Interpreting Ratings (take 2)

I wish I could be Queen for a Day and have all my closed threads restarted. No, wait. I want to be like Queen of Forever LOL.

Eeeeeeeeee!!!! *basks in the glow of some sweet Aimee lovin*

Ok back again after thinking a bit....

Ratings are a tough thing to call. It also depends on the "culture" of the times when you joined. For example, when I joined lil over a year ago, ratings were like an integral part of SL life.

Everyone tossed out positive ratings to noobies like me, to make them feel welcome. At the noobie show and tell events that were my LIFE my first few weeks in SL. Hosts pos rated anyone who had something to show, and we were all encouraged to positive rate each other in the audience as well. There was also a culture of etiquette (mostly unspoken) that dictated you should rate back whenever possible.

Ratings were from what I gathered at the time sort of like a handshake. "hello avatar and don't you look nice *pos rate app*". That sort of thing.
Or they were used to say "thank you for helping me *pos beha*", or "WOW what an amazing robot avatar you made! *pos rate app & build*".

I DO feel that in general ratings ARE meaningless in that I got triple pos rated all the time, landing me at the top of the building leader boards for my first weeks in here, and I had yet to even rez a cube! One of my partners is an incredible builder and had been in SL a month or two before me, and since "he dont get out much" he barely has any ratings for building or otherwise. So you really can't tell.

For me personally I rated as encouraged, but only on behaviour or appearance or both if someone warranted it. I rarely rated for building unless I'd seen something someone had built and thought it was kick ass. It was also easier as a new person to do all of that with the rates being 1L each.

These days its even harder to "judge" someone from ratings, more the many reasons already mentioned, the cost, the change in ratings culture, the fact ratings fade now after a time and so forth. I do NOT tend to make my final decision on a person based on ratings alone. Its a combination of things, really, including behavior towards myself and others etc.

You can see the result of coming into a "culture of ratings" as described above from the pic I've attached below. The first is my ratings before the new system of both 25L/per and the ratings fade thing. The second is my ratings taken a few mins ago, which includes the result of my ratings being decreased, and a triple neg I got the other day.

Great post Brace.

I included a category called "Average". Rather than specific numbers I was thinking more along the lines of ratios. You have numerous pos ratings, you gave our a proportionate number of pos ratings. You gave out zero neg ratings and you only received a token number of neg ratings.

The mystical numerology chart says you are a resonable, sociable, pleasent, helpful person... even if you feel like the bulk of those ratings are undeserved. Am I right?

Shhhhh Aimee....I'm tryin to cultivate a new street rep:"OMG That Bitch!" I'm totally busted now LOL!

Ah Well..back to being "me" again...besides it takes too much energy, and I'm notoriously lazy....although I met my match in the form of a cool noob named RockDanger. I had to drag him around on Da Brace Bed for awhile..I mean he really hates to even WALK!

good lookin out on the ratio thing Aims ~ my brain doesn't work well in that area. I'm pretty literal minded and I tend to see rainbows and liquid metal when I have to interpret numbers

No worries Brace... I will interpret the numbers for you. You are a very sweet and... er uh.. I mean.. You're BAD... a streetwise BADASS! Yaaaa... That will work

Yes, I am a recovering rate whore

'Growing up' around the same time, I've got to agree with Brace as well. There was a period of time - say between July 2004 - Jan 2005, where it had devolved into a social custom to exchange posrates as a friendly 'greeting'. In fact, those who chose not to partake in this 'custom' were often verbally ostracized - leading to futher proliferation of the custom via peer pressure.

Don't you remember the days of ....."<gasp!> So-and-so DIDN'T RATE BACK!"

As a result, those of us who were active in the SL social community during that time are going to have some pretty skewed numbers compared to day.

Weren't those supposed to drop off, btw? I've hardly given out 10 ratings in the last 6 months.

criteria i use. ymmv:

1. do they have more than 150-200 ratings recieved? if not, then i mostly consider their ratings to be noise.
   
2. kinds of distribution. if somone has a larger percentage (say around 10% more than other ratings) of one kind of rating, then that generally indicates something unusual about that person in that area.
   
3. 12 or fewer neg rates that are mostly flat (i.e. about the same in all categories) indicates a beg rate victim, if the neg rates this person have given out is not a large percentage of the ratings they've given out.
   
