[admin]

Hi Guys,

We are contemplating going to a "Like" based rating system (Ie. Facebook, Youtube, etc.). If we do this, we would convert over all 5 star votes to = 1 "like" and 1 star votes to = 1 "dislike" and probably throw out the rest unless we get some good ideas on what to do with those middle votes. Or we could do 4 and 5 star votes = like and 1 and 2 star votes = dislike.

How do you guys feel about star vs. like based rating systems? Would you rather us switch over to a like based system? We see one drawback to a like/dislike option, that being getting lots of dislikes could hurt people's feelings, and do we really need to choose dislike, isn't not voting "like" enough?

Thanks for your time, your feedback will be used to steer the direction of the site so please let us know what you think!

[che-che]

dont know. i feel their was nothing wrong with the star voting system. if you do the like thing. i wouldnt do the dislike if you are worried about feelings. i like the 5 star rating cause you can actually see different levels of how hot someone is. i usually go looking through art and look at the stars. and if it has a 3 star rating and i find the work awesome it motivates me to vote them up.

with the notification of how many people favorited the artwork. is also another way judging how much of an impact the artist is really resonating with the community.

[Jasper]

Idk, I really like the star based rating system. I feel like the symbolic nature of receiving five stars on a work of art provides more motivation than just a number of likes. If I had a piece of art that wasn't five stars, I knew it wasn't just because enough people hadn't seen my work, but because it really wasn't that great, and I needed to do better. It might become too easy for someone to just hit the like button, instead of giving an honest rating. Also, there is already an 'add to favorites' button, which I think probably works just as well if not better than a like button.

Stars are one of the reasons I prefer sites like this for posting my art, as opposed to facebook and tumblr.

[Sirio]

This is an april fools joke, right? Right?

[admin]

Thank you all for the feedback, we value it very much. We know that it's impossible to please everyone, but we do listen to what you guys have to say and base our future features on those requests, and this is one of those cases.

The main reason we moved to the like system was because of user feedback. Many users were getting spammed with 1 star rates on work that was clearly not worthy of one star, in many cases someone would go through an entire gallery and give 1 star to each piece for whatever reason.

Another thing to consider is that once you get a 5 star vote, all you can do is go down from there. It's a subtractive rating system. And it can take many 5 star votes to repair a 1 star vote. So for someone who doesn't get much traffic, to get a 1 star vote can be very discouraging for them and we can sympathize with that response.

We agree with the feedback that we have gotten that a 5 star rating system on a user profile just doesn't feel that healthy, it works better on images, but if you were stuck with only a 1 star rate on your profile, it could get pretty depressing, especially for newbies, hobbyists, and students who want to share their work but don't get the volume that the pros do here. We want the user experience at CGHUB.com to be a positive one in respect to the rating system, right now it just isn't that way for many users. We don't want anyone to equate their self worth as an individual or artist on the number of stars on their profile or artwork.

So the primary reason we switched is to avoid abuse. With the hundreds of thousands of images and profiles on the site it's nearly impossible for us to keep up with rate abuse. The secondary reason is to boost morale, and encourage positive critiques over petty votes to bring other users down. If you feel strongly about a piece and feel it could be better, why not leave a comment? It's a much more constructive solution. Finally, there really wasn't much spread in votes. Most items either had a 1 or 5 star rating.

We agree that likes are similar to Faves, the difference being that you might want to "like" something to show your support, but not necessarily want to add it to your favorites.

Also, when you are browsing through the site and filtering by "highest rated images" (the old system) an image with one 5 star vote was equal to an image with fifty 5 star votes. If the image with 50 5 star votes has one 1 star vote, then the image with one 5 star vote appears above it. Unless we were to average the rates with the rating, this is a flawed system for sorting out how many people really like something.

We hope that the like system will more accurately reflect the overall popularity of an image/profile while minimizing the negative aspects that come with a rating system.

If the majority of users disagree with the change we can go back to the old system, we still have all the original star ratings stored, please use this thread for feedback. Thank you!

[JohnSilva]

I 100% support the change, some of you might not see it but this is a valuable change for MORE support and less "trolling"/negative support.... Also its pretty simple, you don't support/like someone's work, just don't "Like" it and leave it as it is

[kryssmen]

Keeping the average "star" rating works well.

criticism only works if it entails positive and negative feedback.

It will also motivate you to do better next time.

If im only told that im great all the time.. how do I know what to improve and grow as an artist.

