Rating stuffs,

[PandaGirl]

just been in a heated discussion with a 12 year old about rating downloads. it ended with her calling me rude and a chicken and a babbon (yes, that's how she wrote it).
it left me wondering how often you guys actually rate your downloads. like i don't mean leave a comment, but when a site has a star rating system how often do you use it? and do you rate honestly if at all?

i have a shitload of downloads, and honestly i don't have time to rate them all. i will however leave a comment for the creator if i like something enough. i believe that CC should be made for the joy of making and not solely for the applause.

any pokings, and more though out insults welcome.

[Gwill]

I only rate things if my oppinion of an item is considerably different from the current rating.  Which mostly makes me a downgrader.
I only rate things I have actually tried and seen how works in game.
Ratings are never representative so I don't care about them.  Most peolple only hand out 1 or 5 stars, and never the ones inbetween.

[jrd]

I don't use star ratings. People always give either full (5 or 10) or none anyway, making it useless.
I do thank (on MTS2) if the mod is well worked out and I use it.

[J. M. Pescado]

I only give negative ratings. Positive ratings are lies and propaganda.

[TaWanda]

I think ratings are too much a popularity thing. I don't often give them and never actually use them to judge something by. How many times have you downloaded something that was highly rated or had a bunch of "this is great" type comments, only to find out that that in fact the DL looks horrible or doesn't even work properly?  I definitely leave comments for those types of situations. Also  I will leave comments on something that I think is very well done, or fufills a particular need in my game (like the invisble curbsidetrash can )

[rohina]

I rate stories, but not downloads. I will also leave comments if I have something particular to say.

[ZiggyDoodle]

I never rate them cause I don't know how they will work in my game until the stuff is installed.  Why praise something that may be crap?   Nor do I download anything based on its rating.

[cwykes]

I look at the number of downloads, not the rating.  I guess the number of downloads is partly about kerb appeal, but things are often downloaded on recommendation by another simmer, so it's a bit better.

[Ambular]

This is going to sound terrible, but I only rate occasionally and if I'm going to get something out of it, like at TSR, because as others have said the five-star system is typically not a very accurate measure of an item's quality.  However, I'll comment if something really tickles me, and I'll always hit the thanks button if there is one (and if it does more than baaaaaah at me.)  :p

[syberspunk]

I usually almost always thank lately. I will randomly rate. Sometimes after I know for sure it works, and whether it works well, sometimes randomly before or after I download, and then, usually based on the assumption that it will work, depending on who the creator is i.e. if they are somewhat trustworthy and reliable, then meh, I'll give 'em a good star rating. If I think they're crap, I might downrate, even if I don't download the item. Heh. How's that for asshattyness?

But that's only if I'm feeling particularly asshatty, and/or if the item just seems totally worthless, has been done before (and done better by someone more reliable). I was doing that for a bit, back when there was like a splurge of "new" "modders" over at MTS2 who seemed to basically just be totally copying someone else's work, like literally copying as in stealing (w/o permission) and taking credit for something, not just borrowing ideas and further developing them or putting their own twist on it.

But mostly, the ratings system just seems kind of pointless. I also have to wonder what makes an item a "featured" item anyways. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of neat looking stuff there that certainly deserves to be featured, but then there's also a lot of random crap that is just, meh, averagely mediocre. *shrugs* I'm talking about MTS2 cuz I don't go to TSR. I mostly rarely never download non hacky type objects. Although a rating system is theoretically a good idea, concept wise, it never seems to work out so great. Almost everything I see on there has like 5 stars anyway. And most people don't exactly have the most discriminating of tastes, so how can you trust it? It definitely often appears to be more of a popularity thing. Although I am grateful that the "new" thanks system and thanks posts help cut down on some of the spam, I just don't know how reliable that feedback is, since users can easily thank or rate without even trying the item in-game and giving it an actual, meaningful evaluation.

Ste

[cwykes]

This is going to sound terrible, but I only rate occasionally and if I'm going to get something out of it, like at TSR, because as others have said the five-star system is typically not a very accurate measure of an item's quality.  However, I'll comment if something really tickles me, and I'll always hit the thanks button if there is one (and if it does more than baaaaaah at me.)  :p

TSR has actually abolished the ratings, so we won't pick up points by rating any more.  You probably have to go hang out on their board if you want easy points now.  You can thank if you want to or post in their guest book.  I usually thank people there who make nice elder clothes because there aren't many about and I'd like more...  selfish motive there I suppose.

[jrd]

I am wondering about the MTS2 "featureds" as well. It doesn't seem fair, there is a small clique of creators who seem to get featured over and over again….

[Mmmary]

I once got in a heated discussion on the BBS too. I made a point about there being more than two different ratings. In the end, I don't think they believed me. Personally I would love it if the ratings were used the way they should though. I pride myself in very rarely giving out 1 or 5 star ratings (this is on the official site). I try to rate everything I download, but obviously that doesn't always happen. I also try to keep to the guidelines, or the hover texts or whatever. Some are really very descriptive, like "Ehhh..." for 3 stars Maybe it should be "Ughhh... What is that?"

