I'd like to hear people's thoughts on the user comment and star system. I'm working on a makeover of the insides of the main Stripcreator site and am wondering if it's worth moving that over.

The original point of the system was to get an idea of who the problem users are, but I think it's added a lot of unnecessary drama.

Oh and one solution may be just to make the votes public so people will be accountable for what they say. (I'd delete all the votes and start over if I were going to switch to a public system, don't worry.)

I don't really want to lose comments I've already done.

I like the user comments, but you could identify the commenter and avoid some of the drama. Most regular users identify themselves in their comments, anyway.

The voting system has outlived any usefulness to me, personally, but it might be helpful to new users who want to find "good" strippers.

And what dcom said.

I say ditch it. It isn't stopping the trolls, and it has a cheaply elitist quality to it that I never liked. Sort of like high school, or the feeling you get when you go into an IRC channel and see a ratio of one moderator for every two users.

It just isn't conducive to the kind of friendly comic banter that a friendly guy like me thrives on. Anyone who disagrees is a major cocksucker.

I DISAGREE!

I like the ratings system. I always did, even though I only had three stars for the longest time. But now I have four and it makes me feel like I somehow earned it.

It could just mean that I'm not as funny as I was and I'm just friendly with more people here, but I like it. I think holding people accountable for their comments is fine, but it might discourage people from voicing how they really feel about a user. It could polarize opinions towards liked or hated.

Although I can't come up with the best solution, I do NOT want to see the ratings system go.

P.S. - Zaster, you've had four stars for a long time now. Stop whining!

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P.S. - Zaster, you've had four stars for a long time now.

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Funny, after my 2nd post here, I had Zaster's rating. I don't mean I had 4 stars, I mean I actually HAD HIS RATING. The mouse-over was a link to Zaster's profile instead of mine... lol Evidently, that particular bug has been zapped...

I like it the way it is now.

I say get rid of the user comments and the star system. People have multiple accounts and vote for themselves over and over and vote against people they dislike and then think their excrement is odorless because they have more stars. It would eliminate a lot of the logrolling, the backscratching, and the unprovoked attacks. Anything that one wants to communicate one can do on the pm's or this forum. But why would anybody read comics that he knows he's not going to like? How stupid is that?

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I say get rid of the user comments and the star system. People have multiple accounts and vote for themselves over and over and vote against people they dislike and then think their excrement is odorless because they have more stars. ...

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If he knows about them. But that does not solve the problem of the logrolling, the backscratching, the unprovoked attacks, and the violations of the rules. What kind of dumbass reads comics he knows he's not going to like? If people want feedback, they can ask for it and they shouldn't complain if it's constructive. Otherwise, people should be allowed to do what they want to do free from harassment.

Uh, how is having random people comment on you harassment? I mean, I have some pretty rank comments on my page, and yes I bitched about them when they first came out, but now it lets all n00bs see that people dislike me and like me all the same.
Its kind of the same as real life if you think about it. People IRL have different opinions of you, the only difference is if they voice them or not.

Another thing that argues against the rating system is that, really, noone here is even fit to sit in judgement of my towering comic genius.

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If he knows about them.

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Towering, I tell you!

I personnaly like the rating system, even though I dropped a star on my other account which coincided with a comment i'm still trying to figure out.

I think it helps new users know where they stand, whether it's their quality or behavior on the site. I tend to only vote users bad on behavior (although sometimes I'll rate someone bad who asks for it on RMDC, but usually, bad comics alone isn't enough to get me to vote bad). It's also helped me check out new users when I see that other donors have rated them good.

As far as stripcreator user politics go, I really don't see much of that going on, and I've never seen "logrolling" or "backscratching." I.E., nobody has ever lobbied me for my vote. Yes, there has been drama, and I was disappointed to drop down to four stars on one account, but I didn't go screaming in the forums or IRC about it. Um...until now.

