"But it's true, i like very much some skins that are poor rated, and i don't understand some "10" rattings".

Thats because ratings are opinions. Not everyone will have the same opinion. Opinions of the people who use the skins.
Opinions of the people who use the site and skins. A general opinion. Not an exact science. Art is not a science. It is subjective. Ratings are just one way of gaging. Downloads are another. Comments are another. An artists name is another. A screenshot is another. The site that the skins are on is another. All these ways can be used to help you filter the skins to your taste and style. If one particular method does not fit your taste then use another or combination. Ratings work for me but may not for you. But then downloads may work for you but not for me.

Correct ratings do not tell you why I may or may not like your skin. That is not the purpose. Thats what comments are for. If I don't like your skin and don't download it then I am posting a vote for not liking a skin. If I like it, then I may download it and thus posting a vote for your skin. Should I be forced to comment whether I download it or not? NO. I have the same feelings for ratings.

Again. If you do not like the rating system, use one of the other systems.

That's a pity T-man if you rate and don't say why. At least if you give low rating, you could comment on why without bringing your personal taste forward. For instance, not functional here and there, or whatever you think can be subject to improvement. But then again we are not all teachers. To me all systems you mention are very subjective, downloads don't say something about quality, neither does a rating or subjective comments. Many of the great artists kept on taking lessons to keep themselves on their toes. In order to get better or don't fall back on routines. These systems you talk about won't do that. Once in a while some comments I got were helpful.

I can see this is one subject where 'opinions' are so divided a satisfactory conclusion is unlikely. Suffice to say I shall continue to rate skins in my own way. I will not rate any skin 1 - if I don't download a skin I don't rate it, and I don't download skins if I don't like the look of them, so the question is academic.

But it does make you wonder on what basis someone is rating skins so low; do they rate without downloading, or do they download all per se. Perhaps the people involved should question their intent? But as I said before, each to their own...

On the few occasions I rated something I always gave an explanation in the skin's/wall's message board.

Sometimes, I even received a nice email in return.

Manners are important, and almost always end with good results.

Presently, the way the rankings work is each day, a query is run through the databases to find out what users' skins, themes, etc. have the most downloads per day. The final number is then divided by 10. This tends to favor newer skins over older ones since newer skins tend to have a higher download per day average. But ultimately it favors the active skin authors who are contributing a lot of skins to the community. Eventually, we will also have the top community skin authors which will be determined through Stardock's upcoming "Convergence" application that will allow users to automatically (and optionally) to send what skins and themes and icons they're using to a central database (user information is kept anonymously). The skins and themes in use will be made available to all skin sites. The more sites your skin and theme are on, the better your ranking will be.


is this not how it works?

hey paxx...whats that icon??

please tell Lord Vimal !

Ratings are over-rated inclusions of someones discontent. These maybe induced by emotions not covered by the usual emoticons available. Many WPs are the hard work of well intentioned but abysmal budding young artists. They do mean well however their talents lay else where. As for the direct ratings of said same WPs the system is caprisious at best and often biased by the selection committee. Listen To Dangeruss. Read his comment. Same opinion. Ah, me, what a day.

Paxx, I agree And Adni, patpat, friendly tap on your shoulder..Don't worry be happy

In case I'm being too obtuse....'Wo-per-daughter' = 'Wo-person' = 'Woman'....

Glitch or no glitch, someone still had to rate everyone with a "1". So we still have a midnight rater.

Carlitus....I'm not even sure whether that comment was supposed to be good or bad.....talk about 'obscure'.....

But if you ever find 'real' offense with a comment, it 'can' be deleted...

"The phenomenon still goes on today subdued and it is not a system bug, but if you think that it is, ok, let it be." - adni

Yes, it is a bug.

"Glitch or no glitch, someone still had to rate everyone with a "1". So we still have a midnight rater. " - WiseOldMan

Is it wrong to rate a 1 because its so low on the scale? Should we not be suspicious of everyone who rates a 10 then? And again. The problem that you saw was a bug in the system. But yes, occasionally someone does give a rating of a 1.

A fairer way would be to exclude the top and bottom 20% of ratings. But would that be technically difficult to achieve? Wouldn't work with only a few ratings though.