New Rating System

Like I was telling the group around 3PST when Philip had joined us for a discussion!

I would like to see the new rating system (if any) not to be based so much on points, but more on a reflection of who I am (via others comments) in SecondLife. I was looking at more of a EBay style system where people may leave you comments and check a couple boxes (+1, 0, -1 kinda like now or liek a -100 to + 100 slider) but with more relevant sections. Sections such as Scripting, building, attitude.. stuff like that! A rating system that is more personnal vs the rating system that we have now that is TOTALY impersonal.

Also some people brought up good points at the meeting that I would liek to try and merge into the one above. Somthing about how much weight a person can put on a rating.

I was just thinking if we have they slider thing (+100 to -100 or even min to max, i'll explain) a noob would only be able to move this slider up to 5 and - 1, a noobs max would be "+5 to -1". Some equasion with how old you are and how many ratings others have given you int he selected categories would determine the max and mins. Lets say person A has a high rating in scripting and low in texturing. This persons ability to give rating in scripting would be like +100 to -20 and in texturing +10 to - 2.

When you would rate someone you would have a textbox and a bunch of sliders for all the sections. You could then leave a message, move the sliders and submit. The person you are rating would have a chance to put in a response to this rating. Once rated, that particular rating should not be modifiable. Plus implement a limit as in 1 rating every 3 days, or make ratings 100L$ to submit! with a one a day limit.

Thoughts, additions to this thread are welcome!

P.S. also have a limit per day \ week (non stackable).

EDIT 1: To add to this (I thought of it over night)

1. Categories would be crucial
   
2. You would be able to rate a certain person more then once.
   
3. Rating limits would have to be put in place
   
4. Ratings should be very close to free, limits would prevent massing
   
5. Also, something like a friends and foe system attached to that, this is just a shot in the dark, but almost something like the TSO friends web. With some conditions that I havn't thought of yet!
   

having actually read all of the posts in the official rating system thread i have to say this makes allot more sense than most of what has been suggested there.

ca i suggest that if this is implemented we all start at 0, that way people can become known for the things they are good at, less a chance of dancers staying the best builders.

i think the most important thing is more categories to rate, and perhaps a sliding scale for cost. 1 rate be cheap but to try to rate someone in everything could be prohibitively expensive.



jester

The comment about friend or foe caught my eye and sparked an idea. Most of the abuses of the current rating system involve tripple-pos or tripple-neg to indicate that very thing.

On thing to keep in mind when redesigning the rating system is how the data is most likely stored. Attached to my avatar's personal data is probably:

- the total ratings given and received (as displayed in my profile)
- a list of everyone that's ever rated me which includes:
-> their key
-> a bitfield of the rating like "10 10 00" where 00 is neutral, 10 is positive, and 01 is negative
-> a time index (days since day one) so the last 7 days can be used for the delta bonus
- and a list of everyone I've ever rated in the same format, though perhaps without the time

That's a fairly compact format and is easy to use internally. If you go to rate someone, the list of ratings I've given is run through looking for their key, if it's found, the previous ratings are loaded into the menu. Otherwise the menu comes up set to all neutrals. When it's time to calculate the bonuses, the other list (of people that rated me) is run through to total up the points. Points with a recent time index (last 7 days) are also added to a separate total for the delta bonus.


So, using sliders, rating someone might look something like this:

(actual categories may vary, but I like those for simplicity and apropriateness)

Note that there are no numbers, just word labels. There is a 0-256 range for each (the default middle position on the friend/foe bar would be 128 -- 0 for the other two) but a new player wouldn't actually have the whole range. If they slide the Skill rating to the max, it may only actually be saved as 50 or so. The adjustment is a function of the player's own total rating in that category OR their age in the game. I'm not sure yet which is the better metric. Either way, there is a set ceiling: for age, after (say) three months the full range can be used, and for rating, anyone in the upper 50% of the rating charts can use the full range. Or maybe both. Dunno.

The point is, it is invisible to the player and easy to calculate and store in the system.

Now, this means that if a player goes to re-rate someone later, after they have been in the game longer and/or have attained a higher rating, they will see the slider has seemed to move a little towards the default position. This isn't because their old rating has dropped in value, but because their available range has increased. They can now move their rating farther along the bar if they wish.

A second option that can be layered over this one is a variable cost system. With sliders, players have the option to give variable ratings. The default tendancy will be to move the slider to the max every time. If a variable cost is added, with a live update of the total as you move the sliders and a confirmation when you close the rate window, there would be an economic control on the min/max behavior.

For example, the sliders can be marked to show the area where a rating can be placed for no cost and where it WILL cost. Here the top 50% of each available range is marked to indicated that ratings in that area cost money:



In this example, I've set the prices to +L$5 for the full distance in across the areas with the diagonal lines. Two of the sliders are set in the free area, and one is about L$4 into the Skill slider's "pay" range. So the (live updating, as you drag the sliders) is showing L$4. If I had slid all three sliders to the far right, the cost would have been L$15.


(And if all this was too much for you to take in, go steal my letters.)

That's awsome Tiger! We are both on the same page! Now.. if only the lindens would read this!