ratings, both ratings given and ratings received. I try very hard not to judge peopole solely by them, but I do look. I think the rating system is seriously flawed and that we need something else. Unfortunately, I'm not creative or industrious enough to come up with another system myself.

I usually don't even remember to look at ratings -- if I'm looking at someone's profile, it's to see their favorite picks. (Usually I only have their profile open to teleport them or give them something, in which case it can't be said that I'm properly "looking" at their profile at all.)

If I noticed that someone had given a lot of neg-rates, yes, that would be a bit off-putting. But I never remember to even look, and generally consider the whole rating system meaningless.

neko

Ratings? Pfft, I never even look at a person's profile. I only pay attention to how people act at face value .... and of course viscous rumors.

I keep one eye on rates and another on the prize.

I used to do that, but I kept running into things when I walked.

The most useful ratings for me are amount of negatives given by an avatar. Most people who have given well over a dozen negs can be safely regarded as abusive and less than mature. Large numbers of negs given, in many cases, speak of a desperate last resort in conflict. An inability to disagree rationally, expressed with the only means of force the rater has at his disposal.

Ok..ok..I admit it! I do look at profiles, but just the RL tab, in the hopes that they posted semi-nude pictures of themselves, or pictures of attractive sheep.

SNIFF....SNIFF....SNIFF....

Exactly why I voted Other as well.

I might check out the profile of 1 in 10 people I encounter, and I do look at rates. They may not tell you about the person's "appearance," "behaviour" and "building," but analyzed as a whole along with the other information in the profile and the person's observed behaviour, they do give you information. They can tell you if and when the person engaged in rate-whoring, for instance. If they've been around a while and have single-digit numbers, they prolly don't hit the clubs. If "building" is higher than the other numbers, they've prolly actually built something.

I peek at the leader boards, too, and I find that "building" has a little better signal-to-noise ratio than the other rates, tho several in the top 10 are rate whores. In any case, just because the rates don't reflect what they offer at face value doesn't mean they're meaningless.

i only check if the person turns out to be problematic. sometimes it's an off day for them, and i cut them some slack. but if they have more neg behavior than appearance and building and/or given lotsa neg ratings, then i ease away as fast as i can.

I usually don't look at someone's profile unless I'm dropping an item, offering a TP, or trying to find a link to their shop or build in their Picks. I don't look at the ratings. They were never a consistent measure of anything, and are even more useless since the changes went into effect. If I bother to rate someone (only a few times since the changes), it's to give the comment, not the +1. More often, I just drop an item the person might like, buy their stuff, or find a donation jar. I'd always just make the same comment in IM, but doing it as a rating is kinda like putting it in a fancy envelope, and most importantly it doesn't leave a window hanging open there as if begging a response.

I only look at the ratings as an after-thought. More out of curiosity as a general Profile overview "Hey I wonder what they have in their profile." rather than basing a judgement of the person off of them.

However I do positively rate people for stuff I think deserves it. More of a "Hey nice job!" than "Hey let me boost your view other people may see of you!".

I dont pay attention to no ratings, because i got a ton of bad ratings, but its like

"Your clothes are too expensive" which the item was $100.. lol

and stuff like that, and other ppl's drama..

so i dont even pay attention to anywayz, dont judge an avie by its ratings hehe

Other.

I only take note of negs given, if I take note of ratings at all. It's nearly always been that way for me. I got tired of the ratings game a year and a half ago. However, they can be a metric to gauge who has a superiority (inferiority in reality) complex or who is a griefer. Positives given are nearly worthless too, they usually reflect nothing other than the ability to get people to rate you. Either way, neg or pos, they are worthless and abused to no end.

I especially take note if it appears that a person repeatedly gives out triple negs (akin to playground antics in my book), especially if said person likes to portray themselves as being some great benefit to the community. I also think that trip negging someone for forum behavior is abhorrent. At the MOST, a behavior neg may be in order.

I would also like to point out the negative side of having raised the price to rate. It widened an avenue of griefing, making accepting money to go neg someone more appealing. Since the person offering the tagger $ has to shell out more $ now, it further promotes and enables just that type of TSO "tagging" behavior.

Just get rid of the damned things. I would love it if we could just have a "favorable" or an "unfavorable" single rating of someone like some other games have, but, that too would be exploited to hell and back by griefers and know-it-alls posturing as community watchdogs.

I might look at their profile to see if they have anything witty written. Or to find out where their shop is if it is in fave places. I take a glance at how many negs they have given but as long as they are nice, I really don't care. I just react based on how they act around me and to me.

Hee hee... I thought the thread title was "Do you pay attention to people's rantings"

Personally, I look at their profiles to see if they have written anything interesting, but don't really pay attention to the ratings. They have never really given a good view of how that person acts, or their personality.

How I interact with someone is based on the tone of their text and the things they say.

I've encountered many people with high negs, who've given a lot of negs, and they were always cool with me. Ratings aren't insightful.

Khamon:

This viewpoint is popular for a good reason. Those who are ill-tempered can flood the forums with PR spin, but negrating is an action, and actions speak louder than words. : D

Many people wish to do away with the ratings system because it makes them terribly uncomfortable to have even the slightest blemish on their sterling reputations. They claim not to care about negs, but even a handful of negs that couldn't possibly be relevant to their overall reputation in at least their main area of expertise seems to be a crushing blow to their evidently fragile self esteem. How could that be? Most people with any kind of public role, even Lindens, can't get by without a neg or two. Does anybody really care about such tiny scratches on a face?

Actions do speak louder than words, and fortunately negrating is an action that can leave a permanent, simple, eloquent, and visible record. The holder of a negrate might for ever after go about trying to discredit whoever gave him a negrate, even putting odd little convoluted personal explanations about why the negs are there, but in the end, all that attention given to the negrates by the holder suggests there might be something "up" indeed!

If he had no profile comment and never posted on the matter ever, then you might tend to believe his protestations that it "doesn't matter" lol.

Most people are able to live their second lives without attracting the "ill-tempered". If they attracted the "ill-tempered" to them in any way, even such as to get multialti kind of negs, they've got to ask themselves what their own responsibility is in the matter -- as do others. And others do ask that question.

If an individual has more outgoing negs than even his own set of negs, you could characterize him or her as a "negative" and ostracize him, or you could note that his pluses still outweigh his minuses, that the system -- by yours and others own admission -- doesn't mean much anymore especially now that it costs so much -- and that all ratings tap out after 6 months now.

If your negs remain even after such an incredibly long period (in game terms) -- so as to have to be consciously renewed even at great expense, wouldn't you have to ask yourself what you might be doing to incur that action?

I've often been impressed by very old individuals in this game who have never given or received a negrate in their very long lives, and they never even discuss the ratings system in indignant terms on here despite their own incredible weathering of the system's flaws. They know their own worth!

No I don't pay attention to them... I find ratings useless and silly at this point. Even the "neg rates given" is of little use - since I've heard of people giving neg-rates to their friends (who welcomed them) as a joke or a way of illustrating how pointless the system is.

I used to look at the ratings. I used to try an get pos ratings. I stopped doing that when my stippened kept getting cut by LL. I now make just about what a basic account does so whats the fricken point. The stippened is so low now its pathetic and an insult to all of us who have been here so long trying to do good things. LL take the rest of my stippend I will supliment my stippend with rl cash rather than accept this now insulting piss ass amount.

Take take take yeah thanks for nothing.

Cat