Rating weirdness!!

[Spree]

Can someone explain to me the difference in rating of these 2 miniatures. They are both of a Bloodbowl Orc Thrower. One is by me and it has the lower score:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/index.php?id=12630

http://www.coolminiornot.com/index.php?id=16667

It may only be a .4 difference but personally I think mine is better!! I\'m not trying to rubbish slorak\'s work here. I\'m more concerned with raising the issue of how the scores are worked out and if they\'re open to abuse. Is it possible for someone to jump on a PC, not login to \'coolminiornot\' and vote for themselves many times with a good score AND for it not to be picked up?

Initially I thought it may be a statistical anomaly, that over time with more votes the two ratings would pull closer together..but the thing that caught my eye was this:

* In just over 3 months my mini has had 96 votes.
* In just under 1 month his mini has had 55 votes.

Is this dodgy? Or is 55 votes in a month well within the realms or normalness?

I\'m sure this issue has been thrashed about before and if you want to me in the direction of another thread then that\'s cool, it\'s just something made me wonder!

 

[pitynoman]

I won\'t speculate how this came about...that way lies the flame,however I will agree that his is overrated(way!) and yours is underrated.This could also be that he is a new painter and could be making progress in leaps and bounds and that score is indicative of that.
However from my experience most casual passerby voters aren\'t that thoughtful.
Anyhow gave ya a 10 to help raise the score and try and correct what little injustice I can.

 

[stephen(TS)]

You can vote several time for your own miniature without it being averaged. As you said - don\'t log in and just to be safe clear the explorer cache before each vote. All in all very lame. Another situation giving rise to more votes / higher rating at times is the activity level of the poster. does he / she communicate with other members?

 

[Sturmhalo]

I have to agree that yours is considerably better! Don\'t want to take anything away from the other guy though. I\'ve seen quite a few minis that have ratings far higher than I believe suitable. I\'ve also seen minis that deserve much higher ratings than they actually have as well! Voters can be fickle. I guess some folks may not be that good at painting and therefore personally rate some minis quite highly. You may also be a victim of the old \'too lazy to think, I\'ll just hit 6\' voter!

One point on voting. How does everyone rate their own minis before submitting their pics? I tend to go for an 8 and most of the time that soon gets voted down. I wonder what would happen if someone posted a pic twice, one with an initial vote of 10, the other a 1? Which would end up having the higher score after a month?

 

[pillgrimus]

I do agree it\'s strange. I got something similar. It\'s still running though. I accidentally posted the same pic twice from a group group of Mid-Nor warriors. Although they now have about 10 votes the averages now differ 0.3 which is quite a lot. I just guess that\'s just how it is.

The thing I really don\'t understand is the views/votes balance. Is it that more of a bother to vote on a mine. As far as I know it takes just as much time

 

[Maori]

It\'s in the presentation....

Yours is definitely better, Spree, especially the photo. You did, however, not put some of the magic words into your description, Slorak did, they\'re misspelled, but they\'re there.
Such are: Games Workshop, Citadel, any GW color name, Vallejo, GOLDEN DEMON (magic word numero uno!!!), Rackham, Confrontation, I-Kore, blending, NMM (magic word numero two-o!!)
Any of these snuck into the description of your mini some way, somehow, will bump your score by at least a full point, maybe more.
And yes, a good paintjob helps, and also yes, voting is very subjective, what looks good to one person looks mediocre to another, etc.

 

[vincegamer]

Is it actually possible to vote twice from the same machine and have it add up if you are not logged on?
I will admit to once logging off and voting for my own pic, and even trying to give it another (hangs head in shame) - not elevated mind, just what I thought it was worth - but the second time didn\'t register.

Also, I find it hard to believe that words in the description make that much difference. Especially since I\'ve searched for words I knew were there and not had anything come up. Even so, if that does draw lookers, I think it\'s not so much as other forms of publicity as well as timing. What day and time you post makes a difference, and the number of votes per day goes down quickly with the passage of time.

 

[Lurch]

I\'ve been coming here almost every day since July, 2002 to vote and to get ideas on how to paint. I have since found out a few things about this place which are universal.

