I've always been fairly indifferent to rating, in fact I'm not sure if I've ever been rated. However, I do love feedback! (hint hint)

I agree with Pacopaco, Ignoring the rating system would hurt people who are trying to get noticed, like me
I know, my creations aren't too good, but whenver i see that one of my creations has a blue or green face next to it, it makes me happy, it's what motivates me to create even more. I always hope that one of my creations will be noticed, and it never will if no one ever rates it up. BUT, I know that many popular creators are having massive downrating problems, and I understand that you're extremely mad. It's just that I think more people are going to be hurt rather than helped with this, because I'm almost positive that Maxis is going to ignore our requests. I'll try to help you, but I am going to continue to both comment and rate on creations that i like.

sry, accidentally logged in as a sub account... plz see "nate0520"s post (that's me on my actual account)

I totally agree with you. I've seen all of your creations, and i can't think of why someone would downrate them (you are probably my favorite building creator, Andeavor ) i could see maybe having a report button if there's an offensive creation, but having a button to downrate a creation doesn't really make sense. They should adopt a rating system like youtube, so you can rate things up only to a certain degree, i.e. +1 point, +5 points, or somewhere inbetween.
I've pretty much already been doing this (only giving + ratings or leaving comments), and i also want to encourage you all to do that, too. If it's a great creation, then go ahead and give it a thumbs-up so some new people can get in the spotlight. If it's a not-so-good creation, don't rate it down, just leave some feedback in a comment of how they could improve.

Take out the down-rate button!!!

I think they should keep the down-rate button and the up-rate button. But instead, have a feature in which anybody can see who rated what.

That way if somebody or some group of people are doing mass down-ratings it would be come clear who those people are. Then the Players can make notes of those people and bring a complaint against them to Maxis in a civil fashion.

That, or force somebody to comment whenever they rate a creation. Either way, people will know who is rating what, what.

But then again, another question may be asked, would this discourage people from rating if they know they can be tracked on what and how they rated things? Could the results be worse by taking this approach? Important questions that should be asked.

I have to agree with PacoPaco that those who most need responsible rating will be the ones punished. It should still be equal value for +/- though. ALso, people are lazy and it is easier to click a thumb than write a comment and there have been complaints about comments not having any value (great job for example). What interest me more if you will is what got downrated. When I went to bed last night all of Andeavor's zodiac were on the MPN and rightly so. It seems that what got hit was just the TCP announcement (correct me if I am wrong! ). That would seem to indicate it was not the creator or their creations being targeted. THe people doing the TCP are putting in a lot of time and effort to help others which I admire, but I see how someone could feel that the MPN was being used as spam maybe. It would be nice if they would have just sent a comment saying how they feel and then maybe things could be resolved but that did not happen. Are they mad they did not get considered or do they feel it is spamming and maybe someone got mad at them for spamming? Not everyone uses the forums and with the search not working right, it is harder to find things. These announcements let people know what is going on and I personally don't mind them but I can see how someone else might. Also, I think "Most Popular Creations" doesn't necessarily mean most "liked". Look at all the red and orange faces at the end. I think it means most activity.

I understand your anger, Andeavor, because you put a lot of time and effort into helping others! And, I feel the system needs work but I am not sure this is the way to accomplish getting it improved and don't ask me how to accomplish that because I have no idea! I will continue to rate and to check out the TCP announcements.

I can see that this subject is emotionally-charged for many, and I have mixed feelings about your boycott idea, Andeavor. I've been on Spore for less than two months, and have known about and participated in the rating system on Spore.com for less than six weeks. I've had both fun and frustration due to the rating system, and I don't completely understand how it works. I know that about a quarter of a million creations are being uploaded every day, and it's impossible for anyone to sort through them all, even if that's all he spent his time doing. But somehow, one creation (for me it was "Chess Board") gets noticed, and a creator will begin to do well in the mpn rating system.

One of the big reservations I have about boycotting the rating system is what it will do to new or unnoticed good creators. For me, it was a thrill to see one of my creations going up the mpn for the first time. I've never considered myself creative (I'm 47 years old and have always done very technical work), and Spore is a great creativity outlet for me. I'd hate to see other good creators, especially new ones, suffer or at least miss out because of a rating boycott.

When I've had time, I've looked at literally thousands of creations and have commented on them AND rated them up because I want others to have that same experience I had. And I'm not talking about creations on the mpn only. I've spent hour after hour looking at things on the Newest creations list and rating up creations from creators I've never heard of. I've also spend lots of time on the mpn rating up things I think are good. But I have seen what I thought were some wonderful creations that had orange or red faces, so I know what you're talking about.

I have downrated creations before, BUT ONLY ACCORDING TO THESE GUIDELINES:

1) If a creation is obscene (a phallus, for example, of which I've seen many on the Newest creations list), I will downrate it and report it to Maxis. Often, I will also send a comment to the creator telling him that we don't want garbage like that on Spore.

2) If a creation is offensively vulgar (I saw one yesterday titled "Taking a Dump") I will downrate it and report it to Maxis.

