Why was Negative Endorsement removed?

[Teaguy]

Removing negative feedback is ridiculous. Just like removing positive feedback and leaving only the ability to make negative reviews would be silly (albiet better than only positive feedback because at least you could give constructive feedback with negative reviews only.) This will just turn the feedback system into a circlejerk.

 

And... you can't do that through the regular comments...?

 

Which I can add, most people who do have something constructive to say, do.

 

Also, I was under the impression that one of the reasons for the positive endorsements is to help YOU downloaders find the good stuff faster on the top lists?

That backfires horribly when a mod that corrupts saves 50% of the time gets a considerable amount of positive endorsements from half the people who used it, with the other half not being able to downvote it.

Judging by the amount of positive endorsements is also a bad idea. There is a handful of mods that were extremely useful to me but had only three or five positive endorsements.

For a mod to corrupt a save it would have to pretty much be deliberately done to sabotage your game. And those mods get removed quickly.

Was a hypothetical situation, friend.

I am pretty sure you understand the point I was trying to make.

[Sagebeat]

You can see our issue then if a feature that helped the majority of players avoid bad mods was removed because it might hurt someones feelings? Not to be rude, but it's frustrating to say the least.

[Gopher]

Well the thing is, I have been convinced by the arguments here that we need the negative endorsements (even though I hate them). I understand the benefit of them. I just want to make them something people do not do lightly. If you thumb down a mod, you really should mean that this mod is bad. Bad enough that you dont care if the mod author is upset with you.

[Sagebeat]

Well the thing is, I have been convinced by the arguments here that we need the negative endorsements (even though I hate them). I understand the benefit of them. I just want to make them something people do not do lightly. If you thumb down a mod, you really should mean that this mod is bad. Bad enough that you dont care if the mod author is upset with you.

 

There's no two ways about it, it's not a light thing to think so strongly of a mod in a negative light that you feel the need to inform the author, or others, and with that responsibility needs to be taken. You need to respond and let them know why you think so badly of it.Pardon the term, but "circlejerking" is where talent goes to die, but if you're going to down vote something? That's as important as reporting a person. I don't think there's a person here who just wants the old system strictly back.

 

Hopefully when the higher ups see this thread, they can take that into consideration and come up with something we can all benefit from.

Edited August 26, 2011 by Sagebeat

[Teaguy]

With this settled, shall we now discuss the matter of improving the system?

I fully agree that the way it was implemented previously was far from perfect. Though, removing a flawed feature is always worse than fixing it or just letting it be, most of the times.

[bben46]

Where were all of the people in favor of keeping the thumbs down several months ago when we discussed it in depth - and when the decision to remove it with the new version was actually made? This was an open topic for quite a while and the consensus there was to remove the downratings completely. Now that it has actually been implemented, people who ignored that topic are now complaining that they didn't get a say. :facepalm:

 

As for the 1-10 system, we had that several years ago. It was worse - much worse. Nearly 90% of the ratings were either a 1 or a 10 with very few in between. Cabals were formed to downrate certain popular mods and uprate others to change the position of mods in the rating lists. Mod authors were constantly begging the moderators to remove every low rating they got to keep their mod higher in the ratings. I had an author demanding that I remove a 9 because it would ruin their perfect rating - then find that they had done the same thing for every rating less that a 10. Then threaten to quit and remove all of their mods if the 9 was not removed. :rolleyes:

 

When the rating system was changed we all agreed that no rating would be removed by the staff for any reason. And that cheating on ratings would get them banned along with their mods.That is one reason we do not allow more than one account per person.

[Deleted1744345User]

The system will never be perfect as long as there are internet trolls. I personally liked the fact that the negative endorsements were removed, since half of the negative endorsements I ever got offered no feedback. Why is it so hard for some to leave a comment that takes a minute or two when they have probably been browsing for mods for hours? (at least that's how long I take)

Instead, it was easier just to push the big red thumbs down button for some.

 

You can see our issue then if a feature that helped the majority of players avoid bad mods was removed because it might hurt someones feelings? Not to be rude, but it's frustrating to say the least.

So people should avoid my mods if someone said it did not meet their high quality standards? Or did not fit their personal tastes/beliefs? The previous system was such a bait to trolls that it would have been a miracle if it wasn't abused.

[Sagebeat]

With this settled, shall we now discuss the matter of improving the system?

I fully agree that the way it was implemented previously was far from perfect. Though, removing a flawed feature is always worse than fixing it or just letting it be, most of the times.

 

 

In my head, the perfect system would be a short review of the mod with a 1-3 hour waiting period after downloading, along with perhaps a mandatory screenshot of you experiencing the mod, followed by a 1-10 rating, and if its below a 5-6, your issue must be included. Much like the thumbs up and thumbs down, the reviews should be tallied and shown upon selection of the mod, so you can more accurately find the informaiton you need. Comments sections can and almost always are useless swamps of children complaining that they cant install the mod or simple things such as "I like dat sword color" or "dis is kewl thx!1".

 

The mandatory waiting time, and screenshot will not only force only people who TRULY value your mod to speak up, but increase the overall content for images shown on certain mods, which can be an issue as we all know.

 

Like it was stated many times previously in the thread, if comments section can just be used for this stuff, the review section should be held to a higher standard. To that extent, it should be moderated and monitored as best the higher ups see fit to use their resources, in the same way senseless downgrading would be removed and dealt with.

[Sagebeat]

The system will never be perfect as long as there are internet trolls. I personally liked the fact that the negative endorsements were removed, since half of the negative endorsements I ever got offered no feedback. Why is it so hard for some to leave a comment that takes a minute or two when they have probably been browsing for mods for hours? (at least that's how long I take)

Instead, it was easier just to push the big red thumbs down button for some.

 

You can see our issue then if a feature that helped the majority of players avoid bad mods was removed because it might hurt someones feelings? Not to be rude, but it's frustrating to say the least.

So people should avoid my mods if someone said it did not meet their high quality standards? Or did not fit their personal tastes/beliefs? The previous system was such a bait to trolls that it would have been a miracle if it wasn't abused.

 

 

I think we both know the vote up was abused way more then the vote down was for obvious reasons. Most trolls would never go through the hassle of waiting 3 hours just to hassle someone they don't know, and if it really wasn't such a big issue in the first place, there's no reason to remove it anyways. No double standards.

[Maskar]

I'm glad it's gone and personally feel it's the best addition to the new site. Many thanks for removing it. If a mod isn't any good it wouldn't get any endorsements. Now mod users need to actually leave some feedback rather than not bother and (often) wrongfully brand a mod faulty.