Rating system overhaul

[buddah]

Let me see if I can explain things so you understand what I am trying to convey.

 

The vast majority of the time that the staff and Dark0ne have spent here has been dealing with those that are unable to comprehend the most basic of things, be nice to the other members of the community. Basically treating each other with dignity and respect.

 

In the past year, 90% of our time has been trying to keep with the deluge of bs ratings, trolling comments and flames under control. The remaining 10 percent of our time was spent helping members of the community with site or system issues. With the implementation of the new rating system, the volume of forum reports has decreased by over 90%, removing the temptation so to speak. This single action has given the staff and Dark0ne time to implement the changes that we (he) wanted to make for quite some time, but lacked the available man hours to accomplish. Some of us have a pet project we have been working on for quite some time, these projects (hopefully) will benefit the entire community.

[crashpilot]

Let me see if I can explain things so you understand what I am trying to convey.

 

The vast majority of the time that the staff and Dark0ne have spent here has been dealing with those that are unable to comprehend the most basic of things, be nice to the other members of the community. Basically treating each other with dignity and respect.

 

In the past year, 90% of our time has been trying to keep with the deluge of bs ratings, trolling comments and flames under control. The remaining 10 percent of our time was spent helping members of the community with site or system issues. With the implementation of the new rating system, the volume of forum reports has decreased by over 90%, removing the temptation so to speak. This single action has given the staff and Dark0ne time to implement the changes that we (he) wanted to make for quite some time, but lacked the available man hours to accomplish. Some of us have a pet project we have been working on for quite some time, these projects (hopefully) will benefit the entire community.

 

Thank you and everyone running this site for providing the Oblivion community with a platform that has something A lot of something) for everyone, Modders and users alike and taking your figures into account there may be even more in the future.

 

I suppose the fast majority does accept the new and in my opinion far better system, the few that don't - well so be it!

You can't please everyone.

[Smith099]

With the implementation of the new rating system, the volume of forum reports has decreased by over 90%...

 

It's gone down that much?!

 

In ten days?

Edited July 15, 2009 by Smith099

[Dark0ne]

I'd say more than 90%.

[lonewolfkai]

I'd say more than 90%.

 

wow! i wonder though if this is just because people are still getting used to the new system, the calm before the storm so to speak. i hope not for you guys' sake. that's rediculous having to spend 90% of time moderating rather than participating in the community.

[LupoTheButcher]

It's possible that my reference to the decline and fall of FileFront was not fully understood by people whose defensive aggression seems to spring from a position of weakness. I'll try again.

 

The Nexus is a mod collective. It is one of many Oblivion mod collectives, all of which allow users to download mods written by authors. Please bear with me -- some people require a cold shower and a pot of coffee before attacking the big picture.

 

Mod authors are the source of product, just as the Sun is the source of all energy. Mod authors produce because they are driven. Ten-year-old games have regularly-updated mods because the authors can't stop, they are driven. (Operation Flashpoint, from the late 90s, has fresh mods falling out of the walls even now. If mods were illegal, OFP would continue add-ons of new weapon systems on pirate networks.)

 

Mod authors produce. Mod users consume. Sophisticated mod users offer feedback, and serious mod users offer useful feedback, positive and negative. This is ecology.

 

In the middle, there are content aggregators. They make it easy for authors to upload and update, and simple for consumers to download and comment. In an open market, some middles complicate things for their providers and consumers, and some don't. An open market provides several channels for providers and consumers to interact. (Quick question - how many mod teams does the Nexus host, or have exclusive contracts with? I think the answer is zero, but I could be wrong.)

 

If free content providers stop providing content, the consumers go away. If the consumers go away, the free content providers find more rewarding channels to provide, er, FREE CONTENT. If a middle-man in a free market turns into a snarling, self-justifying bowel blockage, the providers and the consumers re-connect elsewhere, with a minimum of effort and inconvenience.

 

If the middle-man is seriously devoted to buying cheap and selling dear, he and his cronies will stick it out to the bitter end, offering three-year-old content to anyone willing to pay a premium for it. This has happened many times, and will happen many more. But it's not interesting or important, once the providers and the consumers have made other arrangements.

 

I hope I haven't offended anyone.

[HectorShiroi]

I like the "endorsement" mode, but the fact that you can't endorse if not downloaded 3 hour before is weird, to remember that you want endorse a file you must track it and most users don't care about it (so this means less endorsements).

Well so imho there will be a decrease of votes, because people click "endorse" and then it says "you must wait 3 hours, play the mod etc etc"... so they leave it there and no more.

I tryed to endorse a file before download it and it stopped my vote for 15 mins (ok I think that's right because is for people that vote in negative only to bother others)... after about 5 hours, when I turned on my pc, I tryed to vote that file (I must track them now) and it said the same thing! "you must wait 15 mins etc etc".

 

Before most people vote looking at other rates (if good they'll think the mod is good, so to not lose time they rate and download) and for the idea of the mod; then download and play (If the mod is new posted people will rate only after play I think), returning to that page mod only if there are updates.

