DOWN with the anonymous star system in Classifieds!

I didn't want to mention it for fear of seeming cruel but the star rating has given people the opportunity to actually rate something as they would like without the fallout from everyone else getting on their case about being mean.

Although it's also apparent that some are just rating everything 1 or 5 for shits and giggles.

I like the star system. Easy to use, only small room for abuse, and anyone with a brain can tell the difference between abuse here and legitimate ratings. All you have to do is look at the item:

Good item with bad rating = abuse,
Bad item with good rating = abuse,
Good item with mediocre or good rating = legit,
Bad item with mediocre or bad rating = legit.

I've been lurking here since June and so far as I can tell, the only people who draw negativity are (surprise!) people who are busy being negative. That doesn't surprise me and I don't have a problem with it. Karma is its own best thing.

But what are they rating? It's not the product, but a picture of the product and some text. I'm surprised that no one has brought up the constant screams of "photoshopped box does not reflect contents". And what if I just hate pink bling and automatically 1 star anything pink and shiny.

Seems silly to me.

At the end of the day, I really do not think it matters 'what' they are rating. People obviously rate and will rate for different things. So far as I can see, this is simply a way for people to say 'hey, I did this' and the rest is all about how people choose or not to react to it.

Great advice, here. Whenever I have something new out, I'll contact customers after I hear the ch-ching and say thanks, ask them what enticed them to buy, etc. Sometimes I'll wait an hour or so and see if it met expectations. I get plenty of unsolicited feedback, too. Meh, I'm really not sure the stars are a big deal if you've got actual customers.



Yeah.




Yeah... Lord give me the strength to do just that.

I know it, Enabran. What I said was true, nothing but plain old true. She got on to be all flippant and derail the thread, to indicate to others that my concern was silly, and carried on with that for a while before announcing that it would be rude to do it. I was, just for a fact, glad she decided to stop.

But - I have gotten so nasty with certain people. It makes me quite want to leave this game.

coco

According to Moby, we are all made of stars.

This is not a dead horse topic simply because some here have decided so.

In fact, it has worsened over the past couple of weeks, and wasn't even ever a PROBLEM before the past couple of weeks. I don't call that dead horse.

No one who views it as a problem is stating that no rating is ever legit, and it is a red herring to argue from that position.

I am saying that any legitimacy of the reviews is wrecked by people gaming them. That, I consider a fact. And that is the point of this thread.

coco

Ahh, I get it now! So, are you down with them? The anonymous small gaseous molecules that make us all up? Are you tight with'em, are you _down_ with'em? I've been trying to get "down" with the sickness lately, I'm glad that this was brough to my attention so I can diversify my getting-down...

Just because you're malicious by hijacking the threads of others doesn't mean everyone else shares that intent. In any case, you asked her why she hadn't posted since July and she responded. If you didn't want that discussion public, I heard of this great little thingie called a PM you can try. It's good stuff!

I didn't get the impression she actually cared why Aimee hadn't posted, but rather she was pointing out that Aimee doesn't post there anyway and her opinion doesn't matter.

Oh, if that were the case, it would be very tasty indeed, as it would smack of a new level of hypocrisy. I hope you're right!

Not exactly.

First, I did notice that some of the people who have declared this a "non-issue" do not post their products there, because I went to check. Cristiano, for instance, hasn't posted a product there, at least not as far back as the results you get from putting in his name in.

The same is true, if I'm remembering correctly from yesterday, of Enabran, and of others here. Naturally, they would be inclined not to consider this much of a problem if they don't use the classifieds themselves. Nonetheless, these and others posted opinions and I discussed them.

Aimee, I noticed, hasn't posted there since July, well before any of the Classified changes occured. So she may not really care about it either, for the same reason.

But it is definitely NOT the case that "her opinion doesn't matter."

She didn't offer an opinion in the first place.

She talked and joked about her own film. I would have discussed her opinion had she given one.

coco

Here we go...

