I am trying to play and rate as many maps here as I can stand. I have noticed many times when a map was rated x/5 before I rated it x-1/5, the rating is x+1/5 after. I'm already disappointed that the ratio of ratings to downloads is less than 1% for most maps, but if the rating system is broken and unreliable, I may as well stop rating maps, too. But, I won't stop playing them. Even without a rating system, this site would still be fantastic!

I haven't noticed this problem whatsoever. Usually when I rate a map the rating doesn't actually change, but that could be because I only play maps that have been rated by a lot of people...

If you rate a map 5/5 that only 2 other people voted 1/5, you're going to see a big jump in the average.

What KennKong is saying is:

Map A has 10 votes; 4/5
Kenn votes 3/5
Map A has 11 votes 5/5

You have to be very good in math to get that as a logical outcome.

I haven't noticed this problem yet but I haven't been really paying attention to the influence of my votes. I will look at this more carefully in the future.

The vote %'s are indeed quite low but keep in mind that if there is a v1.5 of a map people often downloaded 1.0;1.1 all the way to 1.5; that means 6 downloads for one person! I also sometimes found myself downloading the same map two times in a row 'cause I wasn't paying attention. So that is also how those figures can look different from the unique downloads

The rating system is bugged. I remember a rating showing up without anyone downloading my map yet. I also started a thread about that.

MasterLagger wrote:
The rating system is bugged. I remember a rating showing up without anyone downloading my map yet. I also started a thread about that.

well, if I'd upload a 200 mb file and I ask you all to vote before it finished uploading it also has a rating before someone downloaded

Ive noticed that it seems near every person who uploads a map rates it 5/5 and that really skews thing especially if its a crap map

andyb wrote:
Ive noticed that it seems near every person who uploads a map rates it 5/5 and that really skews thing especially if its a crap map

Agreed; but from what I understand is disabling votes for the map creator is very hard too do.

EDIT: Typo.

Ratings are automatically recalculated every few hours or once a day or something. There are one or two fuckwits (specifically iWork) who like to tamper with the rating system, and I had to go completely out of my way to 1.) fix them fucking it up and 2.) come up with a way of blocking them from voting again.

Just to illustrate:
Before I rated this map, it was 7 votes, 3/5.
I rated it 2/5.
Now it's 8 votes, 4/5.

http://forums.thinking.withportals.com/downloads.php?view=detail&df_id=1298

I'm not sure what you want me to say. I can't fix it. I've tried, the voting code is all over the place. The download system sucks, we'll be rid of it soon.

iWork925 wrote:

Professor Troll I presume?

msleeper wrote:
I'm not sure what you want me to say. I can't fix it.

I'd love to help, if I can. I have decades of experience in database design and programming, but not much in web server coding. Nor do I have the tools set up for that kind of work, although I do have the resources (LAMP server, etc.) In addition, the experience I have in database-driven UIs is with SQL Server and IE, not mySQL and Apache, so I'd have a learning curve. I'm certain you're much more capable at this than I, but sometimes a fresh set of eyes is all you need. Feel free to PM me if you think there's anything I might be able to do to help. Please know that I appreciate your efforts in this labor of love.

But that's the thing. I don't want to fix it. The download system sucks. I'm going to scrap it entirely when we move to the new Workshop download system.