3) If a creation is openly hostile toward the beliefs of others, I will downrate it, but not without an explanatory comment to the creator. (I've used this one only twice.)

4) If a creation is obviously stolen (and I've seen many from great creators like Slartibartfast38, yourself (Andeavor), BellaBlim and others; and I've seen a few of mine as well), I will downrate it and will usually post a plea to the thief asking that he not steal the creations of others.

I think these guidelines are reasonable.

ON THE OTHER HAND:

Yesterday, I felt the frustation of this whole downrating problem. I had created my first-ever dragon for tuinahvuni and foreverpiping's Dragonlance contest. I've never participated in a contest before, and they asked me to join this one, so I thought it might be fun. I created a dragon I titled "Alloy Dragon" and thought it wasn't too bad. When I checked my comments the morning after I made it, I had ten (10) comments waiting for that creation. At least six said they had rated it up. I also rated my own creation up. (Why not? I get one vote like everyone else, right?) But it was still only blue. I was shocked by this. One of three things had to have happened: 1) it takes more than seven thumbs up to get something to green, 2) People commented R+, but really didn't rate it up, or 3) someone downrated it. I suspect #3.

To decide that you won't rate anyone's creations is a real blow to the good creators. For example, yesterday you put out 12 (count 'em, twelve!) new creations, and I rated up every single one of them, not because I'm a brown-noser, but because I think your work is top-notch! It's been frustrating for me over the past week or ten days to see my creations "flounder". I'm getting loads of comments (30 to 50 is typical), but they're not climbing to the top of the mpn because people aren't rating them up.

And here's the rub: If EVERYONE boycotted the rating system, would ANYTHING make the mpn? Do comments alone count for anything in regard to the mpn? As far as I can tell, they don't. So those who haven't seen this thread might still make it to the mpn, and you're suggesting that they would be those who are rating-hungry. I don't think the downraters would be the only ones there, so you would still not be able to tell the downraters from those who are just having fun without malice.

I don't know the answer to this. Spore.com is a pseudo-community, analogous to a large city. There are going to be those who just want to live a peaceful existence, and there will be murders and thieves. We haven't solved the problems in our cities through boycotts and legislation, and we probably won't solve our Spore problem that way, either. People are people, and some just don't care if they hurt others.

I guess my vote is to remove the thumbs down, but to leave the Report this Creation feature. (But what about those who might have set up five accounts so that they can get five votes? I think Maxis allows five screen names on a single Spore registration.)

I'm not keen on boycotting the rating sytem completely, I just believe that the 'thumbs down' option should be removed.

Only one or two downraters can do huge damage to the popularity of a creation. Personally, I find comments more valuable than rates. However, I get extremely offended when someone goes out of their way to deface my hard work by mass downrating it.

If you do not like a creation, ignore it. If you like it, comment on it and rate it up.

A 'watermark' placed on each creation could remove the need for downrating stolen creations, as the original creator could be easily identified.

Andeavor. You appear to have quite a number of followers, get commented on often, have a large amount of greened creations, and in general it's very apparent that you're a popular and skilled creator with the talent to deserve your popularity.

How come that isn't enough for you?

Why exactly do you see fit to ignore the large amount of fans you've earned for the sake of the actions of a few individuals? Do the downraters really mean more to you than the great multitude of your fans who put you into the limelight in the first place? Why do you launch protests and focus on the downraters when you should be thanking your fans and devoting your time to them instead?

If the voting system was completley absent and we judged solely off comments, then admit it, you'd be a happy bunny. You know as well as I do how popular and at the forefront you are - don't abuse that.

A 'watermark' placed on each creation could remove the need for downrating stolen creations, as the original creator could be easily identified.

I think Didzo is right in that something like this would help with downrating stolen creatures. I have always thought that a permanent tag with the creators name should automatically be added to parent creations when they are made. I know very little about programming but this seems like it should be easy to do.

Thank you all for your responses. I would go deeper into the discussions but I'm rather frustrated since I've been trying to upload some stuff for the past hour with no success.

I'll see if the server is in a better mood tomorrow and if not I may go on a temporary break. I've had it with that, too.

Jaramat wrote:

A 'watermark' placed on each creation could remove the need for downrating stolen creations, as the original creator could be easily identified.

I think Didzo is right in that something like this would help with downrating stolen creatures. I have always thought that a permanent tag with the creators name should automatically be added to parent creations when they are made. I know very little about programming but this seems like it should be easy to do.

The 'watermark' already exists. However, it's only visible to Maxis.

I find that most people don't know it takes 4 votes to get a red face 4 that means 4 people don't like it

I think I'll join you on something like this..
I've never experienced a red face downrate on one of my creations yet, but that's just because I'm not very popular on spore yet..
It just annoys me that people would downrate for purely selfish reasons..

@ The_guard_bunny: from what I read in this thread and others, a + is one vote and a - is three votes so if that is true, I think that is wrong. And I did not know it only took 4 to get a red face that is definitely losided if it take 7 or more to get green


@ Didzo: did not know the "watermark" was already there but makes sense so if it is already there, I vote we make it visible!