You know what happens when you assume. You make an ass of you and yo-- wait, how does that go?

Anyway, I have a very limited product line and I spend most of my time doing maintenance and improvements on my existing product or doing long-term work on next-gen stuff. So, I don't post much in the new products classifieds. (Do one thing and do it very well)

Even so, though, there's just not much point in getting worked up over such an insignificant thing. Maybe it sucks. So what? If your product is quality, you'll have a much better metric by which to judge it than some stupid star on the forums. You'll have money in the pocket. You'll have IMs complimenting your work and asking for new stuff.

This is what is valuable to me. Not some stupid gold star.

And anyway, this discussion was had a month ago or more. When do we get the Where We Are Now thread?

I really don't know why I limited this topic to classifieds.

The exact same thing occurs in the general forums - by people casting their star votes regarding personalities, rather than issues.

But I do know why I limited this topic to classifieds. It's because I started thinking about it when I gave that girl 5 stars, and started to worry that I just opened her up to abuse. And more when I saw my own item get five stars, and later, saw it dragged down. And saw hers dragged down to TWO stars. Now you can't tell me that that girl's item objectively rates two stars. I know it has more to do with the back-stabbing that goes on in the fashion forum.

The system sucks, that's all there is to it. I've given three alternatives:

1. Get rid of the star system.

2. Make the forums comment but no bump.

3. If the above two are impossible, put it back the way it was, because this is worse.

coco

I already do get that other valuable stuff, Enabran.

What you don't seem to grasp is that I FELT BAD from having given that girl 5 stars.

Why keep a system that sucks?

coco

P.S. Your "do one thing and do it well" strategy doesn't lend itself to all areas. I can't imagine, for instance, a person making one perfect dress and expecting that to be all they need to do forever.

I'm not sure how to respond to a value system that invests this much emotion and effort into an irrelevant gold star that is 15 pixels high.

OH. My opinion? I think when you got 5 stars you felt the system was working properly (it make you feel very good!). When you got one star you were 99.99999% sure it was just someone being nasty.







Therefore, the solution is to program the forums so Cocoanut Koala's product threads cannot be rated lower then 4 stars. This will ensure the system will only be used properly and never for nastiness.

Uh, where did I say it did? I said it worked well for me and that's why I rarely post in new products.

So reactionary. If I say "My hair is brown" will you respond with "Not everyone's hair is brown, some people are born with other hair colors, or prefer to be different hair colors?"

No. That the five stars made me feel good does not mean I thought the system was working properly, and when it was dragged down to three, I thought it wasn't.

I was making the case that when I gave that girl five stars, I didn't expect it to turn out to be a BAD THING, opening her up to abuse. Because it is better to have no stars than have someone give you five, just so your competitors can make sure to drag it down to two stars.

I think you can understand that, right?

I am asking you for your opinion of the system, not your opinion of me.

I am not the only one who thinks the system sucks.
coco

Where did I say you said it did?

So reactionary.

coco

Your dedicating an entire paragraph to a few words that had no real bearing on my point pretty well says it.

My opinion. The stars system is too irrelevant to earn my attention (even if I do post in classifieds) and too irrelevant to take Linden development resources away from other more important tasks.

I think you can understand that, right?

Why indeed such prolonged and intense debate on this matter?

In an attempt to discern the cause of the length of some threads, one reflects on the fact that the classifieds aren't the only place to advertise one's products for free; advertising can take place in the discussion forums in a person's signature.

This works fine if others people just keep on and on replying, as relentless as the Energizer rabbit, seemingly oblivious that the thread was only started to put the thread starter's signature ad on display.

One then wonders why the intelligent and perceptive people who respond to indicate that they don't see why the isssue deserves such prolonged and vehement debate can't just let the matter they claim has had enough time in the public's eye slide into the dustbin of history by just not responding.

Examine the signatures of these posters and see that each has an advertisement in their signature.

Satori.