http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950 Giveaway of the Day Forums » Topic: GOTD Evaluation System en-US Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:58:40 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/search.php http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/3#post-70643 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:32:37 +0000 thenameipicked 70643@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I have yet to find anybody that is in support of this stickr program. (There are few good features, but is just not fit for this site, and some people will talk about these, but nobody really likes it). I agree with happy. The benefits are greatly outweighed by the negatives. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/3#post-70463 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:41:41 +0000 HappyPerson 70463@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I&#39;m not too crazy about the &quot;stickr&quot; program, as too many people are abusing the system by writing objectionable content on it (i.e., profanity and insults.)</p> <p>Also, the program is not conducive to &quot;mutually beneficial&quot; back-and-forth dialogue - it seems to be used only for people who want to &quot;vent steam&quot; about GOTD.</p> <p>Moreover, what is its purpose? - as we have the forums, the &quot;review mechanism&quot;, and the &quot;detailed ratings&quot; mechanism - this should be sufficient.</p> <p>In my humble opinion, I believe the &quot;stickr&quot; program should go away - please!</p> <p>Inas </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/3#post-69836 Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:58:00 +0000 jg1 69836@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>OK, I know GOTD is ad-supported, and I&#39;m willing to endure some ads for a valuable service. However, today&#39;s crosses the line. The material from Stiker.com is intrusive, makes it appear that the user&#39;s computer is infected by some malware and delivers the deceptive message that it&#39;s necessary to change browser security settings.</p> <p>Please, screen your ads carefully and ensure that they meet basic standards of quality and honesty. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/3#post-68772 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:49:05 +0000 Chip 68772@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>This new system is fine and seems to be working good. I think you should also apply this new voting system to the games giveaway page. It seems you are coming back and giving away games frequently again and I think it&#39;d be nice if that also had the new ratings system. That way it would stay uniform as both the regular and game giveaway pages matched. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/3#post-67181 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:17:38 +0000 CodeHydro 67181@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>To clarify, I wasn&#39;t saying that we should revert back to thumbs up/down only. What I meant was that we could have a hybrid system; have the 5-star system AND the thumbs up/down system at the same time to get the best of both worlds.</p> <p>Or perhaps instead of thumbs up/down, we could have one vote called the &quot;overall rating.&quot; The thing is, the overall rating will not require registration like the specific ratings. This would allow more people to rate the software as Nathan says above. We can leave the rating of specific aspects of the software to registered users, but at least one part of the rating scale should be open to all. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/3#post-65714 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:10:22 +0000 Nathan J. Brauer 65714@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Much better voting GUI, now. Thanks.</p> <p>One thing: I hate signing up for accounts. I would not use Giveawayoftheday.com if I had to sign up for an account. Just the same, I’m not going to vote if I have to sign up for an account. [Yes, I just signed up for a forum account which is the same thing but I wanted to have my voice heard so I don&#39;t have to keep this account.]</p> <p>I can understand that you want to keep the voting in control, but I’m not going to register just so I can vote, I&#39;d rather just leave a comment.</p> <p>Why not just use Twitter oAuth and/or Facebook Connect? Allow people to sign in and vote with their Twitter or Facebook account. Even better is that after they vote, you’ll then be able to ask &quot;May we post this status update to your Twitter account? &#39;I just gave Startup Defender an average rating of 3.5/5 at @Giveawayotday&#39; &quot; </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/3#post-65713 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:04:22 +0000 watcher13 65713@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Well, Happy, at least I don&#39;t think the votes are actually registering that way. If they were, we wouldn&#39;t have had the situation with GRT File Recovery today, where only one category is even showing more than two stars.</p> <p>I just don&#39;t see the validity of going back to the thumbs. I&#39;m reading people saying they can&#39;t get a feel for the software with the 7 categories. Really? When I look at it, it&#39;s perfectly clear. All categories show low stars = poor quality software. All showing high stars = high quality software. Some high, some low = mixed bag - folks might want to look into it more carefully. I really don&#39;t see what the confusion is here. ??? And this system works to highlight the voting of people who ACTUALLY TEST the software. Really, I&#39;ve graduated to adult food now. I pretty much don&#39;t need pablum anymore. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-65709 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:53:06 +0000 CodeHydro 65709@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>To get the best of both worlds, we should have kept the thumbs up/down rating even though there is the 5-star rating system now. The thumbs up/down ratings were fairly useful for a quick look at everything while the stars are useful for detailed ratings if wanted. Or maybe have a quick overall 5 star rating where the thumbs up/down was for those who don&#39;t want to rate the software in 5 ways. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-65644 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:38:25 +0000 HappyPerson 65644@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>GOTD Admin Team,</p> <p>I will mention here what I mentioned in a separate thread (for technical glitches) for our individual comments/ratings for the seven different categories related to daily GiveAways.