4. someone whose neg rates exceeds 10% of their total ratings given is probably trouble. 15% is definitely trouble. 20% is a big red flag. this overrides 1), 2), and 3).
   

there are a few people for whom these guidelines definitely don't apply. but you'd have to know them, and you'd have to know their history.

I have a few neg rates, didn't notice them right away, so I have no clue who I pissed off or what the trouble was. For all I know, a stranger was bored!

That was me, because you have a cooler RL job than I do

You've got the delusions of grandeur down cold, so keep on keepin on darlin, You will prevail!

My criteria for rating - I will go out of my way to rate positively when I see something I am really impressed by. If I see a build I like, I rate the creator. If I see someone with a creative avatar, I rate them, etc. I rarely neg rate - when I do it is for a distinct purpose. My most recent neg ratings were against a 9/11 joke build and a particle spewing rotating chat spamming for sale sign. I have a few neg rates, including a proud triple crown from Prokofy (thanks hon) . I don't rate back negatively in those cases - what is the sense?

This is good stuff guys.

Just a reminder, the topic is not so much how you RATE people, but how you interpret other people's ratings. In your experience, what kinds of rating patterns do you find accurately reflect the personality of the person you are examining?

The main thing I look at is negs given.

I will usually contrast it with account age. If they have been in SL only a few months, and they have given out an inordinate amount of negs, I usually am on guard. 10 or more in a short period makes my spidey sense tingle - especially if it looks like they were all triple negs. Triple negs are not cool. I mean, after all, how many times do you think they are used accurately, i.e., the persons looks, behavior and building are piss poor? I am going to guess next to never, so I usually see it as a vindictive method of expressing disdain for behavior.

If they have given out more negs than pos, I usually steer clear - in most cases they are griefers or obsessive players.

In any case where a person seems to have a high number or disproportionate amount of negs given, I will read their profile - if they have some self-righteous or offensive crap, i.e, "i am an asshole", go out of their way to talk smack about another player, or try to reason away the negs they have received, I am wary.

I really don't pay attention to their pos rates, unless their negs given seem disproportionate.

I feel judging folks on their pos rates received is a crap shoot at best - I have met many great folks who have little or no pos rates, especially since the rating system was revamped, and the pricing changed. Interestingly, I find that since the ratings revamp, it's a bit easier to identify self-righteous or "greefer kin" (thanks Torlop! ) types!

I honestly don't look at their ratings at all - I just deal with them personally. The system is so flawed that it really has no bearing on the individual.

This is true for me to an extent as well. Unless they give me reason to, I don't pay much attention.

Good post! I particularly liked that part above. They were like a handshake, huh? I remember ratings felt liek that. Mainly cuz it was something I could do without really talking to someone. Like HI I like your build, or I think you look nice, etc. And whenever I got a rate, I would reply with a smile or something. Anyhoo ... Handshake. That really makes sense.

I rarely actually look at ratings. The only time I really do is if someone is asking for a refund on a no-transfer item or similar situations. If the person has a lot of negative ratings I'll be less inclined to extend the benefit of the doubt, but that's only if my BS detector is already going off. That doesn't happen very often though. Beyond that I don't find much use for them.

I think you forgot the "i refuse to rate because its stupid but feel free to rate me" people(me)

im something like

22 -4
28 -1
34 -1
10 0

Same here. Mine are slowly expiring since the changeover, and I really couldn't care less.

44, 0
51, 0
32, 0
53, 0

Feel sorry for the poor newbies, like me, who ain't got much of any rates at all. Or worse, those who were targeted by certain people who hang out in the welcome area (or did) and have more negatives than positive and they've barely even STARTED.

I don't rate much of anybody cause it costs so much. And nobody rates me much, though several nice people have done so, especially when I first started.

The whole thing is so skewed now anyway - paying $25 now as opposed to $1 in your rating hay days - it doesn't seem fair, even with the dwindling, and doesn't seem like the thing it used to be at all, so I don't think many new people bother with it much.

I think I should get good build ratings from everybody, not only because my house is coming along nicely, but because it has been so incredibly frustrating, with all the bugs (see Jeffrey Gomez's thread in the building forum).

Y'all come give me a bunch of good build ratings, and I might feel better.

coco

Coco, remind me to have all my alts rate you, you deserve it.