I think that a lot of people are voting thumbs-down on a game simply because they have trouble getting it to work on their computer. Shouldn't the rating be based on the game, and not on whether your system can play it? I believe that anyone unable to load it, or having troubles with it, should leave a comment to that effect, but not vote on the game. This would give a clearer result as to the actual rating of the game by people who have played it. -Dan
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Voting in the Comments Section
(50 posts) (35 voices)-
CreamyPretzel
MemberPosted 16 years ago # -
qb7894
MemberI have read many good suggestions...neilc....RichU, ..Bubby...also a lot of useful comments by other regulars... I personally think a combo of RichU, and neilc programs would be far more enlightening to us "newbe's" than the current rating system. I'd much rather post a "not of interest to Me"..Than a thumbs down....And how can I evaluate a program I have no use for? Or one I did not download because I had no use for personally? If I have no interest in what it does, then of course I'll give it a thumbs down. Also I was of the opinion that the comments section was a way of letting the developer know of problems with, or suggestions on how to improve the program offered. There are far too many "off subject" comments allowed. That's what the forums section is for. Personal preferences aside...The developers of software "Give" it to us so that we can give them insight into what the general public, who has need of their product, thinks about the usability of their product.... All the dumb ranting in the comments section is one of the main reasons GOTD & GGOTD are having so much trouble supplying content to us...the ungrateful public.
Most of the regular commentator's on this site have helped me learn a lot. But a lot of persons who take for granted that everything they get for free here should be perfect really need to get a reality check.
These developers are giving you their product free of charge. All they ask for is a fair evaluation of their product If it is of use to you. If you have a problem with it ...they want to know so they can fix it!
If I have never used or do not try a cd writing application...How dare I tell someone that I give it a THUMBS DOWN? I would much rather just say that I personally have no use for this application....Or else not vote at all.
But If I am a regular user of the site I would feel compelled to say "I have no use for this application" Just to let the developer know I had looked at his offering so that he would continue to offer his applications for approval....It would broaden his user base in order to make his applications more user friendly.....Consumer friendly...etc.
The programmers & developers need us as much as some of us financially unable persons need them, and I for one am happy to give them my fair opinion for their generosity.
They gave it to me for free....If I tell them of a problem I have with it and they don't, or won't , fix it...well to bad for them..I delete it... No Harm... no foul... and I shall be aware, to watch other offerings from them.. I do purchase programs but only from companies with whom I have had GOOD experiences.
This is usually why developers offer us Give Away's...This is why I check GOTD and GGOTD everyday and support their sponsors, Follow their forums, and support their Ideal.
Posted 16 years ago # -
Steph
MemberI agree that the current system is uninformative. At the very least you need to distinguish between people who tried and didn't like the software, and people who didn't want to download it at all. So I suggest doing away with the thumbs altogether, because they're misleading. The download count itself is a good enough measure of the number of people interested in evaluating the software. But in addition to that, you need a more meaningful voting system, based on feedback only from people who downloaded the software.
I suggest including something to enable voting inside the readme file in the download. Either a voting code, which people would have to enter in a textbox along with their vote, or a unique url which would take them to a voting page for that product. And I think it'd be a good idea to ask for a 1-5 rating and a review comment. Comments from people who tried the software could be displayed in line with discussion from other users, but could be highlighted in some way.
It would be a bit of work to implement this but I think it'd be worth it. Switching to this kind of system would offer an increased incentive to actually try out the software, rather than merely visit GotD every day and make acerbic remarks. :-)
Posted 16 years ago # -
jcu
MemberSo what if we ALREADY know there is a problem with the software like will cause your system to have conflict with other problem (or even hang/blue screen your system). So we just thumb down since it is WELL KNOWN the software has problem????
It made no sense to force people INSTALL IT first and then thumb down to indicate a KNOWN problem.
If you check how many people post comments about they don't like the 'thumb down' system and people that actually downloaded the program, I think probably less than 10% of people complain about the system out of thousands or even ten of thousands of downloads each day. I doubt everyone agree this is a big problem.
I personally think there is nothing wrong with what we have. The system right now is just thumb up/thumb down of the giveaway of the day for whatever reason.
In the end of day, if MORE people like the software, it will have more thumbs up.
If you want more detail about the product, then read the comment.I think most people feel the same way. There is room to improve but the thumb system work ok for what it is for.
If you do anything to make it harder to vote, you will just have much less people vote and the result will be more likely toward people that really like the software.
I think for people really like the software (or people related to the software company) will spend more time to try to vote. But for those people that have problem with the software or don't like the software, they likely won't even bother to spend more time on it if it will take them even more time for them to vote/rate the product.
Going to make the vote/rate system even less accurate!!!If we want to do anything, should keep the easy thumb up/down system and add extra option to rate if people choice to do it. All those EXTRA should be optional to avoid making it too hard for people to vote/rate. Again, making it hard to vote/rate will just making less people vote/rate which the result will be less accurate.
