Is the rating system broken?
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.
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
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
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.
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
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.