Been here a short while, but I've gone around and honestly...I think everyone is quite nice. By and large anyway...

When people rate a page, I've seen no one get lower than a FOUR. Under what circumstances do you give anything lower than a THREE and if you do have the courage to do it...is it best to be anonymous?

Or is giving FIVE'S just an etiquette thing?

Let's here from the VETS here.

I'm not a vet by any means, but I've noticed the all 5s thing as well. If I ever got below a 4, I'd expect an explanation and a few tips on how to improve, I suppose.

I've been guilty of just hitting the '5' in the dropbox to be nice, but really didn't mean it...

The best option is just to not rate at all, crap comics get 5's all the time and good comics can be given 4's. Really, it's better to avoid rating and just praise them verbally. :)

I try to be honest, but polite. If I really like something, I'll rate it a 5. If I see potential for something really good, but isn't quite "there yet", I'll rate it a 4 or 5. If I don't like something but don't know if the person will take a low rating personally(Or, rather, don't feel like fielding a flame war) I won't rate it at all.

On the other hand, if I feel someone CAN handle it, I'll give the lower rating with the explaination why.

I don't think the rating system is very effective. Plus, a lot of people seem to think that a rating alone is a good enough comment. Which doesn't really HURT anyone, but it's not terribly helpful either.

I only post on comic worthy of a five, or a one. A five to tell them they are good, a one to tell them they need serious improvement.

I will give below a 5 if there's a good reason. I have gotten as low as a 2 before (sure, the guy who gave me a 2 was a jerk) but it's no big deal. Usually for me, my ratings on my comics range from 3-5 from people. There are those who don't understand that I realize my comic is badly-drawn and isn't going to improve, and those who find the fact that I can't draw charming....

But the 5's are a bit excessive.

If you really must rate, you should rate +1 for every good point you can find and -1 for every bad point.

For instance, taking a random comic from the updated list...



-1 for lack of speech bubbles.

-1 for bit size differences.

+1 for use of same game background.

+1 for use of good spelling and grammar.

+1/-1 for a good joke? (Differs in opinion)

+1 for decent borders.

+1 for use of hand drawn pickle jar. (I think?)

So in the end you might give it perhaps 2 or a 3 if he's lucky. But most people just give away fives and praise for nothing...SLIMREDNINJA...sorry, don't know where that came from. So you can see you should weigh up the +ives and the -ives.

But everybody knows, all the cool cats don't rate. Ever.

Bek's got good advice there!

Ok, for newer people: the ratings don't do anything.

History lesson:
Both the ratings and the "5" culture stem from the days when your appearance on the front page was determined by having a perfect score. You rate 5 because you love the work, you're afraid of them rating you less in retaliation, or more likely: everyone else does it! In fact that's the main reason why the 5 thing became so popular, it's just the "done thing", everyone does it, so the next guy that comes along and is new to the system does it as well.
End of story.

It's a redundant feature at the moment... But still useful for those that just like a comic and can't think up a comment.

If I find something that's well done, I'll give it a five. If it sucks, I won't rate it, (if I bother to comment at all).

Cthulhu
I only post on comic worthy of a five, or a one. A five to tell them they are good, a one to tell them they need serious improvement.

Pass or fail - as a teacher, that makes pretty good sense. I don't get a lot of comments...makes me fearful of what people REALLY think LOL. This is good discussion though.

Also, never post as anonymous. It serves no purpose other than the self knowledge that you are a spineless coward. :)

Bekefel
If you really must rate, you should rate +1 for every good point you can find and -1 for every bad point.

For instance, taking a random comic from the updated list...



-1 for lack of speech bubbles.

-1 for bit size differences.

+1 for use of same game background.

+1 for use of good spelling and grammar.

+1/-1 for a good joke? (Differs in opinion)

+1 for decent borders.

+1 for use of hand drawn pickle jar. (I think?)

