Ratings where did they go and why :(

In response to this thread

I realize that ratings had become grossly underused since LL raised the price of a single rating to 25 L$. But I can’t understand why they would completely remove them all together at this time. I mean do they actually try and get any feed back what so ever and See how this may impact the residents or what they may think of doing something like this. who makes these decisions, It just does not make any sense I am very up set about this and just want to understand

They took it away because of database load. That's what I found out searching the forum.

Mandy C

They took ratings away because they caused heavy load on the database, and because they weren't representative - a resident's popularity was far more important than their behaviour, appearance, or building..

Well thats too bad! Will I get back the $linden for the 329 ratings I gave out? My hobby during slow times was reading profiles and rating the ones I thought deserved it. You find so many fun things to do in profiles.

Ratings have been removed and will be replaced by accreditation.
If this implemented correctly it will be a much better system than the ratings as long as it cant be gamed.

Care to give any details on what this "Accredidation " is, or point us to the proper place to read up on it? TIA.

But...the ratings were better than nothing and DID give a fair indication of someone's ability / standing if used properly. When looking at commercial activities such as building, a person's building rating could be seen as much more valuable than their popularity....

...How do you measure "popularity" anyway? The number of people on a Friends list? Hardly representative! The number of groups someone is a member of? Ditto! Surely, as far as Appearance is concerned, people are rated simply because they ARE popular. Ergo, ratings DO have value.....and are missed.

Would have been useful if LL could have managed the Db load until a replacement was ready to use, rather than cutting what is (for quite a lot of people, I'll bet) a reasonably useful measure of an avater's "status" or "ability" in SL!

They also removed them due to the fact that It was offered up on the voting... Many voted against it. It was rather pointless.

That's speculation..

Inara, if you do a search for some old topics on the removal of the rating system.. or.. better yet.. just read here..

/327/c2/177077/1.html
/13/7c/179511/1.html
/327/7e/179603/1.html

If you are really a "new" 2007 player... then you might not realise.. in the beginning the "Rating System" was =seriously= exploited. You can read about that in some of the topics i left links too.

Basically.. there were people with 500+ points in "Building" who had =never= built anything.. because they got them back when the Rating System was only 1L and people exploited it because SL used to give you lindens based on how high your ratings were.

i wasn't there back then... and if i was, admittedly i'd probably have gone along with exploiting the rating system too. i just wanted to say.. .. it really was a bit useless.

If building ratings worked they way they were supposed to, then yes, but unfortunately they didn't. The classic example is that, a while back, an escort had a higher Building rating than several of the acknowledged best builders on the game, simply because she was meeting more people and was also outright asking them to rate her. People who spent the time building, or getting better at building, rather than canvassing ratings lost out even though they were usually better builders.

Hana's also right that in an earlier version of SL, rating someone only cost L$1 - and you got extra L$ in your weekly stipend for being highly rated (everyone got a weekly stipend at that time, because there were no non-Premium accounts). This was meant to be LL's way of rewarding people for good behaviour, but in practice it led to "rating parties" where everyone rated each other positively no matter what because they'd all profit as a result.

Ratings were never so important as reputation. As you find your way through SL, you start to hear about people. It's like real society - names start cropping up in conversation. You get to learn who are the stars through word of mouth. There are no hacks to that, no "rating parties". If you keep hearing that so-and-so has such-and-such a reputation, you can believe it.

No, they didn't. I had some ratings on building... thing is, I really never did create anything. So it said nothing at all.

Ratings were complete useless. High ratings meant mostly you were a long time in game and said not very much about the person self.

For the person wanting the 329 x 25$L back. I disagree, how often did I not pay in the past for things that are not actuel anymore (in SL and RL).
You say profiles reading is fun? I agree... but send someone a tell when you read something you really like, so much more worth as just another rating.

Morwen.

It so happens I received an IM from a total stranger, saying I looked great and that she enjoyed reading my profile. That was so good to hear, much better then a rating!

*waves at Morwen*

Mandy C

Really?

I think my next post will prove you wrong

Link 1 forum thread discussing this:

/327/65/180465/1.html

Link 2 SL wiki entry about certification in SL

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SL_Certification

That was your next post... I don't think you proved anything, lol!

Thanks Rocket. I do recall the discussion when it came up initially, although I hadn't read the Wiki. This plan could be a valuable thing but it can also be misused just as much as the old system, which was absolutely useless, in my opinion. But it might work to a degree. reading the thread again , I found something that TERRIFIED me however.



Oh please say this is just a speculation. It's bad enough the Corporates are gonna get their greasy thumbs in Second Life, please don't tell me those idiots are gonna start showing up?

GAH if this is true, guaranteed we go disney now