</p> <p>Every time I rate the seven categories, the resulting votes (linked to my GOTD user name) are erroneous, and are not what I originally indicated. All of my individual votes (for each of the seven categories) are converted to perfect 5-star ratings, even if I&#39;ve given a 2-star rating to a particular category..</p> <p>This glitch should be fixed, and I hope the GOTD team is able to do so soon.</p> <p>Best,<br /> Happy </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-65496 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:35:34 +0000 watcher13 65496@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Have to say, I&#39;m impressed. I think most will just post general comments, rather than category comments. Also, not real sure of the value of the leave your recommendation for the developer section. Most will just put that in a general comment, too. Still, people have comment flexibility if they want it and, much more importantly, the new voting system will definitely solve the &quot;It&#39;s not what I want, waaaaaa!&quot; problem. As someone on your blog said, you do need a vote counter on each category, though. It might hurt a developer to have some low stars on just one or two votes.</p> <p>Still well done, GOTD! </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-65482 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:25:48 +0000 wizzard_of_ozz2004 65482@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I have a gripe from an admin/mod perspective: when you delete a thread it shows a 404 error. It&#39;s a minor bug, but a rather annoying bug. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-64057 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:10:16 +0000 HappyPerson 64057@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Hi again, I erred. My above comments are for the &quot;usefulness of comments&quot; votes. </p> <p>Best,<br /> Happy </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-64051 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:27:09 +0000 HappyPerson 64051@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Hi all,</p> <p>I agree with Kickaboodle and others who have suggested that the comments should be limited only to those folks who have downloaded and installed the software. </p> <p>One other comment/observation I&#39;d like to make is that the &quot;Thumbs up, Thumbs down&quot; system seems (in its current state) not to be an accurate measure of what reflects useful or unuseful comments. I say this because it seems (to me, in my humble opinion) that people vote &quot;Thumbs up or Thumbs down&quot; not based on the usefulness/value of the content and substance of people&#39;s comments, but more on whether or not the &quot;voter&quot; likes the software or not. </p> <p>If the voter does not like the software (for whatever reason) then the voter tends to vote &quot;Thumbs Down&quot; for a comment that reflects a differing and opposing viewpoint (no matter how valuable the comment may be). I am basing this statement on the fact that my comments (at least, from my perspective) are valuable, substantive, and factual, based on what I actually encounter with the software download, installation, and operation. However, no matter how useful my comments are (such as for today&#39;s PDF to HTML software GiveAway), I am getting numerous arbitrary &quot;Thumbs Down&quot; votes(apparently, because the voters subjectively disagree with my comments, for no rhyme or reason).</p> <p>It is very frustrating, because I put forth much effort, and take my time to evaluate the software, to list details about its operation, functionality and features, for everyone&#39;s benefit, but I feel that most voters do not appreciate this, and that they very quickly and easily vote &quot;Thumbs Down&quot; just for the heck of it, just for kicks, and simply because they enjoy doing so. It is very disheartening indeed.</p> <p>I&#39;m sorry for the lengthy statement, and I don&#39;t know if there would ever be a way to implement a system that would successfully and effectively limit voters to objectively vote for comments, based on substance, value, and content (instead of whether or not they subjectively agree or disagree with what is being said, etc.)</p> <p>Ah well, enough said, and thank you all for listening to my viewpoint on this topic.</p> <p>Best regards,<br /> Happy </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-63756 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:01:54 +0000 BuBBy 63756@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Regarding edits to old posts - regardless of how much time is allowed after a post to go back and edit - the option for a user to edit their own old post should not be permitted once a new reply has been added after (ie. the original post is no longer the latest post in a topic).</p> <p>This is standard for how pretty much all discussion forums operate.</p> <p>I&#39;ve seen forums that keep a changelog of updates to a post, so users can also see earlier versions of the post.</p> <p>Following editable posts with a read only label - &#39;post edited XX times, last edit at DATETIME by USERNAME&#39; would be a help too. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-63751 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:09:32 +0000 thenameipicked 63751@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I actually like the time limit, because if people change their post days later, I have no idea that they did, and so I won't read it again. However, my comments are about the new forum...</p> <p>It needs some work, which I'm sure you guys are pretty aware of. When not logged in, the log in is over the title...and I don't like the (bb) banner when its all the way across the screen.<br /> Besides the (bb), however, my only complaints (I'm getting really picky here) is jut the layout. The search above the title bar??? That doesn't make sense to me, and I like the page number with the page icon, but is it possible to make that bigger?<br /> Seriously guys though...its awesome. Good work :P<br /> Just my thoughts </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-63743 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:03:49 +0000 Buzz 63743@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Please set up board so users can edit their posts for days, not 60 minutes.<br /> You'd save lots of unnecessary extra posts. (or 24 hours, at least) </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-63518 Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:59:52 +0000 ebizsolutions 63518@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I've been trying to get an answer to this for a few days now.