So in the end you might give it perhaps 2 or a 3 if he's lucky. But most people just give away fives and praise for nothing...SLIMREDNINJA...sorry, don't know where that came from. So you can see you should weigh up the +ives and the -ives.

But everybody knows, all the cool cats don't rate. Ever.

Now we're talking school grades! In my business, I don't think students should be given an A+. What the hell is that??? 1+/1/1- is good and then averaging the whole thing out. Brutal honesty hurts I'm sure...but I like seeing everyone's take on this.

A+ is for those kids who are much smarter than they should be. I don't envy them though, those are the kids who have few friends and never get girlfriend! :evil:

I'm so tempted to go to your comic bek and give it a 1 just for the heck of it.

Disgruntledrm
I'm so tempted to go to your comic bek and give it a 1 just for the heck of it.

Someone was going to say that eventually...Watch your back everyone! LOL!

I remember back in 02 (possibly 03) when we had less than 50 comics signed up and we had a 10 point rating system, were only allowed to post one comic a day and if we wanted more than one comic it meant multiple accounts and passwords and headaches. It was tough to get it down to five, but after much debate, we got that.

Now that the ratings system has been abolished completely and several other ideas I've had are being implemented, I think my next idea to be ripped off by drunk duck is the "yes, I liked this comic" "I just wanted to comment" "no, I did not like this comic" choices, with the just wanting to comment one being the default. Thats probably going to be a ways off, but it'll happen. Some other ideas I had will also be in effect, but no one will credit old Mr Bojangles.

marine
I liked this comic" "I just wanted to comment" "no, I did not like this comic" choices...

I just want to say thanks for stopping by my comic...Given that you gave NO rating and your comment was quite neutral, I HAVE to respect you...er...Mr. Bojangles!

Good times! Great ideas...I'm sure the system will evolve to a fine-tooled machine!

Well Ozone has taught me that not giving a rating is better. Generally people give you the message "WHAT? DID YOU NOT LIKE MY COMIC YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE FOR NOT GIVING ME A RATING ON THE INTERNET!" To which a private flame war erupts, resulting in me laughing and doing a funny dance.

Or replace the ratings with 5 smilies. Grinning, crying, anger, shocked/stunned and blushing. Since the rating is pretty much becoming redundant anyway.

Eunice P
Or replace the ratings with 5 smilies. Grinning, crying, anger, shocked/stunned and blushing. Since the rating is pretty much becoming redundant anyway.

That sounds too much like deviantArt.

I usually just don't rate comics that I don't think are 5's at all for fear of being "rude". Maybe the rating system should be abolished? I find comments to be waaaay more fulfilling than a number.

Bekefel
Also, never post as anonymous. It serves no purpose other than the self knowledge that you are a spineless coward. :)

That is so true.

Honestly, I don't take the ratings too seriously. I think I've only rated a non-5 a few times, because the people specifically asked me for a critique on the pages, so I gave honest answers. If a comic is bad, I just don't read it. If I think a page is sub-par in a comic that I'm reading, I don't usually leave a comment on it, especially if I'm not sure that the artist wants critiques. There's nothing more annoying to me than taking the time to sit down and write down a nice long, thoughtful critique, only to have the artist respond with OMFG Y U GOTTA B LIEK DAT IT IZ MY STYLE GET OFF MAI COMIC U SUX etc.

And yeah, I agree about the anonymous thing. :/ If you're too ashamed to say it without hiding your face, maybe you shouldn't be saying it at all.

EDIT: Bah, Hijuda said what I said, but far more succinctly.

marine
Well Ozone has taught me that not giving a rating is better. Generally people give you the message "WHAT? DID YOU NOT LIKE MY COMIC YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE FOR NOT GIVING ME A RATING ON THE INTERNET!" To which a private flame war erupts, resulting in me laughing and doing a funny dance.

Nothing like a personal victory. The thrill of a private flame war. Which just might make YOU the most interesting single-serving friend on Drunk Duck for sure...