Oh, and i want my double-voting back :-P

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Oh, and i want my double-voting back :-P

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I don't have a lot of strong feelings on the user comments and star system. I do still enjoy the opportunity to rate individual comic strips, though. Granted, I don't do it often at the moment, but I like the opportunity.

One thing I've noticed is that in the forums, people who have not yet been rated take on the rating of the person above them. Here's an example:
http://img91.exs.cx/img91/557/star8.jpg
Battleganz2 hasn't been rated yet, but NooniePuuBunny has. Notice how they both have 4/5 stars. Now, if you click on the "Member Rated" link for Battleganz2 it will take you to Noonie's user info.

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If he knows about them. But that does not solve the problem of the logrolling, the backscratching, the unprovoked attacks, and the violations of the rules. What kind of dumbass reads comics he knows he's not going to like? If people want feedback, they can ask for it and they shouldn't complain if it's constructive. Otherwise, people should be allowed to do what they want to do free from harassment.

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Am I the only one that likes looking at my comments? =*(

I like the comment and star system, although maybe I wouldn't so much if my rating were poor. If it disappeared, I would miss it a little, but I wouldn't complain.

I generally don't sign my comments, be they good or bad. I would prefer anonymous comments and votes to remain possible, for reasons partially discussed below, but again, wouldn't object if signing became mandatory.

I actually see the star system as a way to let people know they're jerks without being obnoxious about it. Instead of taking the time and going out of your way to tell them so in the forum or via PM (and very possibly starting a flame war), you can just make a few clicks and type a short message that they can heed or ignore at their leisure. If there is serious harassment going on via this system -- not that I've seen or heard of it, but if there is -- it's not worth having to put up with that.

I'm also completely oblivious to any "logrolling" or "backscratching" that may go on over votes, and think that's pretty sad (as in pathetic) if it does happen. One of the advantages of being able to vote anonymously, and one of the reasons why I do so, is that you can avoid that sort of thing.

I will say that if just anyone who walked in off the street could vote, I would regard the system as totally worthless, and would support its removal. One vote per donor seems sensible to me.

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I generally don't sign my comments, be they good or bad. I would prefer anonymous comments and votes to remain possible, for reasons partially discussed below, but again, wouldn't object if signing became mandatory.

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Personally, I like the system just the way it is.

The star syster lets you know where you stand related to other people. When you move down a star, either it's because someone in the forums doesn't like you, or your comics have been going downhill. Usually it's pretty easy to tell. When you move up, it gives you a sense of accomplishment.

And with comments, the choice of having them anonymous or not is helpful, I think. People may ignore comments if they are from people they don't like, regardless of the veracity of the statement.

I find the comments in general helpful. I used to have 3 stars, and comments like "possibly retarded," so I did my best to stop making retarded comics, and now I have 4 stars. Coincidence?

I gotta say I agree with Evil_D and Drexle about the anonymous aspect of voting. If suddenly everything were public, donors might be afraid to cast bad votes out of fear of retribution by the user they were voting bad, or a flock of donors who disagree. I think it would lead to more drama and flaming in the forums and actually create "logrolling" and "backscratching" where it doesn't seem it exist now. You might actually see non-donors donating just so they can throw a dozen bad votes at regulars who don't like them--suddenly, the only users who will have 5 stars will be those who keep their mouths shut and vote everyone good.

I'd like to vote someone bad every now and then without a dozen pm's, a thread started in my honor, or a bad vote cast my way (unless i truly deserve it based on my strips or behavior in the donor's eyes).

I recently lost a star in my rating, so I am no longer in favor of the current rating system.

I remain skeptical of the rating system when it comes to providing useful feedback. If I were new here, say, I think that as opposed to a terse line of anonymous feedback telling me my comics blow, I'd much rather someone step up and take the time to tell me why they think my comics blow, and how I could improve them. In fact, we have a forum for just that purpose ("Read My Damn Comics").

If we continue to have the rating system, I'd rather we lose the anonymous comment feature. I realize people would then have to face the horrifying possibility of negative reactions to the things they say about one another, but I don't think I have a big problem with that, either here or in real life.