This is what I think, btw this is the best FO3 mod server (and also TESnexus for Ob4 is good) there is in the net :D

 

PS: sorry if I made mistakes in writing but I'm not english/american and so somethimes I can write wrong words. :)

[LHammonds]

Let me see if I can explain things so you understand what I am trying to convey.

 

The vast majority of the time that the staff and Dark0ne have spent here has been dealing with those that are unable to comprehend the most basic of things, be nice to the other members of the community. Basically treating each other with dignity and respect.

 

In the past year, 90% of our time has been trying to keep with the deluge of bs ratings, trolling comments and flames under control. The remaining 10 percent of our time was spent helping members of the community with site or system issues. With the implementation of the new rating system, the volume of forum reports has decreased by over 90%, removing the temptation so to speak. This single action has given the staff and Dark0ne time to implement the changes that we (he) wanted to make for quite some time, but lacked the available man hours to accomplish. Some of us have a pet project we have been working on for quite some time, these projects (hopefully) will benefit the entire community.

Ya know, I have not stopped to think about it but you are absolutely right. Before I became a moderator, I was all over the file section trying to help each and every new modder with bits of advice I have picked up along the way. I have not actually downloaded or even suggested including a readme file (was well-known for that) in ages. The vast majority of my time was going to the Report Manager and handing issues, replying to PMs or going into the modding sections of the forums to reply/help where I could.

 

Those that knew me before I became a moderator thought I was some sort of spambot spewing out the same bits of advice on nearly every file uploaded. hehehe. I miss those days.

 

I have just read through all these posts and I am a bit disappointed with several of the comments and wanted to jump into the replies but decided to read through everything first.

 

I think Dark0ne was very clear and took an exceptional amount of time detailing what was changed and why. More so than what most professional programmers can do. It is also understood that most people dislike change and this is a major change for those whose existence on the Nexus revolved around ratings or weighed them very heavily. I have always said to take ratings with a grain of salt among all the other information provided. There will NEVER be a silver bullet for showing which are the best mods in the best way.

 

Somebody had already mentioned GreaseMonkey scripts and that is exactly what I was going to recommend...but not to just create a single variable to watch but several variables to give a better (widescreen) picture. It might be worth some investigation on what all can be done with GreaseMonkey scripts since it can all be done on the client-side and not impact the server. :D

 

I also believe that no modder should rely solely upon or expect a rating system to gain feedback on how well or poorly their mod is done. It is nothing more than a popularity number. If a modder wishes to receive constructive feedback on how to improve their mod, they need to look toward the comments. I even recommend providing a pre-made "review" form that members can copy/paste into their comment/review which would be far more helpful for the author to gain critical feedback and for the user to have a more structured idea about the mod and how to give feedback based on what it does and what the author is interested in hearing about. I read somewhere that the "positive" comments are worthless...but that cannot be farther from the truth. If you have a mod that does many things, it is good to hear what in particular people liked the most...which can help you make sure you do not change that part.

 

With that said, I think the best thing that could possibly happen is to have the capability for members give a kind of kudos/thumbs up to any particular post/comment so if there are 1,000 posts in a comment log, the most "respected" reviews can somehow be found without having to wade through all of them. hehehe...good luck figuring that one out. ;)

 

Also, with the total votes posted for each number (1-10), where are all the people that said we do not allow 1/10 votes and that you'd be auto-banned if you voted 1/10? There are as many 1/10 votes as there were 8/10 votes. ;) Of course, the 1/10 votes would be far greater if the trash votes were not removed (when I say trash, it is not equal to 1/10 but the reason for it). And no, I am not looking for a reply on this...just thought it was funny.

 

I think the 3 hour wait is fine but it is obvious that this can be adjusted as needed. The main issue is that the value is global and does not take into account if the mod uploaded has content for 5 minutes or an epic 10-hours. It would be really cool if the author could pick the amount of time needed before somebody could vote on it...such as a drop-down selection for the amount of hours (0-10) but I do not know how much overhead that would cause on the site. Just a thought.

 

LHammonds

[Crowbennett08]

This is absolutely Fabulous! Thank you Dark0ne, i think this solution really does handle a lot of the trouble the site was having.

 

I'm not really back on full-force, as i've had a natural disaster that destroyed my computer....

 

But on the DL page, it seems to be a better draw for files that are listed :D that's great.

 

CROW

[Crowbennett08]

@ Dark0ne RE: "i'd say more than 90%"

 

man,.... that really is tragically unfortunate. What a damn shame that you cannot enjoy the same liberties we do.

 

In my eyes, that really is a crime. For users to cause trouble and strife in a community that has only given them so many cool things they would otherwise never have.

 

You once had said something to the effect of "this is not a democracy here" and i couldn't agree more. You seem far more patient and forgiving than I, because i would simply go on an unabashed account deleting rampage until i was satisfied that the users left were mature and thankful for the nexus.

 

It IS a privelege to be here, not a RIGHT. I just wish that people understood that, especially NEW users.

 

as i've said like a million times already, i've never seen problems as bad as the ones occuring recently in the TES nexus.

 

but like i said before, i would've just indiscrimately mini-nuked all suspicious accounts until i was satisfied that all retards were gone.

 

Thanks again. i posted again after i read your comment. sorry for flooding.

 

CROW