• At least once a month, someone will complain about the voting system and how \"fair\" it actually is. I myself have started a few of these, the last being around December on my scarecrow. :innocent:
• Your mini, is being rated on not just the paint job, but also on the sculpt, manufacturer, importance in game play, age, the photography, how well the photo is edited and cleaned up in the editor, the description, etc. Its the complete package your getting voted on.
• Minis will be voted on by manufacturer by multiple people of the fanboy mentality. (ex. GW fanboys vote on GW minis exclusively or will skew them higher than minis from another manufacturer... Same for the Rackham fans , Reaper, etc.) :|~
• DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR MINI if you have thin skin and cannot live without at least one of your favorite minis being a 5. It WILL happen. (Even Haley has a 5.8) :~(
• Your mini, no matter well photographed, ALWAYS looks better in real life.
• There are a few painters here who have a reputation for being great and that skews their votes higher than most.. sometimes it\'s even warranted. Try not to dwell on that fact.

AND MOST IMPORTANT

• The actual vote on your mini means absolutely squat. Someone could give your mini a 5 and the same pic 3 months later a 7. It\'s all relative. Pay more attention to the remarks that people who take the time to give say. That is usually more straight on then anything else.

The only person you can control is yourself. Do what you think is right and the rest will work itself out.
Ohh, and quit taking this site so seriously.. it\'ll save you some ulcers... lol

 

[halon]

Lurch has some very good points, but one I\'d like to stress is this is Cool Mini \"Pictures\" or Not\". We don\'t have the actual figure in front of us so we rely on the picture to do the rating. I\'ve seen some average figures do very well due to good background and other manipulations. Conversly there are some excellent pieces posted here that have gotten slightly above average ratings due to poor picture quality.

 

[Soothand]

Lurch is quite correct.
One thing that I would add though is that there is NO way of stopping the idiot that does nothing but sit there and vote \"1\" to each and every model he sees. It\'s childish and inane but hey, that\'s what the internet is based on right?

 

[virtuouswolf]

One last factor

Hey another good factor to mention (one that has screwed me over once or twice) is the jealousy factor! Sometimes, when you paint a really nice looking minature and get a 7+ rating on it, people who also painted that same mini and got a lower score will dock you just out of jealousy! Of course the only way you can tell is when they actually leave you comment... and you happen to look at their minis and notice a significant difference in scores between the one you painted and the one they painted. I\'m afraid its just human nature to try and close the gap between your \"competitors\".

All the variation in voting used to really irritate me, for example I would have just posted a fresh mini, I get one or two 8\'s as my first votes so I\'m up at a 7.9 and then the next thing I know some jerk drops me a 1 and I\'m at 5.3. Of course I think the best thing to remember is that people will be people and that\'s not always a good thing. Its best to leave to the children their childish ways and not let it affect you.

At this point, I couldn\'t give a sh** whether someone docks me for any of the various unfair reasons one could come up with and for that reason alone, I\'ve never enjoyed this site more than I do right now. :innocent:

 

[Warbringer]

Using the average score to set boundries in voting

It is possible to create a little sub routine in this software to use the \'average\' vote/score to set limits to which scores the voter can give.
For example:
An image is an average of an 8 (rounded up or down).
The software can be set (hacked) to only allow scores of say 3(or 2) points over/under the average score to be processed. So the lowest any disgruntled jealous person can vote is a 5 (and the highest vote is at maximum a 10)

This gives genuine raters enough scope to rate to personal opinion but stops the trouble makers.

Just a suggestion and my thoughts on the subject.

 

[vincegamer]

The controllers of this site are somewhat hush-hush about the grading system, but they have hinted that something very like what you say actually happens. They were smart enough to realize some few folks would give 1s and some would give unwarranted 10s and those scores end up getting knocked out. What is interesting to me is that it seems there can be a threshold number, and a figure geting average of 5 (because of a low score) will cross that threshhold of 7s and the low score is deemed too low and drops off, so the score jumps even though the actual average hasn\'t really changed significantly (if you follow).

 

[Warbringer]

This is true, but to give the people the freedom to vote as they feel is bound to cause fluctuations on the mini\'s score.

Let the small minds and nimble fingers of the \"bogus\" voters have their \"1\'s\", what they are trying to prove I can\'t figure?

Has anybody got the guts to put a public comment with a 1 to a 8/9 rated mini?? I don\'t think so:]

To me its just taking the pi$$ out of the people that are good enough to share their mini\'s and knowledge/ideas.

As for rating twice on the same mini, I believe that the program uses IP\'s for keeping tabs on who has voted what, so it should not register, not unless you use a different connection/username/pc everytime you want to vote.

But as other people have said, this site is only here for a bit of fun. I can\'t wait to get some of my sculpts finished and put on.. as for rating 1\'s on painting skills.. I think in my case many of them are going to be well justified ( paint brush virgin alert )