If the switch to like/dislike does move forward then you definately need the "dislike". best to have balance.

[admin]

Hi kryssmen,

Thanks for your feedback, regarding your point that "It will also motivate you to do better next time."

This was brought up by many users, when it's just a rate and the users don't leave comments or critiques, the consensus that we have gathered is that a low rating actually does very little to motivate anyone in a constructive way. Usually it just makes them feel bad and discouraged. What was it about the image/artist that made them give it a 1 star vote? We agree that there needs to be constructive criticism, but the anonymous nature of the voting doesn't leave much for people to go on.

Perhaps we should consider making the votes public, or requiring a comment to vote/rate?

[axl99]

Rating systems I find aren't just subject to bias, but I find them incredibly impersonal and non-committal. It doesn't encourage actual dialogue between artists.

I propose multiple text fields. Cumbersome maybe, but if it were me, I'd really appreciate someone taking the time to offer their suggestions. Granted not everyone has time to write paragraphs, but surely they could at least provide bulletpoints on things that worked and didn't work in a piece. Suggesting specific reference resources or alternate methods of visual problem-solving is much preferable.

On the other hand, ratings are already public by default and can be turned on or off by each user. But back to the topic, I don't mind the like button.

[mavinova]

rather than like and dislike ,

I would have buttons like ,

"all around awesome"
"could use some more work"
"not realistic enough"
"looks like a photo"
"very funny"
"sexy"


or some better stuff that you can come up with. It can all be positive or some negative some positive.
I see voting as a faster way to comment . giving 5 stars is equal to writing "great work keep it up" so if you are switching to a "I liked your work" \ "I disliked your work" pre-made comment-rating system why wouldn't cghub have its own phrases that relate to artistic criticism\approach.

also I am a little bit sick of seeing facebook's like buttons everywhere. they act like they own the internet. so it doesnt really excite me to see a similar structure here in cghub

[Ankaris]

I agree with @Jasper.. I may rate an image with stars even if it's not my cup of tea, but I can see merit in the work.. or not, which ever the case may be.

The one thing that bothers me with modern art sites, is that rarely do you see anyone giving real honest advice or feedback. CGHub is better than most in that area, but not without it's problems. Thing is today, we wrap people up in cotton wool hoping not to offend them. Get out into industry and your boss wont care, will tell what they think regardless of your feelings, at best, and at worst fire you because you're just not good enough. That would destroy young artists.

Sites like this should allow open honest criticism where it helps younger artists deal with criticism.. before they hit industry and REALLY feel the heat! Younger artists (I keep saying younger artists here but if older artists are feeling offended then shame on them!) also need to understand they are here to learn, to get better and we want them to get better. A like button does not help this process at all.

Stick with the stars which give the artist and the viewer an idea of where that work really sits. If most people are voting 4's and 5's, a 1 star vote can mostly be ignored. The inverse will also hold true.

[papaninja]

I think the "like" is good idea ...
All the other forums did the same because of trolling problem and because rating system is often useless. Lambda users give a "5 stars" vote or nothing, trolls just give "1 star" vote for their own reasons.
It's not very important for people who have a lot of votes but it could have a very negative impact on people who have few feedbacks.
Criticism is not to give a bad vote, it's explaining why you dislike (or like) the picture. So you can do this with all the vote systems.
I agree it's not easy. We are, in fact, a small community. A lot of us know each others. So, sometimes, we don't "dare" write "negative" comments. DeviantArt has a good idea for this. When you post a new picture, you can tell you want detailed criticism ... It could be a good idea too

The perfect system doesn't exist. We don't post on CG forums for the same reasons (feedbacks, criticism, views, ...). So it's nearly impossible to satisfy everybody. But I think this system is the more constructive

[Etienne]

I agree with all that has been said. Rating out of 5 is better when there are more votes, 'like' is more constructive to those with less traffic passing through their portfolio.

How about a star rating system that is stored and translated to a 'like' system until 10 or more ratings are cast at which point the 'average out of 5' figure is exposed? And even then its only exposed to the artist themselves unless they choose to make the figure public?

It's not a big deal but I must admit just having people 'like' a piece does feel a little like an ego massage for the more established artists on here...

[Izene]

I like the system we have now,
I think the Like/Dislike(Youtube) is a bad idea.Its kinda like saying,I hate your picture :/ ...just saying~

[arttorney]

I didn't see the "neither" option up in the poll, but that would have been my vote. If you have something to say about a piece of art then type a comment.