What is a "Rating"

Ok... now that I am more calm after I found out that I will NOT get my First Land as promised, and supposedly entitled.... boo hoo -- I am on to a new topic.

Because I am painfully new, what the heck is a rating and how do I get one, what is it doing in my profile, why don't I have any numbers when others do... etc etc etc.

I know that originally it was tied to L$'s for some odd reason, but that doesn't explain why people who are younger than me have #'s in their profile and I don't. People have "given" me things, why isn't there a number there?

Does anyone have an answer for a lil' ol newbie??

Thanks in advance... Meggy

ratings dont count for much mainly because they were heavily abused at one point hehe but basically if someone likes how you are dressed or your build or finds you to be a neat person they can rate you by clicking on your avatar

people rate less now because it now costs 25L per rating once upon of time they were free plus there was a negative rating as well

Then peopel started having rating parties and it really meant very little so the system was axed and a more umm tame system was put in without the negative side and with a money sink

ratings are one of those things that used to matter , but now dont.

Like stipends (for basic and reductions), First land, dwell, developer incentives

Soon to be additions Im guessing - Stipends (for most) , Traffic numbers

Eventual addition - Premium accounts entirely.

For the record, I always smile when someone rates me.

I guess I would smile too..?? but... since it has yet to happen, again, is it merely an "ego" thing, or are there other meanings attached.

If it isn't really used, why is there a section on the profile.

Should I be offended/mad/sad that I have yet to receive a rating??

Lets have a little correction here, yes there was later abuseof rating, but it did not occure as offen as people say these days. ALSO, remeber there was around 35,000 avies on sl at that time. The amount of those rating parties where for a small time. AND REMEBER rates was 5l PER RATE! NOT 25L PER RATE. There was also "NEG RATES"- reduced your weekly pay don`t for that...... It helped with weekly earning really but not everyone rated for increasing their pay. I was not one of them, these days I still rate at times. Well saying they were heavey abused was a part of it. But not everyone abused this. I did not.

hehe no dont be offended I have been here a year and have 5 ratings total. People ignore them now as they have become something that means nothing I never rate anyone but i still rave about certain people's stuff

If ratings were of any significance I would rate and rave and hope to be rated but i'm not. Every once and awhile someone will rate me for a build or my clothing or whatnot hehe.

hehe i thought they were free and the 25L per rating is now not then I'm just going on what they were used for as mostly heresay and the reason why some people ahve like thousands .. and others have like none.

The avies that have huge piles of them are mostly the ones that are much older then myself and yes I heard they affected income from LL in some way which is one reason they got removed like dwell was removed over time due to what appeared to be some abuse (camping chairs etc were blammed although the chairs still exist it proves that the dwell pay excuse for camping chairs was not the sole reason that they were out there )\

In any even they are just numbers now and fluff and I pretty much ignore them and so do most people from what I have seen heheh

also looks like you took it personally sorry its just an observation and I asked why avatars of this certain age have like 123645656897 ratings and most people after the certain time period have maybe 100 or less

I still get that feeling Wild.......
Some people are explaining it was only abused, but really not everyone did this. And the population was so so small inj those arounf 35,000 users. Yes there was rating parties but.

heheh no they cost 1l then 5l and then 25L after jan 29, 2005. Well not everyone abused the system. Its part of the SL history. And Not everyone got a alot of money. But your forgetting "NEG RATINGS" reduced your weekly pay also. And that too was a game people played to hurt people pay per week. It was not only one way pos ratings here......after Jan 29, 2005 The game changed alot! Gaming came in and was the next big thing, but that too was a short term thing on sl. The Camping parting to appearing OCT 2005. Well you think what you like, but unless you lived that era you will not understand that part of SL history was special. People were more friendly and kind. My 3 yen worth of answers to this topic.

Usagi

Getting ratings is generally uncommon. People who get a lot of ratings these days usually participate in dedicated roleplaying areas or work in clubs, both environments where folks get to really know each other. Most of my ratings have come from friends. Maybe about a third from random strangers/acquaintences.