Well, I was riding high on four stars for a few weeks there, FINALLY, and now some assclutter dropped me a star again.

Fuck the ratings system.

I don't care if we have a rating system or not, but I like the comments.

I like mine.

As a means of obtaining useful feedback, I agree with Zaster about the utility of the star system. When you're rated well, all's fine, but when you're a newbie or in the pits, it's hard to know what *exactly* you need to improve based upon a 'You suck'.

As a means of sorting out who is and who isn't funny, it's actually not too bad. Humour is as subjective as a person's musical tastes.

I think that if one would like to comment upon someone's comics, one should have the bravery (and a solid rationale) to stand beside those comments. Otherwise it's just snarkiness, which should stay exactly where it does, out of the public domain.

If I may also comment upon the Read My Damn Comics forum, it has been useful to obtain general 'I like/ I don't like' feedback. However, I have found it difficult (thus far) to obtain critical feedback, but maybe that's really not possible for something as nebulous as humour. Or for a newcomer.

IMHO, anyways.

-Q

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Am I the only one that likes looking at my comments? =*(

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Maybe getting rid of the stars would be fine, but I like (most of) my comments. I really feel that stars don't mean anything. One of my least favorite strippers has four stars, and one of my favorites has a measly one (yet more people seem to like him than that).

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I say get rid of the user comments and the star system. People have multiple accounts and vote for themselves over and over and vote against people they dislike and then think their excrement is odorless because they have more stars. ...

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Uh, right. Brad did away with donors voting with more than one account looooong time ago (back when we got rid of IRC for a spell).

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Suggestion....

Leave the ratings system the way it is, but maybe implement a system where each individual comic can also be given some sort of thumbs up by anyone (even non-donors). Any individual comic that has X number of thumbs up appears on a special list somewhere OR in a special place (link-wise) in the user's profile, maybe under their favorite users. OR, make it so that it is specially marked (or colored) on the drop-down list of a users comics. This way, people who really like a single comic, can "thumbs up" it, but can't do anything negative to it (unless they want to make a donor vote and be negative or something). Then if, say, 10 people really dig a certain strip, the user is given the small reward of having a highlighted post in their profile/comics list or something which kind of highlights their best work. I realize this probably sounds like a ton of work, but I think it would be a very cool feature for regular users who actually care about mutual support of fellow users and, like I said, it would be a system that couldn't be abused to demote someone's status or rating or whatever.

pslock, I like ideas that involve the ratings of individual strips. Thing is, we kind of sort of have that already. http://www.stripcreator.com/toprated.php isn't exactly visible in everyone's comic list, and it's not publicised, but is our built-in system as it stands. The only problem I can forsee with what you have suggested is that getting ten people to vote on one single strip is fairly difficult. In order for a lot of those strips to get on that toprated list, they had to be posted to a special "Let's everyone rate some strips" thread. No strip with less than five votes shows up on that toprated list, by the way. So strips I have voted for long ago may never see the light of day simply because the users here would have to find it out of the 250000+ strips already on the site. That same issue could exist with your idea.

Of course, if even non-donors could vote, it might make voting more common, if for no other reason than all the random users clicking "random" and voting for the random strips.

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What about Kajun/Chooby? Both are donors and the same person.

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I would be willing to be held accountable for any comments I've made, positive or negative. Those people earned my wrath. And I'd really miss "Waffle Iron" if it were to disappear.

I also kind of enjoy having the negative comments on my info. I don't take crap from anyone, and I doubt everyone loves that about me.

However, if the system were to go, I don't think I'd be curled up in the corner crying. I could be wrong.

Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke, that's what I say.

I always thought you said "More, boorite, MORE!!!"

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I always thought you said "More, boorite, MORE!!!"

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I always thought you said "More, boorite, MORE!!!"

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Sometimes, and sometimes I say "possums, watch the teeth."

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