What I do very much object to is the contests ("Coolest avatars YAY!"). The prizes always seem to be something like 5 star ratings on all your downloads. How fair is that?! I'm surprised they don't do something about that already. I'm naïve that way.

I have some stories on the Exchange, and I think one of them is five stars. Now I know it isn't that good (it's more like... 4 1/2 ), but I have to admit it feels nice 

Oh, and:

I am wondering about the MTS2 "featureds" as well. It doesn't seem fair, there is a small clique of creators who seem to get featured over and over again…

Very true! Example: A month ago or so, Helaene's new clothing set (tunic-type shirts with jeans) got featured the minute it hit the site. I'm not saying her stuff isn't good, because it is, but it makes you wonder. I didn't think the set was that special. I mean do they pay to get featured? Who decides what gets featured and what doesn't?

[J. M. Pescado]

Featuredness is essentially an arbitrary criteria decided at whim by any mod. This is why anything Numenor makes, regardless of actual merit, gets featured immediately. Like that latest gewgaw, his "practice cash register"...hey, it's OK, but it's hardly a revolutionary breakthrough in the frontiers of sims-modding, or even an example of something that is indispensable on its own. But it's from Numenor, and therefore is an instant feature. Similarly story behind all the Exnem crap (which isn't even there anymore) during the reign of LyricLee.

[BastDawn]

Before MTS2 and TSR stopped their rating systems, I used to give a full 5 stars to anything that gained a place in one of my houses or on one of my sims, just so long as I liked it as-is.  Downloads I used for texture ripping I would give 4 or 4.5 stars, provided I got some lasting value from it, and I gave the same ratings to things that looked okay but didn't work out after all.  Crappy stuff got crappy ratings, of course.  It seemed fair to me.   
   I don't go to the Exchange except to read the occasional Legacy story, so I don't know about their system at all.  (I wouldn't know about "benes" unless I'd read the threads here making fun of them.  Part of the ratings system, I assume?)

[PandaGirl]

a few days ago, i left a message in someone's Guestbook on the BBS to answer a question they had. and in reply i got "oh thanks, i've rated your sim page 5 stars". my simpage has literally nothing on it. it has some crap i wrote in my profile when i first signed up and that's it. i've always found it odd i have a 3 star simpage when it's empty. i download from TSR sometimes, mainly their free recolours of stuff i've got from PSMBD, and i don't rate it unless it's something that i use constantly.

i'm quite pleased to be able to discuss this issue, without being called names by 12 year olds. 

[Nepheris]

I only rate the stuff that looks/works great in-game (I'm very picky) and I only comment if I happen to feel like that at the moment. Otherwise it's just snatch-and-use to me.
I don't have time to go comment and rate on everything; I've got better things to do. Such as actually play the game :p

[OpiumGirl]

LOL!! Baboon?  That's extremely funny!

I pretty much follow the "1 or 5" star trend. 
I get pissed if I see crap items (ie hideously ugly seems that people say....oohhh, he's hot! or ooooh she's hot) because it annoys me to no end when people can only see the caked on makeup on all of the sims.  Beneath the makeup is almost always a fugly more hideous than the wrath of Pescado.
I rate sims more often than anything else, and have rarely given a positive rating on one....lol. (i'm a fugly sim nazi)

[Berg]

IMHO you can't rate something you haven't seen in game and tested, right? So rating when you're downloading is a no-no, and I can't arse myself to try and re-locate the download after I actually put in in my game, and tested/looked at it (which can take hours, days or even weeks) so no ratings from me. Or very, very rare ones.
Stories I rate, if I like them. I'm silly I guess, but I can't give low ratings to a stori, how bad I yet may think it is. I feel so sorry for the writer... 

I've been featured twice on MTS2, so I very much like to believe that the featuredness depends on OMG!!!!111how good I am!!11... 

[notveryawesome]

I think that ratings are arbitrary and nonsensical. That said, I do sort things on the Exchange by rating, because there is just too much crap stuff to wade through, and experience has taught me that anything below 3 stars is generally not worth looking at, though I have been pleasantly surprised before. When I do rate things, I am very honest, especially if my rating differs from the majority. There have been things that got 5 stars that I thought deserved only 3 or 4, but were not bad enough to merit a 1, and I voted accordingly. Whether I give thanks depends on how fast or slow the server is on that particular day. If the server is running slowly, I do not bother. I only leave comments if something is spectacularly good, or I like it but there is some problem with it (it overwites a Maxis object or something). If something is total crap, I sometimes offer constructive criticism, but most makers of crap cannot seem to handle any type of critique, constructive or otherwise, so I usually don't bother.

Edited to add: Berg, your avatar is hysterically funny.

[Emma]

I usually post a thanks at MTS2 when I am really impressed by something. I don't rate (apart from stories on the exchange) but I do press the 'thanks' button if I download at MTS2 and at TSR.

[kuronue]

ratings, to be effective, should work like they do on animemusicvideos.org.

you can't rate before downloading, nor on the page you download from. Instead, it keeps a big list of everything you've downloaded. Before you're allowed to see the list (handy if you're on a friend's comp or want to redownload something), you're confronted with a list of downloads you've yet to rate, and you must give them all a rating. That way, you rate them after you've watched, since it's kinda pointless to rate randomly.