That should be a trophy - hope I didn't steal THAT idea from you.

If so my apologies ;)

Speaking of anonymous ratings ...

A long time ago (a couple years ago), in a galaxy far, far away (the City of Heroes Forums) I was bored and wanted to do a little experiment.

The CoH Forums had a ratings system for both posters AND threads. The poster rating system was boring. Everyone was pretty much a 3, while trolls were usually 2 (because Trolls do have fans so they don't usually keep their 1 ranking).

But the thread ratings were largely ignored.

Which prompted my experiment. I spent about a month as the "1-Star Bandit."

Every thread I would rank a 1 star. Except for a single thread, which I chose arbitrarily to rank at 5 stars. Every single thread I kept ranking at 1 star. People didn't even notice for a couple of days. But once they did, there was actually some outrage. Here I was creating this beautiful symmetry. All tinly little stars down one column on the page. A column up until that point, almost NO ONE used.

And the results of my experiment?

People, even the outraged ones that MADE THREADS about the topic (which of course I gave 1-star rankings to!), still didn't use the ranking system.

Yeah, sometimes gaming forums can get rather dull. Thank you for reading my ramblings.

I don't drop silent 5's, but I can't bring myself to rate any lower. Seems odd for me to do that, since I'm so critical, but the reason I do it is pretty much because my comments are often critical. A spoonful of sugar helps the criticism go down. If you put criticism mixed with a compliment and a 5, people will take notice of it and want to improve their comic, rather than just thinking you hate them and their comic which causes people to rebel against your advice by not taking in anything you said, or giving excuses as to why they can't improve something.
Besides that, everybody gives me fives, and I don't want to be the ungrateful cow who goes onto the comics of people who gave me a five and gives them a three back, I always think that'd make me seem like I think I'm better than everybody else!

Perhaps the rating system should be scrapped, but like Ozone said, it's a good way for people to show they're reading and like a comic even if they don't know what to say about it.

I think its really rude to get a rating that is low or average without explanations. My recent fiasco was with someone who dumped a 3 on one of my comics, a page I worked on for weeks, and when I PQ'd the person about it to find out why, it was of course turned on me as being an upset bitch who cant handle it. I felt I was making a reasonable request. I had the 3 dump removed by the admins and then their friends came and all gave me 3s on the page, but I ignored them so they didnt come back. A similar thing happened with a 4 I asked someone about. My fault for being "upset". I just for a reason..

Ive gotten quite a few 4s too.. Most of those also never made sense to me because they would come with a comment like "Oh! thats awesome!" and the like =|
Well, what did I do wrong on the page?

I personally either give 5s or no rating at all, just a comment.

kaminari
Ive gotten quite a few 4s too.. Most of those also never made sense to me because they would come with a comment like "Oh! thats awesome!" and the like =|
Well, what did I do wrong on the page?

Well, to be fair, I've given a 4 or two on accident, just because I was clicking too fast and ended up selecting the wrong number, lol. If nothing in the comment seems to indicate that they meant to give a four, maybe it was just an accident? =P

kaminari
I think its really rude to get a rating that is low or average without explanations. My recent fiasco was with someone who dumped a 3 on one of my comics, a page I worked on for weeks, and when I PQ'd the person about it to find out why, it was of course turned on me as being an upset bitch who cant handle it. I felt I was making a reasonable request. I had the 3 dump removed by the admins and then their friends came and all gave me 3s on the page, but I ignored them so they didnt come back. A similar thing happened with a 4 I asked someone about. My fault for being "upset". I just for a reason..

Ive gotten quite a few 4s too.. Most of those also never made sense to me because they would come with a comment like "Oh! thats awesome!" and the like =|
Well, what did I do wrong on the page?

I personally either give 5s or no rating at all, just a comment.

WOW - Now THAT's kinda messed up. Giving average ratings out of spite and then sending in the troops???

The DD community isn't THAT vindictive. Is it? IS IT?!?!?!