</p> <p>I'd like to add a full GAOTD page to my Wordpress blog using your GFS but, I'm confused on exactly how to do this.</p> <p>Can anyone help with this? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-63255 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:44:38 +0000 Kickapoodle 63255@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I think the input field for comments should be hidden and a small password field displayed instead.<br /> Currently after a software is registered the user is directed to a page that informs them that the registration was successful, you could supply the password on that page. At least that would limit comments to people that actually installed and registered the product. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-63127 Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:56:53 +0000 thenameipicked 63127@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Like I said before, the only rating that would be immediately available upon accessing the site is "Usefulness" (If my idea gets accepted). People don't just vote down to vote down, they vote down because they don't need it. However, giveawayoftheday could put in a piece of code that says "Would you like to review/rate this program" when it closes for the first time. Here they could rate the program in 4 different areas (Ease of use, Features, Speed/Efficiency, Other) and/or do a review. That doesn't mean that comments are enabled to those only downloaded, because people may want to post why its not useful to them, or post freeware. The people that did download it and post, however, will have some marker saying that they downloaded the program, such as a star next to their post.<br /> The final part that I imagine would be a system kind of like eBay's. That star next to their post could gradually change as a person writes more and more reviews, until somebody has reached the top position of Grand Master (Not necessarily the title, just one that has been mentioned here). Therefore, somebody starting out will get a plain old yellow star next to their name when they download and review, but a star, nevertheless. And having a positive score (aka the thumbs-up/thumbs-down for the posts), will increase their points to becoming a Grand Master. (A negative score will not decrease their points)<br /> Wow...that went longer than I expected.<br /> PS, I like the live chat too. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-63104 Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:40:37 +0000 jempeace 63104@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Is there anyway to offer software M-F as usual, but maybe have 2 alternates that last all week? You may still only download 1 a day. So you downloaded Monday and Tuesday's but didn't need Wed. so you took an alternate. This would be great for companies that really want feedback, they might not get 2000 hits a day but 753 times 5 for the week. It also gives some people a chance to really use the product and better reveiw it. GAOTD turns out to be the place for the software you need everyday and we win more choice.</p> <p>Hate the ratings system! Ten mins. in and 50 thumbs down, really doesn't bother me. Some people tried the game last time and found it was great for 4 levels, then it was same old same o. Not your type of software you didn't try it and giving thumbs down I don't like. Maybe a link right by (however we vote) not what you want tell us here, not the comments section.</p> <p>Like live chat,even mouthier in person.<br /> jempeace </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-63059 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:51:10 +0000 aRenegade 63059@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Why Hello title1admin,</p> <p>I'm not sure what you meant when you wrote, "on the point system... a bad review from a grand master may reduce the amount of traffic and thus generate less revenue on that particular day....." The "amount of traffic" as in people visiting the site that day or overall? The number of developers who agree to come on board to use the services of GOTD?</p> <p>In a singular sense that may be a concern. But, when there are more than one person at the higher level, and all of them are making similar comments, what better way is there to say to a developer whose program bombed they should be thank full for that information; and recommend addressing those issues because next time it will be in the real world. That type of point system, planned well, would have checks and balances to ensure that no single person could generate “less revenue” for GOTD in the manor you envisioned. There have been many occasions where a self-proclaimed guru would trash that day's offering with little affect on the download numbers or repeat developers. I certainly don’t have a sense that of late there has been a noticeable decline of developers coming on board to GOTD after a program (possibly in their product line) was shredded by one self-proclaimed reviewer.</p> <p>Let me repeat myself, "A system like that benefits a developer by giving more credence to the validity of how their program is performing, and how it’s being perceived by the end user". As far as GOTD marketing itself, this system only adds to the current level of professionalism they now enjoy.</p> <p>- Renegade - </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-62994 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:07:29 +0000 RosnSC 62994@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>"chat box where members could chat"/"instant messaging systems"</p> <p>Yes, I agree; one of those would be great, for the reason already given.</p> <p>"the ability of the mods and admin to move posts to another subject"</p> <p>There again, I agree. Would make the job of moderating, administration easier. </p> <p>"the comments section of the main page is badly moderated"</p> <p>For what it's worth, regarding the comments, I feel there should be moderators to handle the job of keeping out the general spam, and such. I'm not necessarily talking about commenting on the software, as someone mentioned, but I'm not sure who, but to keep the junk comments out. Perhaps some of the Forums moderators could be trained to do that. The junk would be kept out better, and comments posted much quicker.</p> <p>Sue </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-62963 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:28:48 +0000 wizzard_of_ozz2004 62963@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I would also like to see the ability of the mods and admin to move posts to another subject. This would help tidy up the forums a little bit and help ensure topics are posted in the right area. Of course one of the number one options would be to move the post over to the thread giveaway suggestions as this is the number one misplaced thread in the forums. