I think many, if not most people are agreed that the present rating system is broken, and was broken even before the most recent changes. At the very least, I've heard a great many complaints about people being rated on building who've never rezzed so much as a plywood box, etc.
I myself think it's a bad idea to have ratings tied to stipend/bonus, but I like the idea of ratings in themselves. I like being able to give them to people who help me or who make cool things, and I think it could be helpful to be able to check them, or to search on them. For those who are competitive, I suppose "Leader Boards" aren't a bad thing, so long as no financial incentives are tied to them. I favor a small fee to rate, just to make it meaningful: say, L$5 per rate. I don't think negative ratings should be by category, there should just be one category for negative behavior. But I think the real change I'd like to see is making rates contextual, and give them more granularity.
Let's take a look at the kinds of activities the Lindens seem to think worth noting, by looking at the "Interests" tab on the Profile:
I want to:
Build - Explore - Meet - Be Hired
Group - Buy - Sell - Hire
Skills:
Textures - Architecture - Event Planning - Modeling
Scripting - Custom Characters
Note that these don't relate all that closely to the three existing ratings categories (Behavior, Appearance, Building). While I think the profile categories are a bit limited, as well, I think the general idea is right. What if next to each of the "Skills" there was a rate, and you could only rate someone on that skill within the right context? We could expand the list of skills slightly, as well. Here's a proposed list of skills, along with contexts in which each skill could be rated:
Textures - you need to click on an object containing a texture to rate the creator of that texture. If an object has more than one texture, the pie should give the names of the textures, similar to how the current rating choices include "owner" and "creator." And "owner" would no longer be a choice.
Architecture - This is "building", I presume? It's a lot tougher to manage than it sounds, because structures may be composed of many parts, each created by someone different. Again, the "rate" menu would not include "owner" as an option, but would list different components if they are created by different people, and you can rate per component.
Event Planning - In order to rate for Event Planning, you need to be at an advertised event and you need to click directly on the planner. Since Event Planning can be a cooperative effort, it should be possible to list multiple planners per event. I would include Hosting in this.
Modeling - Assuming this is supposed to be fashion modeling, rather than 3-d modeling, this seems most closely analogous to the existing "appearance" rate. You should be able to rate anyone you can see on their assemblage. This would not allow one to rate on creator, as the point is how the modeler has assembled av, outfit, accessories, poses, etc. to create an overall appearance.
Scripting - You need to click on an object (including an attachment) containing a script to rate the creator of the script, handle multiple scripts as with textures and architecture.
Custom Characters - I assume this means avatars, skin, body, hair, etc. This is what you would be rating if you click on an avatar and you want to rate the creator, rather than the whole appearance. You should get options to rate creators of all portions, assuming they are not all created by the same person. I would expand this to include clothing and attachments.
New skills/ratings I'd like to add:
Mentoring - Obviously, you'd need to be able to click on the person to rate them for this. Possibly they should be part of a mentoring group with their mentor "hat" on.
Teaching - If someone is running a Linden-sponsored educational event, you can rate them on teaching, per Event Planning above.
Behavior - this would be just for being helpful and friendly. Again, there would be no monetary compensation, it would just be a way of thanking someone for their kindness, and helping to let others know that this is a friendly person.
Animation - As with scripts and textures, click an av running an animation (or the animation object itself). Should also include gestures.
Sounds - As with animation, scripts, textures.
Should DJing be a separate skill?
Landscaping - Click on the land itself to rate. The possible problem is that the current owner may not have been the one who arranged the land, but I don't know if the system tracks who terraforms and plants trees, let alone who decides to put sculptures around the place.
Selling - You can do this once per person, once you've bought an item from them, by clicking on the purchased item. This is a rate of the selling experience.
Buying - Again, once per person, but I don't know how to control the context. (Click the name in Account History?) We may need better sales tracking tools to make this work. This is a rate of the buyer, but I don't know if it's needed in this system, because sales are done through the system and ownership changes hands right away on transfer of funds. Then again, some people could be very difficult to deal with after a sale is made. Without "sales blacklist" tools, I'm not sure how useful this would be.
Negative - This should just be one category. Possibly it should cost more than the others: L$25 might be about right. You must write a reason. This is for negative behavior only. You should need to click on an av to rate them negatively or be in IM with them, or have bought something from them or sold something to them. This would encourage people to try to talk things out before neg-rating someone who's left trash on the lawn (hey, it could have been a teleport error.) Negative ratings should be disputable.
Possible system-generated "ratings":
The system could track how widely someone has explored, which could be sort of fun for people who like to compare these sorts of things.
The system could also track who has bought or sold the most. It's not data I care about, but I guess someone else might.
The system could track how many people you've conversed with, where a "conversation" could be described as an exchange in which at least three remarks were sent to the other party each, via chat or IM. (or Talk To, but I'd favor getting rid of Talk To.) People wouldn't be able to just go around spamming people to raise this number, because if the people they hassled ignored them, they wouldn't get the credit.
The system could track how many hours in-world someone has logged. I personally would be afraid to look at my own numbers.
So to sum up, here are the options you would have if you wanted to rate under this proposal, from a user's standpoint:
Click on an Avatar, select Rate, get the following options:
- Event Planning (if you are in an event planned/hosted by this av)
- Modeling (rates the owner)
- Customizations (this will rate creators, rather than owner/Av)
- Avatar Components (Body, Skin, Hair, Eyes)
- Clothing
- Attachments (treat as objects, see below)
- Animations
- Mentoring
- Teaching
- Behavior
- Negative
While in IM with an individual, select Rate, get following options:
- Event Planning (if in an event planned/hosted by this av)
- Mentoring
- Teaching
- Behavior
- Negative
Click on an object (in-world or in inventory), select Rate, get the following options:
- Architecture (See list of contributing Builders, rate per contributor)
- Textures (See list of Texture creators)
- Scripting (see list of script authors)
- Sounds (See list of sound authors)
- Assembly (Rate "final creator," regardless of individual content authors)
- Selling? (once per seller)
- Animation (click the object in inventory)
Click on Land, Select Rate, get the following options:
- Terraforming (probably owner, unless the system tracks changes)
- Landscaping (Probably owner, possibly list of owners of objects)
- Decorating? (kind of like "appearance", a way to rate the person who brought the stuff together into a harmonious whole)
Ok, those are my thoughts at the moment. I imagine I've missed something important... comments?
neko