whats also very annoying is that my wallpaper seems to be popular - over 200 downloads today!!

i want to see how high that count will go

hmmmm, surely this isnt fair on me... can some1 up the rating, the people who download it obviously dont think its rubbish
242 downloads in one day obviosly dont relate to a 2

Generally speaking, it's likely that the ratings won't always agree with the number of downloads or popularity. This doesn't mean that the rating system is broken - just think of it as two different ways of viewing people's opinions of your work. Raw download count shows how popular the wallpaper is. Ratings tend to be more critical (usually in a good sense) and help you to judge the artistic aspects of your work. In other words, you can put up a wallpaper that's visually very stunning, and thousands will download it. However, if it looks a lot like other, visually stunning wallpapers, it doesn't break new ground and won't get a particularly high rating.

It's similar to the movie ratings - many times critics dislike a particular film even though it's extremely popular. It can pull in millions, but the critics judge it on a different criteria. They include things like how it compares to the artist's past work and how it compares to their (perceived) individual potential. That may not sound fair, but that's the way these things go. It's like when your teacher gave you a low grade on a good paper because (s)he "knew you could do better".

Of course, these are all my own opinions and I could be wrong

Xymantix touched a very good point here which I agree with. But I would like to reinforce that because you get a low rating doesn't mean you're not a good artist! The thing is that not enough people rate skins/walls which means that if a single user doesn't like your skin and rate it 1, then you're out of luck So that's why I say you shouldn't be too concerned about your rating, especially if only very few users rated it.

hehe, that movie makes me feel sick, i dont like monkeys that look like humans

I know how you feel Berzerka. My "machine series" of wallpapers has been very popular everywhere, but someone rated two of them very low, (though they are all of similar quality) and those two have very few downloads which is a shame because it's probably depriving people who were collecting my Machine images. I think the rating system is totally worthless here. If you had a disagreement with someone, they could go and rate all your work as "1", and immediately your work is unavailable to the majority of users! It just doesn't make sense to me, and the sooner it's removed, the happier I will be! I consider downloads to be MY ratings, one of my walls has had something like 2800 downloads, but it's just hanging in there with a rating of 4. How can that be a true reflection? And that is what has happened to YOUR wall, someone maybe thought it looked a little too much like an XP wall, and decided to rate it low. I personally like your image, and I'm going over there now to give it a 10, so that everyone will see it again! I hope the admins see the way I am making a nonsense of the system and remove it forthwith. I am going to rate everything 10 from now on! They might remove my Journeyman status, but, I'll live !

BoXXi....the true mark of the rating system is when sufficient ratings have been applied to form a sensible average. Some people seem to think that dramatically influencing the scores by posting a 1 or a 10 will make a difference, but in the long term, they will hopefully be lost in the averaging....

I dont have a problem with the rating theory, however, the following improvements could be made:

1) any registered user could rate
2) the skinners should be able to see the ratings (ppl say the ratings are to help the skinners, but if we dont have access to them then that isnt really true)
3) ratings should only influence whether the skin is shown or not after 3 or 4 ratings.

Just a few ideas

BoXXi: that's what I've been doing.
Welcome to my mission. hehehe!
But what I personnaly do is base myself on downloads. If I see a skin that has lots of downloads but has a stupid rating, I boost it with a 10. Otherwise, as a general rule, I never rate.

One of my most popular downloads has a single rating and it is at 5... Yet, another one which has a rating of 9, has 1/3 the downloads.

As has been pointed out... I believe the ratings TRY to more reflect originality than popularity. Sometimes the two will coincide with each other and other times they won't.

I understand the complaints but do try and not pay too much attention to the ratings. Downloads and comments mean more to me.

can i ask you to add a feature which allows the skinners to see their ratings?

cause otherwise they really arent useful

Oh, BoXXi, hasn't anyone told you? As a general rule, I AM a nonsense myself. So don't try to find any in anything I do or say.
No, really, it's no secret to anyone that I am against the rating system as much as I'm against the class system. I am a democratic man, I say, let the masses decide what skin is cool and who is the best. Therefore I will never rate anything unless, as I said, I see a piece of art that is rated in total contradiction with the true judge: the masses.

The 'true judge, the masses' will have every Wallpaper collection ending up as Britney Spears getting hot and sweaty with a Windows XP logo....probably in blue....

In WinAMP, the same will apply....

In LiteSTEP/Hoverdesk/Nextstart/DesktopX, it will be XP themes [with the Britney wall]....[of course, that was once Matrix themes]....

Popular art of any format is just that, 'popular'.
It doesn't necessarily make it good, or original, or truly inspiring, just popular.

Rating of another's artwork should be handled responsibly, not a knee-jerk reaction to a perception of alleged wrong-doing.
You should be intelligent and mature enough to be able to look at something critically and make a value judgement, based on your own opinions of the work.

OK, it all goes belly-up if there are insufficient ratings to reflect a more 'general' worth, but that is easily fixed.

Just rate the darn things.
But do it like it means something to you, just as you would want others to respect yours....