nic
08/21/17 04:13 PM
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Hello everyone!
Since the first days of VirtualGlobetrotting, we've had a 1-10 star rating system for maps.
While this has given logged-in members and anonymous visitors one method of giving feedback on maps they like (or dislike), we've had several discussions over the years on its limitations.
Some of the concerns about the 1-10 star ratings:
- What does the rating mean? That the location was good? That the description was good? That you like the post?
- Conversely, what does a bad rating mean? That you don't like this category of maps? That the imagery was poor?
- The vast majority of votes are either for 1 or 10 stars, not in between
- We've had instances where a small set of visitors on the site are voting large swaths of maps negative, due to either dislike of the poster, or of the category, or to try to game the "Top Rated" views.
Here are links to previous discussions for reference:
There have been several suggested changes to the system over the years, and I'd like to seriously consider changing VGT's current 1-10 star rating system to something else that avoids some of the above pitfalls.
I've been doing some research on what rating systems work for different types of sites. Some of the ideas that other sites are using are:
- 1-10 rating (VGT today)
- 1-100 rating
- 1-5 rating
- Like (only)
- Like / Dislike (or Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down)
- Like / Dislike (with dislikes deprioritized)
- Like / Neutral / Dislike (e.g. 3-star)
- Emoji ratings
As you can imagine, a wide variety of websites use a wide variety of these systems. Notably, I'll point out that both Netflix and YouTube recently changed from a 1-5 star system to Like/Dislike system.
After considering the type of content we have on the site -- user-submitted locations combined with imagery from other sources -- to me, it seems that one of the "Like" systems might be a better fit for VGT.
Instead of having someone "rate" the map on a scale (again, what is being rated?), a "Like" system asks a very generic question -- do you, personally, like this map?
This has the additional benefit of making ratings more about "positive" feedback than worrying about who doesn't like your posts.
If we move to a "Like" system, there are a couple options. We could only show a button for "Like", or we could allow for Dislikes too, and show those (e.g. YouTube). We could only allow dislikes from logged in users, and show the list of those users to other logged in users.
Here's what I'm currently thinking:
- Change to a Like / Dislike system
- Like is available to all logged in members and anonymous visitors, and both have equal weight
- Logged in members can Dislike
- Anonymous visitors have Dislike either a) hidden or b) logged but not calculated into the dislike count. The later case could be a good system for being notified of inappropriate content if there are a high number of anonymous dislikes
- For Likes or Dislikes from logged in members, we would track these and anyone could see for a map who voted in which way.
- We could convert the existing ratings into Likes. For example, if a map had 100 votes and a 6.5 rating, we could start the map with 65 Likes.
- Logged in visitors would be able to see the list of maps they like or disliked (basically, what you can see for favorites)
What do you think about this proposal?
In addition, I will probably be implementing the algorithm described here to change the sort behavior for "Top Rated" ("Top Liked").
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mlc1us
08/21/17 06:59 PM
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I prefer the "Like only"
mlc1us
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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Fab
08/22/17 12:01 AM
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Like only.
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jdubble07
08/22/17 03:31 PM
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Like only. My guess for the overabundance of 1-star votes is that there are trolls (As are on most websites) who change their IP address, allowing for multiple votes.
Perhaps only registered users should be able to "like" as well. To me, views show interest better than likes or ratings anyways.
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Fab
08/23/17 10:55 AM
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I have a suspicion that it's being done by one VGT user.
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jdubble07
08/23/17 02:00 PM
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Agreed. Likely the one who usually has the least viewed map each day yet has multiple 10-star votes, while the most popular maps have multiple 1-star votes.
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Dania
08/24/17 06:49 PM
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Like only
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kkeps
08/24/17 08:33 PM
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Like only works for me. Keep everything nice and positive.
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nic
08/25/17 11:41 AM
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Cool, I "like" the idea of doing a like-only system 
Will be working on this soon!
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gordonhigh
08/25/17 12:17 PM
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Thanks, Nic! I know this has been a discussion point for some time now, and it's great to see changes being made. For what it's worth, I also "like" the like-only system -- should keep things around here even more positive.
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SpiderX22
08/25/17 06:05 PM
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I also prefer the like only system. I feel people dislike if the image is no longer there; perhaps add an easy to click report that the image is no longer there button or something? (If this already exists, I have no idea where it is for other people's finds).
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jdubble07
08/25/17 06:44 PM
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Also, in terms of views, what about changing the views count to # of times the VGT page has been viewed instead of # of times the link to Google/Bing is viewed? When a map location is hidden for privacy reasons, there's no count. I'd be curious to know the number difference between people who stop at the VGT page vs those who go further to view through Google/Bing on the full map.
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jbottero
08/26/17 01:44 AM
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"Like" clearly benefits those who are the recipients of "down votes". And of course they are "butt hurt".
If you are not going to allow a *qualitative* rating, get rid of rating.
I recommend getting rid of rating entirely.
Edited by jbottero (08/26/17 01:45 AM)
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jbottero
08/26/17 02:25 AM
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Well, if you post good maps, you'll get good rates. Hmmm?
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