Should there be a punishment for not rating mods?

[glensh]

Okay the idea of using a punishment or simply using the word may have been a bit rash. But at least a system that encourages people to give some kind of feedback may help.

[Netwit2008]

I'm almost anal about rating mods. It's one of my pet peeves too. BUT, I do have some mods I downloaded but never rated. A few, I never got around to trying, as installation was too tricky, tedious, or had other required mods I didn't want to use. A couple more, I tried every way possible to install, but the mods never worked for me. However, I see many people it DID work for. So I take that as I'm probably doing something wrong and leave it at that, rather than going back and giving a bad rating. I've never given a thumbs down. Yet I have left a comment as to why I couldn't rate (problems with it, caused CTD, etc.)

 

There is a reminder system that tells you what mods you haven't rated or need to rate. You can set it to be turned off or on. To be "forced" to rate, would mean I would have to give some negatives. I'd rather not rate and say why, for the simple fact, I admire anyone who gives it a try, even if it doesn't turn out so well. The comment gives them the necessary feedback, while not bumming them out, or unfairly giving a negative. So I long ago decided, the system was probably good, as it is.

 

Just my two cents on it anyway.

[Balakirev]

I'm almost anal about rating mods. It's one of my pet peeves too. BUT, I do have some mods I downloaded but never rated. A few, I never got around to trying, as installation was too tricky, tedious, or had other required mods I didn't want to use. A couple more, I tried every way possible to install, but the mods never worked for me. However, I see many people it DID work for. So I take that as I'm probably doing something wrong and leave it at that, rather than going back and giving a bad rating. I've never given a thumbs down. Yet I have left a comment as to why I couldn't rate (problems with it, caused CTD, etc.)

 

Pretty much my position, except that I have given a thumbs down on one mod unsupported mod that actually breaks the game. There are also a few mod categories where my ratings come much later:

 

1) Quest and dungeon mods that I install and deliberately forget about, until much later--because I'm involved in something else in the game, or a much higher level is recommended, or I'd just rather hit things by surprise.

 

2) Armor/weaponry mods that I'm gathering for a large merge.

 

Punishing users for not rating? I question that the ratings we'd get by threats would be worth anything. Even as it is, there are so many blank-faced "Hi! Love the mod!" that reveal nothing. Forcing people to post ratings in order to download would probably generate a lot more, unless someone actually moderates the responses--and that's annoying make-work that would raise tempers and achieve little, in my opinion.

 

Best idea, I think: just go on rating mods, and let the next person do what they want.

[LHammonds]

But at least a system that encourages people to give some kind of feedback may help.

Like a system were comments can be "voted" on? Kind of like YouTube's thumbs up/down on comments? But tie it in to the user's profile to show a kind of ratio or number of comments/reviews that were thought of as helpful? I would think that if the author gives a reviewer a thumbs up vote for a review on his upload page, that reviewer should get a 10-fold bonus as opposed to other members that saw the review as helpful to them. That is something I'd like seen done...something that elevates those members that give helpful feedback on uploaded mods...something separate from the kudos system but tied directly to each game...something that shows that a particular member is a valued reviewer of Oblivion mods or Fallout3 mods. Something that can show the "top reviewers" for a particular game. THAT would be great.

 

I also think it would be awesome if comments on mod pages could somehow be "tagged" and set aside as the best or most useful comments in the thread. It can be painful to go through an uploaded mod with 1,000+ comments and you KNOW there are some crown jewels in there but you have to spend a great deal of time wading through miscellaneous postings.

 

LHammonds

[jaysus]

@LH

wouldnt that encourage modders to give points to people that say "you rule! take my sister!" instead of just promoting people that say "you should change DXT5 to DXT1 to make this mod playable"?

honest modders would prolly give the latter those points while "newbs" (for the lack fo better term) would promote the former.

and couldnt the kudo system just be used for that? i never thought of it that way but i guess giving kudos to a constructive comment would prolly be a good thing...

[Naikado2]

As stated before, even though I planned to say it before reading the second post, downloads in itself is a plus. If it has a high amount of downloads, that obviously means it interests people. And if it has negative endorsements, that means it's not a very good mod, and just looks so. I don't believe punishment is the right way to go with this, and ALL communities have people that just take. They become outcasts, and all is okay in the world... er, at least in our world... :3

[ytsejam91]

I also think it would be awesome if comments on mod pages could somehow be "tagged" and set aside as the best or most useful comments in the thread. It can be painful to go through an uploaded mod with 1,000+ comments and you KNOW there are some crown jewels in there but you have to spend a great deal of time wading through miscellaneous postings.

 

That would be REALLY nice: I'm used to read some comments while downloading mod, so that I know what to expect from the mod, like problems others encountered etc...

