The total failure of the rating system

Robin's post


Most older users put up with having all their positive ratings removed without much outcry because it would just be a matter of 6 months and rating decay would level the playing field.

I have seen not one rating decay since the initial reduction earlier this year.

Linden Lab is now making permanent the farmed positive ratings that were the major reason for the "decay" system in the first place.

Now those people the most abused the system will be keeping their ill-gotten ratings forever, and having all negative ratings that would give some indication of their true colors removed.

The only ratings that had any real meaning were removed 6 months ago. All ability to decide a persons reputation is being removed. The only redeeming aspect of the situation is we are finally having the financial reward for cheating removed.

imo they should level the playing field by allowing decay to continue. All this really seems intended to do is placate those who gamed the system in the first place.

Decay would have to be happening in order for it to be continued...

Given that ratings will no longer have an effect on bonuses (what with the lack of bunuses) would anyone really object to fresh-slating the ratings? It's a tad extreme, but talk about your level playing fields.

Ed, I agree with the meat of your post - which is that if ratings are going to have any value in the future, previous rates need to be wiped. And the 6-month decay of ratings has been mismanaged without question.

However, using words like 'gaming' and 'cheating' imply that clear rules were set around how to rate, and how they should be used. There never were any clear rules, another reason for its failure.

For this reason, I think the majority of folks who engaged in 'rate-whoring' during this period are at the most, guilty of ignorance. I am one of them.

My bust. I thought I read recently (before this announcement) that decay had been resumed.

This makes perfect sense to me. Since ratings no longer carry any monetary reward, starting with a clean slate would give a clear basis for understanding future rates, whatever they might mean.

I stand by the term "gaming" but feel free to replace the term "cheating" in my post with "rate-whoring".

I'm gonna nail some points that have me dogged about this like a Shaolin monk:

1. If we're gonna keep having ratings, positive ones at that, then the interface should be changed to RADIO BUTTONS (round buttons you can only choose one of) instead of checkboxes, because it doesn't make sense to have the former for binary options.
   
2. I wish there was more decay, why? Because time moves on... and I noticed NO_DECAY wayyy back and sent in some bug reports, the whole works, and I was like, "Hey, wait, are they EVER going away?" I stood to lose a lot too, 'cuz my ratings amount to a guaranteed highest order bonus for Total Ratings. But, I wanted to keep things rolling, the ball droppin' and sailin' across the Rube Goldberg machine that is SL... I want progress, NOT STALE MOLDY CHEESE! ewwww.
   
3. Having decay will prod Residents to keep on moving with ratings, that this is a changing world and you can't sit on your pixeltush and expect to get ka-ching, even if said ka-ching is gonna be sliced again. I mean, get movin' movin', like that music video... or something.
   
4. Ratings at a time were a YUGE boon to me and I loved receiving and giving them, expectedly. Times are a-changin' and I just wanna see more to reflect this. Get ready for the repeated explanation when a new Res asks, "How did that dude get so many ratings?" and then ya say, "Well, see their birthdate... they've been around awhile... in this land... A LAND BEFORE TIME!"
   

Ah well see what happens. ~sighs~ *sighs* "sighs"

Decay is fixed, folks. Log into preview.

My rates dropped from the mid one hundreds to the single digits.

My rates dropped to 0. That ain't right.

If decay is dead I'd like my old ratings back please.

Ditto, I have a screenshot of what mine were before the decay.

I also wouldn't care if ratings were set to 0.

Honestly... at this point... I don't care at all about anything for ratings.

Ratings have been torn and tired and ripped and slandered and gamed so much that really it doesn't matter anymore.

I'm glad Neg ratings are gone, because they just caused issues and harm. But meh.

That's one thing I don't quite understand. If negative ratings are gone and ratings no longer affect weekly payouts, what's the point of decaying the ratings from here on out? I can understand starting with a clean slate to clear out all those people who amassed a few hundred rates in their first two weeks while clubbing. In the future, though, why purge the ratings?

Honestly, I don't mourn losing a system that didn't mean much, anyway.

Word of mouth just works. Usually.

Well said. This bothered me too. I think the eliminated ratings should be returned becasue what was the magicial significance of the cut off date.

You are right that older members who lost so many ratings that were earned in the early days did earn them as much as the ratings earned by newer members in more recent months. Those old original builds and acts that earned the ratings are just as valid and the positive rating earned as a result should be reinstated to those who lost them.

In all my experience I've never had a single actual explaination arrive with a neg rate, which just makes me think that if the person wasn't a random troll they would take the time to explain what it is I did wrong so I could possibly rectify it.

Maybe now the welcome area might actually become welcoming!

This is good news. Now we will hope the Lindens re-store the Bonus before businesses go out of business.

And why are businesses going out of business? Because you cannot buy anything on 50 lindens a week. And do not harp about getting a job to make lindens. I come to SL to get away from the Conservative work ethic not to bring it in here with me.

I did not put up to it, I protested the removal of ratings and bonuses.

I'd guess that's because of our time away from SL. I got a couple of building rates over the last 6 months, but that's about it.

Hey, we got our clean slate

I would like some word from the Lindens about what (if anythign), wil replace the rating system.

I was told when I started this game that it was a "social" game, but with no way to rate people, what social aspects of the social sytem are left? There are all the capitalist, economic type controls on people of course, but if we wanted a game just based on money we could play the Sims online.

Personally I would like to see my reward for playing so long without a single neg rate or a single AR!

Well actualy, I dont really care about rewards so much personally, but its a perfect example of the failure of the system to me. If someone with "good" social can't expect any reward, and if there is never a "down-side" (socially), to being an asshole, what's the point? Isn't that just laissez-faire economics but in the social sphere?

From reading SL history, it seems that a part of the whole point of the game at it's inception was to have folks that are "nicer," or better builders and scripters, get rewarded somehow for that in the social order (not just money), and similarly that those that don't do anything but grief folks would get some kind of dis-incentive for that behaviour.

Is that just a memory now? Is this the same game even?

Seems to me the Lindens have basically given up on one of the core features of the game that seperates it from the others.

Just for the sake of completeness, I would like either an announcement on whatever new system they have planned, or perhaps an honest, straightforward admission that they were wrong, and that they dont konw of any way to make this sort of social engineering work. This way, we are just segue-waying into a totally new type of game, without anyone rally noticing.

not fair!

Dunno about little outcry - I put up no outcry.. in fact when they upped the rating cost initially (before the decay even) I argued that everyones should be set to zero because of the unfair advantage it gave older players.. that they would always be 'top of the heap'.


Funnily enough a lot of the older players who post on the forums agreed..

Dunno what's replacing it.. if anything, but the ratings system has been a thorn in the side of SL for some time.. You can't deny that players across the board have complained at some time about it.

Ever since 1.2 I've been saying 'be careful what you wish for, you may just get it'

True indeed.

The rating system did work, back when the community was smaller and those who were assholes were shunned more. However as SL grew, so did the rest of it all and the rating system became less usefull because it was based on an old community.

Basicly the community outgrew the features that didn't evolve fast enough to keep up with the growth.

As for what they're working on, I'd like to know that too, there were many discussions a few months ago about a new rating system, would be interesting to see if they even decided on a path to take with it, and if so, which one.