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-62889 Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:28:55 +0000 Chip 62889@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Yes many sites are now adding instant messaging systems to enable live communication to other online members. I do like the idea of including all members but all staff and mods should always be at the top of any "Online" list for easy access. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-62859 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:18:12 +0000 Archangel 62859@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Now graylox don't cut us out of sharing a chatbox BTW that is a great idea!! </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-62857 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:56:50 +0000 graylox 62857@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Yes, wizzard, at least a chat box for the administrators and moderators; that would make our coordination much easier. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-62855 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:45:28 +0000 wizzard_of_ozz2004 62855@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Personally one improvement I'd like to see is some form of chat box where members could chat. I hate trying to carry on conversations through pm's. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-62847 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:24:10 +0000 watcher13 62847@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>It has been expressed time and time again by people in these forums AND over in the comments section, that the comments section of the main page is badly moderated. That way too much junk gets through: spam, personal attacks, and off topic posts. It makes you wonder how developers would get anything other than a negative impression. Many new users also post in frustration in these forums that they don't understand - and can see NO recognizable pattern - in what causes a comment to be accepted or rejected. Since no detailed explanation is provided, we never hear from many of them again. How comments are moderated seem to be a deep, dark secret. Perhaps that's an attempt to keep bad news away from the eyes of bdevelopers. There seem to be a lot matters that GOTD seems relunctant to reveal any details about, perhaps to avoid giving a bad impression. Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be effective. People notice. For one example, in the last year many people have said in both places have said that they don't even read the comments section because it so full of junk.</p> <p>For a fuller discussion of this, please see this thread:<br /> <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6035" rel="nofollow">http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6035</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-62642 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:55:40 +0000 Steelers6 62642@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Regarding the evaluation system, I think it would be a good idea to have a structured format that included PRO's, Cons, overall summary and an easy rating system. This will stop a lot of the comments that are not related or useful. People will still be able to add a comment in the overall summary but it should be related to the tesing of the software. This would help because it would require people to give actual findings to help companies, if someone doesn't fill in one of the fields they then should be directed to do so before it can be posted. This should help with some of the rif-raf that goes on. </p> <p>I don't agree that all testers should be experts as new users feedback is needed by the companies as most of the software tested will eventually be downloaded by the masses who are not that computer savy. New user feedback is needed because they won't have the knowledge about workarounds and I think this will only help companies. I think they need a good sampling of all walks of life.</p> <p>I do think it would be helpful to have people register so you will know who is just grabbing software and not testing vs. those of us that do test and provide feedback.</p> <p>Just my oppinion thanks for your consideration. I generally post as Karen but now updated my registation to Steelers6. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5950/page/2#post-62641 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:43:33 +0000 Steelers6 62641@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Hello,</p> <p>I've been a frequent tester on the GOTD site and I have a suggestion regarding the timeframe for GOTD Giveaways.</p> <p>I work in a company with over 5,000 employee's I would love to know what give away was being given away a day prior as now many of my colleges and employees have been tracking my feedback on GOTD and other testers.</p> <p>I also live in Arizona so half the year we are on Pacific time. It is difficult to evaluate the software and post findings in the timeframe given. Because I work, I will either download at 12 midnight (not good) or try to grab it in the morning. So, by the time I get to test it is about 7 to 8 pm and then I need to post my findings, pros, cons and overall summary. It would be most helpful for those of us who work or are on such a short timeframe like the Pacific time zone to have more time to download and evaluate in order to provide a very good revuew. </p> <p>I don't believe I should download the software and not leave a post as that does not seem to be in keeping with the spirit of the site.</p> <p>So, from where I stand, I would find it most helpful if we were given more time to download and evaluate so we or I can make the most of the software and provide a good and thorough review.</p> <p>Your consideration is greatly appreciated.</p> <p>PS. I have never relied on the e-mail system to come to the website, I see many posts regarding this and I think it is easy to just check the site each day however; with a heads up, I can inform my colleges about a new software as we all can and drive even more traffic your way. So from a personal standpoint I don't find this to be an individual concern, but for advertising and driving more people to your website I can see this as a very useful feature.</p> <p>In closing, I really enjoy your site, testing software is fun for me even though I don't need most all of the offerings, it is a treat. You do a Great job and please keep it up. </p>