[natzuurjk]

I do like the idea of having to "like" before a download of the image, let's the artist know people aren't just taking an image for no reason.

[kellyx]

Thanks natzuurjk, It's a sign of good faith or it would feel like someone is at least showing a bit of gratitude before downloading one of your paintings... I'm all for sharing and/or helping people but it should go both ways.

[pmoss]

Originally Posted by natzuurjk

I do like the idea of having to "like" before a download of the image, let's the artist know people aren't just taking an image for no reason.

How feasible would it be to have a hover-over pop-up on the download button (which currently says download full resolution image) saying 'this user is happy to share their work for free, but appreciates feedback or rating in return - thankyou' - that way no-one is required to do anything but it may encourage feedback on the site as a whole? A similar thing could be done with the 'like' button 'show your appreciation for good art, why not leave a comment aswell to explain your feedback?'... but not so wordy

[kellyx]

great idea!! Like

[Kirsten_Zirngibl]

I personally really like the star system. If abuse it the only problem, aren't there other ways around it?

How about a minimum number of votes before the stars even show up. Conceptart.org does this for thread ratings, and it works quite well. I have NEVER seen a 1 or 2 star there, and only a couple of 3's for beginners who post a LOT. And the likelihood of 5 people actually getting together to team up on someone's page seems like MUCH less than one rogue hater. Plus, bullies would just find other ways of getting at people anyways, such as making an anonymous/fake name account and posting cruel comments.

Another suggestion to fight abuse would be to allow account owners to reset the number of stars on a given piece.



What bothers me about having this system removed is that it had been the best way to gauge feedback, since hardly anyone bothers to comment on this site. "Likes" become only a judge of popularity, not necessarily level of merit. A totally awesome piece with little exposure and 2 likes makes viewers question whether the work itself wasn't deserving, or if popularity played a role.

For those who say you can't rate Art with stars, well... this site is for the most part commercial art. 5 means... you're hired! 4, that your work is good but not quite at the professional level. 3 is student quality, but shows promise in some way or the other, etc...

Looks like I came into this late in the game and I'm guessing the star system is gone, but it's a shame. It was one of the main things that made uploading new work exciting.

[arttorney]

I doubt if it is over just yet. People are still trying to come up with something that offers promise. I would be concerned about letting the account holders adjust the stars. Suddenly everybody would have five stars on everything. (By reset you likely meant only to remove the ratings and start over. I guess that would result in everybody who gets less than 5 stars resetting to "no stars" over coffee each morning.)

I can see from the thread that I am not the only one that gets the feeling of reading tea leaves or something. (e.g. nobody says much about the gallery and so I need to look at what gets downloaded or sometimes faved and try to glean meaning out of that (like Aragorn listening to the ground).

I've been trying to give some comments that have specific meaning out in the forum areas, but I may take up gallery browsing more. Perhaps if I start commenting rather than ranting about how people should be commenting ... [/MUSINGS]

[Kirsten_Zirngibl]

I agree with arttorney that giving people control over stars might be a bad idea. I think the best one would be to make multiple votes required for the stars to show up. (Though don't users have the ability to hide the rating anyway?) Plus, we could STILL have the "like" system on top of that, for the people who usually don't get enough votes to show stars.

As for artists having their feelings hurt, if this is a site for professionals and high-level students (which I had assumed it was), I really don't see a bad rating by one voter as being devastating. Maybe to a beginner, but I seem to remember that when the site started, they were only inviting people with relatively good work in order to build the image of quality and professionalism in CGHub. I'm assuming that people who make an account have enough confidence in their abilities that they wouldn't get discouraged by bully votes. (Then again, it's been awhile since I've combed the site, so perhaps it has more beginners now than I'd seen before.)


I guess my problem is that, despite getting low traffic on my gallery, I had a 5 star artist rating and 5's on all my rated pieces (except one 4.5). It looked pretty good to a potential employer. But now just seeing one or 2 "likes" on my pieces is pretty... unimpressive. It confuses popularity with quality.

Yeah, I know, promoting yourself through CGHub is ultimately about the work itself, not a community rating. (Perhaps I'm being petty?) Still feels like a downgrade though.

[MikeCorriero]

It already takes approx 5-10 ratings before stars show up next to a forum thread. This was something discussed a while back as almost every thread had some kind of rating one way or the other even after 1 or 2 ratings. It's best if 10 ratings at least average out the total before showing up, but that's not really a solution.
I'm going to continue to stand by the fact that the best case scenario is one that results in more interaction and help than "click click click" no matter what the option is. Likes, Stars, Dislikes, Spiffy Phrases...

1: A mandatory comment if you want to rate a thread (showing your rating along with the comment so things are no longer anonymous). Make it a privilege to allow someone to vote/rate something, so they are obligated to comment with some form of a critique. Posting a comment without a rating would still work the same way.
or
2: No ratings at all, which might would work best. When someone has an opinion, they'll need to reply instead of just clicking a button.

3: If either of those aren't an option, then the "like" system is the best option for those who don't have enough time to comment and just want to say they enjoyed someones work. In the case of letting someone know you enjoyed their work at least it encourages people, but the alternative of a dislike or low rating provide the artist with nothing useful. I don't think the "likes" on user galleries will do any good except in the statistics as the admins mentioned.

I really want to see Either of the 3 options I mentioned implemented into individual Forum Threads. I think options 1 or 2 will seriously increase helpful feedback, interaction etc.. We already have the "thanks" feature for individual posts which lets people quickly say "I've seen your post and appreciate it" which cuts out unnecessary bumping of threads.

Edit: Kirsten - by no means meant to offend you, but I don't think that a potential employer/client is going to care too much whether a piece of art on an art forum was rated 5 stars or 2 "likes" as the quality of work, experience and the person in general are what will earn them a job. I could be wrong... I just don't think a rating next to art is going to affect an AD's decision unless they are 17 years old and working on a game MOD. However, this is why I was confused when the "like" system was implemented into user galleries and not the forums. I really think the change would benefit everyone and make more sense if it were only implemented into forum THREADS.

[alesoun]

Why can't we just have "worth a look" without grading? Never understood "one star means it's cr@p". Seems a contradiction in terms to me.. but, I admit, I can be dumb.