Proposed Changes to Rating & Points System

[Mikey]

Boys & Girls,

Over the last few months we have seen a significant decrease in the amount of tracks that are being voluntarily rated. Traditionally we would counter this by increasing the amount of points required to download a track, and decreasing the amounts awarded for forum posts. This will generally fix the issue, but not with out a begrudging amount of complaints from the user base. Our sites ecosystem is based upon user participation not just in the forums, but in the track exchange as well. People post their rides and tracks to the exchange in the hopes that others will download it and critique what they have posted. That is the basis for this sites existence.

Comparative to other sites we have always been pretty lax in requiring only the bare minimum participation in the site in order to enjoy it's benefits. However this evening I discovered a number of users exploiting some loop holes in the system which was allowing them generate enough points to not have to participate at all. This is quite disappointing to me, as the effort involved to bypass the current system and not participate is in fact more resource intensive then simply participating in the site. Those of you who choose to abuse the system will be very disappointed in the morning when you have a 0 point balance.

This reconfiguration process has gone on for many years but the frequency of which it has had to be done is only increasing. We need to come up with a way to keep the community engaged, but not in a manner that is over burdensome or draconian. So this is what I propose:

Resetting everyone points to a set amount and creating a points economy system for determining the points costs values. In this very basic instance, if you rated 75% of the tracks you downloaded your costs to download a given track will be much cheaper then someone who rated 0.001 percent of the tracks. Less participation means that your overall costs will be higher then someone who participates more. In determining overall participation, we would look at the amount of forum posts you have and in what categories. How many tracks you uploaded, rated, and the average rate users gave. Your comment reputation (thumbs up / thumbs down + warnings), the age of your account etc.

When you download a track, the points are not returned to the bank, but are paid to the user you downloaded the track from. What this creates is a system that is based on supply and demand and automatically handles what we have had to do manually for years. Only it takes impact on a per user basis.

[Goku1910]

There's a problem with that. I've downloaded several of my own tracks to test and make sure the package opens properly. I had issues with the original Firefly so I've had a habit of doing so. That did lower my rate percentage. I also rarely rated NL1 downloads because I wasn't that good at getting my thoughts out. We should have a points reward to reset our download history.

I haven't been able to rate many tracks I've downloaded because my computer simply can't handle it and makes it too laggy to give it a good look, and I don't want to be that guy who just writes "Good job!" and throws random numbers out there. So I stopped downloading (to not already be penalized by not being able to rate due to my crappy computer), and turned to trying to give as much feedback as I can to the designers through the forum posts. Why should I be penalized for something that is out of my control when I've taken steps to help the community in other ways? I do not believe I have been abusing the system that was in place.

People are getting points taken away even when the system wasn't abused. Mikey you gotta understand you have a whole community against this. Why can't you and the other moderators - and even the community sit down and talk over a good system rather than thinking one up yourself that's easily going to drive away tons of CC Members.. Because not only did you take away third party downloads - which has already driven away some members.. But now you have a new rating systems thats going to take away anyones hard earned points just for the glory of a ride getting a couple extra rates. All this is going to do is drive away much more people.. I am completely against this.

[Blase Rhine]

I agree with RCT3rox. I don't think we should all be penalized for this. Maybe deduct a 100 points but resetting the points to 0? It feels like we are all getting screwed over... I don't usually rate the coasters I download because almost the same reason as RCT3rox. Most of us don't want to be that guy who just puts good job and random numbers. When I download a track and I choose to rate I usually put a detailed rating. Therefore I don't think just because I havn't rated a few coasters that I should be severely penalized for that. I propose that all of the mods and admins get on the same page and work out a fair solution for this issue. Thank you.

-Blase Rhine

^+1
I dont want mine to go away because I didn't have time to rate in nolimits 1 or a moderator removed a rate I like my points I'm trying to save up for a coaster crazy t shirt and hoodie I feel like 50 points deducted would be good but not a hole reset that would get rid of all the real coaster crazy members

[Turbo]

more reasons to do something like this:
Rating Systems Modification (Click me!)

[Mikey]

This is a proposed solution not one we are implementing right away. Voice your opinions now so that they may be heard.

Sometimes I download Coasters and because I don't have the greatest computer, I can't view the ride as well as I would like or sometimes even view it all. I'm sure some people have the same problem. Someone also talked about having essentially a "Lite" version of some scenery heavy coasters that run better on older and less proficient computers. If there were more of those, I would definitely be more likely to rate.

