Sally's editorial on ratings

I agree with your opinion comment for your thread.
Satisfaction should come from "within" and not from "without". Rating's will not make you a better or worse person. If I had even 1/10 of your talent I would be more then content. Of course "content" people never become world leaders or worry what other people think of them. When you mix ambition with creativity; i.e. the artist who worries about who the Boss is; then you will forever be beating your head against the wall.
As the song says: "Don't Worry, Be Happy."

Actually....I like the concept that were there enough 'ratings' posted that the highest and lowest would be excluded from the result and the average taken from the remainder....in that way, singular 'unreasonable' or 'malicious' or 'overtly inflated' scores would have no effect [or at least little effect], resulting in a more 'equitable' outcome....

However, in very many occasions there are simply too few ratings applied...

I'll rate.........when i get the ability too

Ms. Delicious, after reading my humble opinion in print above, I came to the conclusion that it is none of my business about what drives you. It was a quick impulsive reaction to your editorial. Please ignore it.
I can see why things stated in "print" are far more harsh than people (myself) really intended them to be. If I had been "Talking" to you instead of "writting" to you, it would have been much easier to explain what was going through my mind.
/me thinks that in the final judgement all things will balance.

That's a good idea Jafo. That would probably amend many of the innacurate ratings. Just the other day I had a skin that had a rating of 9 (3 ratings), then suddenly dropped to 7 when a fourth rating was added (must have been a 2 or 3. Too bad the average number of ratings is so low.

Hey Jafo how about if for every 10 or 20 ratings that anyone gives, they get say a point added to there own record of of "contributing to the wincustomize site" and after so many points they receive some sort of recoginition like maybe some inexpensive software program, or whatever? If you set the bar high enough maybe even some other sort of prize that will induce more people to rate? Just a thought to ponder.

I think some of the people who rate are the ones at fault. I can see no reason what so ever that something could get a "1/10" ratings. Those who have the option to rate should think of it as a privilege not a weapon. Things should be rated on the detail and accuracy of there work first and how much the color and such is liked keeped in the back of the mind. I have seen so many things that the color or something else about it make it so I would not use it but after looking it over I see what a great job was done on it and the amount of time it must have entailed. That is when I am most apt to place a rating.

Hmmm, the ratings issue again....I would give Hundertwasser a 10 where others would not even want to look at his crazy work. A 1 or a 10...When I look at ratings and how they are formed here it's more of a hey, this is too low let's give it a boost, bang a 10...or geez that's way too high bang a 1...In all my honesty I rate peoples work the rate I thought they deserved based on knowledge I gathered, not looking at the current state of rating. Having said that I am guilty of downgrading 10's and upgrading 3's. I have found Paxx's site of how to rate useful. Check it out: http://pax.gslcom.com/ratings/rating.html

The info at Paxx's site is very good and really should be condensed and added to the skin page.

I like that idea Jafo. Throw out the high and low. That would only work if you had more ratings. Delicious, why do you bring this subject up every couple weeks for?

I don't even look at ratings as, in my opinion, I haven't seen a formula that's accurate enough to depict true consensus. It only reflects opinions of those who take the time (guilty!), to give a rating, and taste enters into the picture. Aside from puns, I like the idea of dropping the high and low.

WOM...it's her pet fetish...

I think that Paxx's skins evaluation grid is great but to me one flaw "not towards Paxx".
The point I was trying to make is that not everyone likes certain colors and therefore would not use the skin.
In the evaluation grid if everything is checked as pretty much perfect except for " Are the choice of colors attractive to your taste" and "Will you use this skin".
Both marked second to worst "Not my piece of cake", "No I won't" bring the rating down to a 7.
Now unless it was a case that the colors in something were so bad that they did not match or blend with each other at all /me would probably stop right there and not even look into the skin any further and just go along my way.
then color should not be as much of a factor.
For instance, CopperDeckII to me is a definite 10 "I do not think I ever actually rated it though" but the colors will not work for my desktop so "The colors are not my piece of cake", "No I will not use it". How could I rate this skin a 7?
Anyway, enough from me.

Ohno Jafo....sure not the system that is used in figure skating?

I hope you enjoyed the races Jafo. I think your right. I'am using a skin that has a 6 rating with over 15000 downloads. The skin is good looking and works great. Oh well.

Yes Keila, a 7....'To me the contrast of that orange is too big for my eyes, I just used it for 15 mins or so. Just because of that fact I didn't rate it. But I would fill in the same as you

HA WOM, glad to see you type in realtime

Keila, a 7 is still a good rating, you know. Especially for something that you would never use.
My grid was designed for people to be able to rate the skins according to their own tastes. My grid doesn't say "Do you think other people will like the colors on that skin?".
If you don't like the colors and if you wold never use the skin, why would you even want to give it a higher rating than 7?

Not that you are saying so but paxx I really want you to know that I was not downing your grid.
To answer, I would rate the work not my use for it. Just because I am not going to use it does not mean it is not a great as it is.

/me thinks now that her coffee has hit that this is a tough debate after all.

Keila, I don't take it personnally, I'm not insulted. Just want to let you nkow what I was trying to achieve when I made the grid.
I made it with one thing in mind: a high rating is totaly meaningless if a person doesn't personnaly like a skin and would never use it. I wanted to avoid someone rating a skin high but never actually use it. To me, that's just a meaningless inflation of a rating.

Reminds me of when I was a teenager and trying to go out with girls. Nothing frustrated me more than the infamous "you're such a nice guy, but I wouldn't go out with you".

Hi Lecrayon. I've rated things that were not of my personel taste and have said so but have given good comments on it anyway because the work was good. Just because I didn't like the color and wouldn't use it, doesn't mean the work wasn't good.

WOM, you're a fair, intellegent rater, which perhaps isn't the norm...

WOM, well, I don't agree. I don't rate that way and wouldn't wat anybody to rate anything of mine that way. DOn't assume of other people's tastes. If you don't like it, rate it accordingly. If you say you like it but woldn't use it, then you probably really don't like it that much.

paxx, convoluted logic..?

paxx, I try to put myself into the teacher mode. Fair and objective. Could you imagine a teacher grading a class and flunking 90% because he didn't like the color! Or wouldn't hang it on his wall or use it. If I don't like it and I think it looks bad I will just pass it by or give it a low rating.