The Voluntary Rating Squad Of Fanpop
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Not A Fan Of The New Rating System...

Opinion by misanthrope86 posted 10 months ago
4.9
 by 57 fans
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... and here is why.

There are a number of ways in which Fanpop will be affected by this new rating system, and I can't think of a positive one. Here are the main issues for me.



Cheaters Ahoy!

As the new system does not indicate how many people have rated an image/video/link, this will make it much, much easier for people to use multiple accounts to rate their own contributions. As other people cannot see how many people have rated an image, someone with multiple accounts could rate their images 10 times and none of us would be any the wiser. This is unfair on honest Fanpoppers who do not abuse the system just so that they can get their medals quicker.



Mass Rating Epidemics

In addition, it will be impossible to detect when users are asking for 10 other people to rate their contributions, while ignoring the contributions of others. Personally, I don't mind if people ask a couple of their friends to rate their contributions if the contributions haven't been rated after a while (that is what this spot is all about), but there are already many, many Fanpoppers who will ask as many as 15 people to rate their contributions. Meanwhile, other users who contribute equally good content do not get ratings. Thus, there is an imbalance between good, regular spot attendees and random, mass-raters getting medals that, quite frankly, they don't deserve. Under the new system, we will not be able to detect this kind of activity.



The Death Of The ATSOF

With the new system, we do not know how many people have rated a contribution. Thus, if an image is rated 1 star, we do not know if it is because it has been trolled, or if it has been rated 1 by 100 different people because it is genuinely a crap image. Thus, much of the good work that the ATSOF does will no longer be able to happen. We are now far less capable of identifying trolled content and thus, more and more trolls will get away with being jerks.



Goodbye VRSOF!

Now we are no longer able to tell how many times something has been rated, we are going to be less able to identify who is worthy of the VRSOF's help. This, again, will open the doors for more people to abuse the kindness of other Fanpoppers in order to medals. This happens enough now, but this new system will undoubtedly make it very difficult to trust anyone who asks the VRSOF for help.




I have read in a couple of comments that the aim of changing the rating system is to stop people obsessing over ratings and medals. However, I believe that this new system will create more ratings-mongering and medal-cheating, as it has now become more anonymous than it was before. I mean, the old system made it relatively easy to spot people who were getting 10 people to rate their contributions/using multiple accounts because you could easily see how many people had rated those contributions. Now, people can use multiple accounts or ask 20 people to rate their stuff and no one will be able to stop them.

As someone who has been a passionate rater from my early Fanpopping days, I understand how frustrating it is to contribute content that never gets rated. So I understand that people want their contributions rated. But the previous system was already being abused by dishonest fans, as well as taken advantage of by more honest fans who simply wanted to see their work rated.

I need to say that I have always supported Fanpop and the Fanpop Four, and I have never had any major issues with any other updates that have been made to Fanpop. I have always adapted to them quickly and have enjoyed them. But this one just baffles me. I think it will lead to more cheating and trolling and ultimately, it is the honest Fanpoppers that will suffer.

So those are my thoughts. I love rating and rating is a big part of fans feeling appreciated and part of their spots. I will continue to rate, but I do feel like it will probably be a waste of my time. In the weeks leading up to this change I was already very disillusioned with the rating process, as I had noticed a sharp increase in the number of people getting other Fanpoppers to rate their contributions in some of my favourite spots. Now that one of the ways of policing such behaviour is gone, I'm pretty sure this kind of issue is going to become rampant through many spots.

Sorry about this, but I had to rant about it. It has kinda been like a giant slap in the face to the people who belong to this spot, the ATSOF spot and people who rate fairly in general.

And so ends my melodramatic ranting and raving.
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16 comments
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hmmm
I was also contemplating writing an article but have never really been good at writing, so good to see someone else voicing there dislike over this, it is not about the color change it is knowing how many have rated and I am most definitely not in this for me to get medals this is to spot the ones who post something for me to rate in there spot but really I don't need to because it has a high rating by enough people but, uggh I am just frustrated right now and might not be making any sense I think I will just go and veg for awhile on some games...lol
posted 10 months ago.
 
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I agree ineedcoffee. I don't care about the colours either. Its just a very worrying new system.

Thanks for commenting!
posted 10 months ago.
 
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JulieL44 said:
Hey I just noticed that we can see how many people rated this article. I don't get it. This system is confusing!
posted 10 months ago.
last edited 10 months ago
 
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Yep, its only on articles from what I've seen so far.
posted 10 months ago.
 
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JulieL44 said:
Weird... I seriously don't get it. When you go to a picture you posted and there are five yellow stars does that mean it wasn't rated or that it was rated a five?

Edit: I seriously can't type today
posted 10 months ago.
last edited 10 months ago
 
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Yes, I think that means that it has been rated 5. And I think if it hasn't been rated, the stars are grey. Or something.
posted 10 months ago.
 
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JulieL44 said:
Haha thanks! I'll get it sooner or later
posted 10 months ago.
 
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smoore23 said:
Yeah, honestly, it's not the yellow that bothers me, it's the fact that I can't tell what I've rated.

One of my own videos is yellow (did someone else rate it? has no one rated it?) and one of the images I posted is green. If I can't rate my own stuff, why are there different colors?!

Uh. Not sure if that made sense.

Anyway, I can see that this article has been rated by 7 people, but I can't see that count on images or videos.

:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
posted 10 months ago.
 
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PotterGal said:
I completely agree with everything you have stated here missy. I don't understand why it has been made so much easier for some users to troll ratings now...if this was meant to have some kind of positive impact for fanpop i would probably not hate it as much as i do but as it stands i see nothing good that can come from this change.
posted 10 months ago.
 
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hmmm
The reason they changed it was because it is hoped that it will stop people being so concerned with ratings and getting medals. So that is the positive impact that the F4 are going for. But I just don't see that happening. I think it will make people even crazier about ratings and medals.
posted 10 months ago.
 
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worried
mimika_s said:
I honestly don't like the new rating system...I love the way you illustrated your thoughts m86.I have serious issues with the new rating system.I can't rate all the stuff I found and I am trully worried.I don't mind the color but the rest of it.
Another problem is that the actual meaning of rating is ruined.How can I find a really awesome content when I can't see for example that 20 people have rated with five?Or how can I know that the content that is rated with 5- or 4+ is beacause it worths 4 or many people rated with 5 and just one troll with 1?
posted 10 months ago.
 
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Excellent article m86; this new system has been bugging me.
posted 10 months ago.
 
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*HOW* did I not find this before now?! *facekeyboard*
posted 9 months ago.
 
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laugh
You haven't been stalking me very well, have you! LOL!
posted 9 months ago.
 
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Sazza said:
fanpop have made it harder to create multiple accounts to rate because they only allow one user to one computer/browser. My sister (Hiya74) can not rate anything at all on any computer within our house becasue I have been on all of them with this account before her.

I totally understand why fanpop 4 did it but my sister now can not rate anything she watches or looks at. Which means people lose out and don't get the recognition they deserve.
posted 9 months ago.
 
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worried
mimika_s said:
I have exactly the same problem with my sister and I think it is unfair that I don't have the chance to rate a content just bc she is the user who has uploaded and vice versa
posted 9 months ago.
 
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