[mkingy]

Turbo wrote:

more reasons to do something like this:
Rating Systems Modification (Click me!)

This. It's Coastercrazy - I think there are options to explore that encourage rating rather than actively restricting people.

[Turbo]

I completely agree

^^ I third this

Reiterating what I said almost a year ago...

TylerE wrote:

Step 1: Institute overly complex rating system
Step 2: Watch number of rates dwindle
Step 3: Scratch head, completely fail to make the connection, take drastic measures.

points-feature-will-affect-your-ability-to-download-t32975.html#p342420

[TTD03]

What the hell has happened since I was gone this weekend?
I can see most people wants a combined mod and admin opinion on this, so i'll try and coordinate that tonight.

[Paradox]

Mikey wrote:

Boys & Girls

Fixed.

[TTD03]

^ ha.

Paradox wrote:

Mikey wrote:

Boys & Girls

Fixed.

It's sad because it's true

What confuses me is when they released the Season's greetings video it was a woman speaking and I was like, "There's women on CoasterCrazy?"

[mkingy]

TTD03 wrote:

What the hell has happened since I was gone this weekend?
I can see most people wants a combined mod and admin opinion on this, so i'll try and coordinate that tonight.

I think most people just want you to remove the images out of your signature

Moderators
You can break any of these rules, except making your images ridiculously large to make the site look cheap. No long links to stretch the page etc.

more like forced to rate or lose all your points

[Oscar]

Rickrollercoaster wrote:

What confuses me is when they released the Season's greetings video it was a woman speaking and I was like, "There's women on CoasterCrazy?"

There are... they're just scared of all the testo loaded teens.

[Mr. Freeze]

^lol oscar

Mikey wrote:

Resetting everyone points to a set amount and creating a points economy system for determining the points costs values. In this very basic instance, if you rated 75% of the tracks you downloaded your costs to download a given track will be much cheaper then someone who rated 0.001 percent of the tracks. Less participation means that your overall costs will be higher then someone who participates more. In determining overall participation, we would look at the amount of forum posts you have and in what categories. How many tracks you uploaded, rated, and the average rate users gave. Your comment reputation (thumbs up / thumbs down + warnings), the age of your account etc.

When you download a track, the points are not returned to the bank, but are paid to the user you downloaded the track from. What this creates is a system that is based on supply and demand and automatically handles what we have had to do manually for years. Only it takes impact on a per user basis.

I'm not sure I'm on board with resetting everyone's points, but I really like the idea of the system where your cost is determined mathematically by many participation factors.

Turbo wrote:

more reasons to do something like this:
Rating Systems Modification (Click me!)

Thanks for linking to that topic. I also agree that it is a decent idea for a different rating system, somewhat separate from / in parallel to the idea Mikey proposed.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Having the reset of the entire post system again would be a little silly. When we transfered from the old site to the new there has been an entire recalculation. It would seem weird to see it happen again. The people who want to download occasionally a track would get kicked all back down to zero, meanwhile the active forum spammers would probably find another way on getting their points for download, with not too much of an effort.

Although, I would love to see something interactive with the current download/rate ratio and rating. Maybe something like the higher and better it is, the more you get in return. People with less than 1% neutral ratio or 20% ratio and terrible rating, would get barely points for rating. Compared to the ones who have like a 50% neutral ratio or a 10% ratio with excellent rating.
Also I'm pretty much in for an extra penalty when someone posts a bad rating and it gets removed. Since now they received their rating points but can't gain more thumbs down, because it's removed. Maybe it should be done with a penalty that goes exponentially. First few times can always happen if you place a bad review, but the people who keep doing it, start feeling it more and more.

Mikey wrote:

When you download a track, the points are not returned to the bank, but are paid to the user you downloaded the track from. What this creates is a system that is based on supply and demand and automatically handles what we have had to do manually for years. Only it takes impact on a per user basis.

This actually sounds like a good idea. Since like only 2% or so from all the downloads will rate a track it could give a nice point boost to the uploaders. This way they still get something back from all the hard work they had on their ride.

Dirk_Ermen wrote:

Also I'm pretty much in for an extra penalty when someone posts a bad rating and it gets removed.

I noticed a lot of tracks posted on "NoLimits Exchange" rated ridiculously like some people kept on shouting "gooooooood"... then putting full scores without being descriptive.