Separating the Jewels from the Junk in DesktopX

Yes, its called appropriate usage of the rating system.
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You're right EH, but it'll never happen as long as people rate things off the screenshot, before they even try it. Hand out 10's to their buds, and heros. (8, 9, and 10 should be rare scores in my opinion) Refuse to give ratings to poor skins, because they don't want to discourage, or hurt any feelings.  Other than that, the system works fine..................

You're right EH, but it'll never happen as long as people rate things off the screenshot, before they even try it. Hand out 10's to their buds, and heros. (8, 9, and 10 should be rare scores in my opinion) Refuse to give ratings to poor skins, because they don't want to discourage, or hurt any feelings. Other than that, the system works fine..................

Are you suggesting people actually rate on the quality of the skin or object?

Koa, If you were to buy a subscirption, would that enable you to abuse the rating system? Or do you have to get a promo?

Koa, If you were to buy a subscirption, would that enable you to abuse the rating system?

Yes.... 

They should onlylet people with higher access rate.

i could care less about the ratings. I would just be happy that something I made got uploaded to wincustomize, like a wall or a WB skin but of course not those stupid dock icons of mine.

Ratings are over rated. Even if I get a subsciption I will not rate.

They should onlylet people with higher access rate.

I think you have to be level 4 or higher to rate.

I dont think you should be able to 'buy' the rating privilege...It should be reserved solely for those who have made some other contribution to the community.

Whatever. I'm sorry that some of you don't feel that my $50/yr OD subscription plus my Wincustomize subscription is enough of a "contribution" for you. I guess I could put up landscape walls too. Could I vote then?

Welp, luckily Stardock seems to realize that financial contributions are also kinda important to run the community. Too bad you don't.

Its not "buying" ratings privilege. Not all of us can contribute via making skins. By buying a subscription I have contributed to the site and feel I deserve the privilege of rating skins if I so choose.
I do, however, agree that is often a lot of "junk"..... but one man's junk is another man's treasure. I enjoy finding the little treasures scattered here.

Whoa SS, slow down...

Im not saying that *You* are the one responsable for some of the ratings being unfiar. And I realize that financial contributions are essential to the sucess of wincustomize. What Im suggesting is that the rating privilege is taken off the list of goodies that comes with an OD or Wc subscription. You still get all the other things...Edit message, unlimited d/loads and whatnot, but you dont get to rate...

The rating system can easily be abused by one person who goes around and (Like Koasati said) gives high ratings to his/her 'heroes' and low ratings to the people who he/she just doesnt like for some reason. Or, rating by ScreenShot alone.

You can be a better judge of the quality of something if you have made one yourself.
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if you look at the number of ratings on many dxobjects they are very few. Maybe if more people voted with their true opinions there wouldn't be a problem

It is a reasonable reward for those who contribute financially [and thus have a vested interest in the site] to be able to rate.

The downside is that the ratings are not coming just from fellow skinners/artists who know the effort/s involved, but also from people who are 'just' users/appreciators of the works.

The upside of THAT is at least more people get to rate and ultimately more people's ratings means a more 'accurate' determination.

That said, ther's still a number of people who come to notice, who have 'curious' rating methods and thus remain under scrutiny....  When something really 'fishy' occurs it's dealt with.

As with all features of the site, the Rating 'system' is under review...

I have only contributed a few ratings, and I never base my rating on if I am a friend of the author of the work or if I am a fan of the author. I base my rating on the work as I see it.



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EventHorizon you are takling rubbish. The rating system has been discussed so many times on this board its not funny anymore. Its not going to change. But for you to say the problem will be fixed by revoking the rating priviliges of those who only contribute fiancially is absurd and insulting. I would venture to say, overall, the rating system is used very very little. By the way the Admins can identify those abusing the system if they are advised a problem exists.

Do you only purchase comodities that you have made yourself or do you look at them, try them out and if they work for you, then purchase.

Ande...EH was just proposing a possible solution....it's not 'rubbish', in fact many people would rather only be judged [rated] by their skinning peers, however others want as many people to be able to rate as possible.

You are right, however, that the topic has been discussed many times....but it just may yet change...

BTW....abuse of the ratings occurs from both 'camps'...the non-skinners AND the skinners...

We are discussing a fairly radical change to the ratings system for this next Spring.

Yes, I understand that you are not talking about me, specifically, but I am part of that group, and I don't care for the implication that site suscribers are buying their way in to vote.

The rating system can easily be abused by one person who goes around and (Like Koasati said) gives high ratings to his/her 'heroes' and low ratings to the people who he/she just doesnt like for some reason. Or, rating by ScreenShot alone.

Understood, and I see your point. But on that note, couldn't a skinner/artist just as easily abuse the rating system by say, giving poor ratings to their competition? There was a thread on here a short while ago where this very thing happened. this.

You can be a better judge of the quality of something if you have made one yourself.

Again, understand, but are the skins supposed to be admired and judged by others who make them, or also admired and judged by those who are heavy users of them? It could have been a huge project to make, but if it's not useable, that work doesn't make it a 10.
I think I know what you mean though...I see some great skins that really aren't my style or colors or whatever, I'll still give them kudos for the nice work.

I wish I'd never heard of ratings now. Sorry, no hard feelings I hope.



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No Problem.

one approach to sorting though the DX library is to use the tick boxes to look at certain types of objects. this way you can ignore most of the zoomer items, and focus more on things that show off the power of DX.

I have found searching DX objects as a chore... searching for any "good" skins has become a chore. I use sorting by rating if I can't remember a skin's name and have to spend some time looking for them. (My hope is that the "good" skin would get a high score, mostly it didn't). Also, wanting to see the lastest and greatest skins, I sort by rating but only to find "junk" with 10 ratings.

A good example was Adam's Aquamarina 5.5 DEMO DX theme. He received a 10, even though he clearly said it was a demo, and it wasn't completely finished. Now, if the finished skin recieve a 10, I wouldn't see a problem, but the demo version? (I'm using the theme right now, so I'm not hating). Just pointing out that the demo verison SHOULD NOT receive the same score as the finished verison.

Suggestion: Setup two rating systems. One for everyone to rate (subcribers and non), so opinions would be more balance... still tainted, but more balance. The other for a select group to rate. Those that are loyal, that knows what a "10 rating" skins should be. I can't vote, so I don't know how the system works, but also, how about enabling the ability to rate only after the person has downloaded the skins.

The Aquamarine theme up right now is a demo? Can't wait to see what his finished work looks like then.