But when you look at files like Ren's Beauty pack (just as an example), you see 1000 comments that say

lol it dosn work im totaly noob at this i dl it and it says its Rar file can u help plz?

and about 100 really useful comments. In this cases multiple discussion on files are just a godsend.

 

Anyway I feel like even if nearly noone rates the mods he\she dowloads, the downloads number gives a nice idea of the mod quality, along with the comments. I agree with anyone here saying it would be quite a pain for moderators if we had always to rate files, and then it would result in hundreds of "lol nice"-like ratings, and that woul be quite useless, don't you think?

[LHammonds]

@LH

wouldnt that encourage modders to give points to people that say "you rule! take my sister!" instead of just promoting people that say "you should change DXT5 to DXT1 to make this mod playable"?

Any system has the potential of being abused but if done right, the people abusing it or those gaining the benefit of it being misused would be the minority and thus, off the radar.

 

and couldnt the kudo system just be used for that? i never thought of it that way but i guess giving kudos to a constructive comment would prolly be a good thing...

The kudos idea works well for a forum but on a site that is growing in more gaming areas than just TES, it might be better to have a "kudos" more inline to the game area. If you were new here and saw the kudos beside my name, you wouldn't have the slightest idea if these were because I give good advice, made an awesome nudity mod or was just a site robot.

 

I guess I am invisioning a more complex kudos system...one where you can give a kudos for various areas of interest...and in be able to give more than just one in total. An endorsement for activities if you will...like saying "I endorse this:"

"review"

"comment"

"mod"

"image"

etc.

 

And each of these categories can be rolled up on the user profile:

 

Review Kudos: 25

Post Kudos: 12

Modding Kudos: 5

Image Kudos: 3,409

 

It's one of those pipe dreams I've had and I don't actually see it being feasible to ever become implemented but it would be a nice community feature. There are many "uploader" reward features but the only "feedback" reward mechanism is the kudos system which is VERY generic in terms of how large and diversified this site is.

 

I have created a Skills Search utility that was part of a help desk application I wrote many years ago that I think would be awesome for a community like this...however I don't see where I'd have the time to develop it. People create IDs on the system, place checkmarks beside areas that they have any kind of experience with and the next page drills down to the level of experience such as Novice through Expert. Once filled out, anyone in the company could easily find the people that have skills in Excel that are at or above a certain level. The same could go for our community to find people with certain sets of skills such as Expert in Blender and Construction Set. Wow, how did I get here...I'll shut up now.

 

LHammonds

[David Brasher]

I think there aren't enough people who rate and comment on mods. A modder may make a mod which is pushing the envelope a bit. He or she may not be certain it will work on other people's computers. But after upload, he or she might have to wait for a week or so before anyone posts a comment indicating whether or not the mod actually functions.

 

I think the new rating system of endorsements and thumbs-downs encourages non-voting. People who might have voted in the past don't do it anymore on mods they have mixed emotions about. An endorsement means you love it. A thumbs down means you hate it. What if you kind of like it or mildly dislike it? There is no vote for that.

 

But the old voting system was seriously messed up too. It was the fault of ignorant people. It was supposed to be 10 == "I love it!" 5 == "It was average." and 1 == "I hate it!" But people corrupted the system and it came out being: 10 == "It was okay, and maybe I love it." and 9 or lower == "I really really hate it."

 

What if the system was changed so that you had to vote on one mod for every five you downloaded? (It doesn't matter which one you vote on, even if you downloaded it months ago.) Mods are free and people don't have to pay money for them, but would it be that painful for people to have to pay for 20% of their mods with an opinion or comment? Some people love to express opinions and never seem to shut up. You hear them running off their mouths in public places. It is odd that people hate to express opinions about mods.

[jaysus]

@LH

 

WOOT!

lol...

nah really when i was still in uni i had a similiar idea, a skill level system similiar to how we know it in many rpg games, t'would make it alot simpler to see what you still need to get better in, what courses you still have to tak and so on until you reach the next "level" (bachelor, master, etc)

i guess thats basicly what you meant but more for personal use, however using it in a company or community might actually be a nice experiment at least though i guess it would work well :)

 

its nice to see i wasnt alone with that idea all along hehe,

 

if you write programs and stuff maybe just create such a thing, some company might actually want it, probably a lot of them, its kinda tideous to check each individuals records to know what they can do and only your close co workers usually know what you are really capable of, it could enable companies to act more flexible and be more productive due to a streamlined process of finding the right person for a job/task

 

having different kudos is a good idea too in my eyes, maybe we should just have about 5 (depending on the different kudos amount) tiny symbols where the kudos in right now underneath our names, and when a user decides to give a kudos (id change the name though, non brits prolly dont even know what kudos means... took me a while to get that lol) they will be asked what they kudo for...

 

well if you need logos for those kudi im up for it ;) (tho maybe we could need a new thread for that topic ;) )