The cynical answer for why the ratings are still there is it's a money sink. When you rate someone, those Lindens go back to LL. The happy answer is that it's just a nice thing to do, to let someone know you think they're cool/pretty/talented. Only thing I don't like is if someone rates you when you're not online, you never know who it was, or what they had to say about you. You only get these little notifications if you happen to be around at the time (which is most of the time, but I have gotten ratings from anonymous strangers when I wasn't in-world).

Yeah unfortunately this is a side effect of growth

but this was the reason i was given somewhat similar to the reasons of dwell removal and of course the present issue of removal of first land. I for one dont believe first land was that heavily abused I could be wrong I heard and saw the cries however that is linden labs reason for removing it so i stick with my "originaL statements" hehe

I actualy like larger communities when they are small the interpersonal drama can be much worse then when they are large and I really hate it hehe (some peopel thrive on that social drama stuff and even claim to enjoy it as they find it intriguing and fascinating )

/rates Wildefire >3

Ok, your post makes me feel so much better!! Generally, those that have given me things have said why, and it is well-taken. Or, someone has said, you look really, pretty/nice/whatever and I enjoy the complement. I guess I thought I was missing something and that the ratings "meant" something that would, in time, effect my SL experience. I would much rather have the connection of a complement/criticism than a number in my profile.

Thanks... much better now

Aw shucks. *clap clap clap* Yay!

When I started it was still fairly common to get rated even though it didn't mean anything anymore (or maybe it was just because I was new) and then it suddenly dropped off to being more sporadic.

If I meet someone new and I notice they don't have any ratings yet, I'll feel more inclined to give them their first rating if I feel they earned one (sounds more negative than it should) and it usually makes them pretty happy.

Getting rated is fun (especially if it's not just getting rated because you rated them first) and it does make you smile, the fact that it doesn't really mean anything anymore doesn't really matter I think, it's the fact that they bothered and it did cost them something, however much of a trivial amount L$25 may be.

Every now and then you run into a guy who's using it as a pick-up line for everything female in sight "X rated you positively. Hey, you look pretty, wanna go do something?" and I could really do without those.

As far as the meaning of ratings go, I feel it still says something about someone's personality. A lack of ratings doesn't really mean anything, and neither does a high amount of them, but if someone has received a fair amount of ratings and never given any themselves, that does say a whole lot.

I have no idea what your refering too....

Wild made a good point, but people at least some of the old timers still rate when possible. Rating is something people still like to show ones true feeling on people abilities on sl. Which ever way you look at rates these days they are part of Second Life History.....

Yippee! Yippee!!

I guess??!! (ok, so it does feel nice to actually get one)

I got my very first rate for "Appearance"... ok, but I have no clue who it came from, or when. Is there anyway to find out??

Meggy

A waste of L$25

I have a question since Meg was nice enough to bring it up. Where does the "given" rating come from? Whenever I try to rate someone, appearance, building, and behavior are the only fields listed. And yet, on my profile and on the profiles of others, I see a "given" score. For some reason, my "given" rating is currently 4 and I have no idea why. I'm always giving people stuff. I don't like to think of myself as stingy, in fact, I have handed out more freebies and stuff I no longer want to absolute strangers than I can shake a stick at. And yet, my given score is 4. Of course, I shouldn't care, but this has been gnawing at me for some time now.

So, uh, Dnel -- I'm guessin' it wasn't from you..... LOL!!

Given is the number of ratings you've given .

What probably threw you off is the fact that every individual rating counts, and not really the number of times you rated someone. For instance: if you rated someone on appearance, behaviour and building, and then someone else for appearance only, you get the 4 you have in your profile. You'd also have 4 if you rated 2 people, each for appearance and behaviour for instance; or just 4 times one of the three options.

Hope that made sense .

The 'Given' number is the number of times you've rated an avatar. You receive one 'given' point for each avatar you rate regardless of the number of things you rate him/her for (appearance/behaviour/building).

No offence, but you aren't old enough to talk about ratings abuse. The system had already diluted the ratings payout by 10-2004. You could make a FORTUNE by a well timed rating abuse party. And it did occur every bit as often as people say it did. I should know, I was one of them.

edit to add ... and I do believe they used to cost just $1 not $5 PER RATE