Posted 16 years ago # -
MontanaGrandmom
MemberI've just popped in here from the GGOTD site and wanted to post a comment regarding ratings and voting over there. I've not taken advantage of many of the software offers at GOTD but I think my comment would probably apply over there as well. I posted this in the comment section for today's game but thought I should put it here as well-even though no one has posted in this particular thread for some time!!
I’d like to see a place to check a box for ‘looks interesting, I’ll try it’ or ‘No, Thanks. Not something I’m interested in’. If nothing else, this might give the hosts of this site some information about how they are meeting their ‘audience’s’ needs. Just a thought! I personally really appreciate what these folks are doing here and would hate to see them lose more potential users or contributors for lack of proper feedback.
Posted 15 years ago # -
shaynefruma
MemberI find it very strange that instead of rating the software, we are asked to rate comments. When somebody posts that they've tried and liked the giveaway, some individuals give a negative rating because the poster hasn't given any advice, alternative suggestions, etc. What's wrong with an "I like" comment?
I'd like to see a new system, maybe parallel to the current one of rating the usefulness of comments, with rating scales, like Amazon and other sites use:
Ease of Installation: 1 - 5 stars or points
User Friendly Program: 1 - 5
Documentation: 1 - 5
Overall Rating: 1 - 5This would be much more meaningful and helpful to those trying to make a download decision.
Posted 15 years ago # -
shaynefruma
MemberSomething was going wrong in the vote calculations. When I vote either positive or negative, the numbers are bumping up or down 2, 3, even 5 votes instead of one! I voted enough times to ascertain that this is a problem - and not 3 or 4 people all voting randomly at the same time. You should probably check this out.
About half an hour later, the voting seemed to be o.k. Wonder what went wrong...
Posted 15 years ago # -
Gwen
MemberI agree totally with MontanaGrand........"I’d like to see a place to check a box for ‘looks interesting, I’ll try it’ or ‘No, Thanks. Not something I’m interested in’. If nothing else, this might give the hosts of this site some information about how they are meeting their ‘audience’s’ needs. Just a thought! I personally really appreciate what these folks are doing here and would hate to see them lose more potential users or contributors for lack of proper feedback."
Posted 15 years ago # -
When I vote either positive or negative, the numbers are bumping up or down 2, 3, even 5 votes instead of one! I voted enough times to ascertain that this is a problem - and not 3 or 4 people all voting randomly at the same time. You should probably check this out.
That is the way it is expected to work - the total votes, comment ratings etc only update on a complete page refresh (or in the case of comments - when you rate that comment). Obviously in the time between when you load the page - and when you place your vote - possibly dozens or hundreds of other people might also have voted - so the figure you see immediately prior to placing your vote is most likely not the 'live' total.
For example - you see +5 'yes' votes - you read a few more comments - then scroll up - but in the mean time - people elsewhere around the world have voted 'no' 3 times - so the 'correct' value is +2 'yes' - now you click on 'yes' to vote - and expect to see +6 (as +5 +1 = 6) but instead you see +5 -3 +1 = +3 - so to you it looks like the result should be +6 in fact is displayed as +3... and you start telling people that the voting is broken. :)
It is working just fine.
Hopefully, remembering that there are other people voting every second - and your browser isn't displaying a real-time or live voting tally all the time, will make this easier to understand.
Posted 15 years ago # -
jimvandamme
MemberI think you need to have a "reply to post" structure like most other forums do. Right now you have a flat structure where if someone replies to a previous post, it's buried way down in the posts. It would cut down on clutter a lot, and make it a lot more useful to those poor souls who asked a question.
Posted 15 years ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredOn the front page where advertised software/game/screensaver is are thumbs up and thumbs down.
I see a lot of comments like as an example:
Already, 79 votes and not 1 comment.
I get the feeling people are voting on the actual software title or if
they want it.I believe that was what it was intended for originally.
Posted 15 years ago # -
The "not 1 comment" isn't entirely correct.
Comments require "approval" before they are displayed. So usually there are comments waiting for approval. (Which seems to encourage users to post "Hi Mum. Look at me! I'm first." - because they cannot see the other posts).
The multitude of early comments that seem to focus more on "say something quick but pointless so you are one of the first posters" syndrome - usually get deleted.
Also comments like:
- Looks good !
- Thanks GOTD.
- Doesn't work on Win 3.1
- I'm First
- 30 votes and no comments
- Has this been given away before
- Visit my blog. I sell hamsters.
Will usually be deleted, once we can post perhaps 3 or 4 comments that are actually relevant to the giveaway software- and preferably useful too.
So, sometimes it can be an hour (or more) until someone actually says something useful and a moderator cleans out the rubbish and displays the 'approved' posts.
The thumbs up or down - I don't think anyone agrees on what it is for.
- Does it look any good (from the description)?
- Are you going to try to install it?
- Did it work?
- Have you used it before?
- Is it a keeper?
- Is it better than what you are currently using?
- Do you still like GOTD?
- Are there too many No votes already?
- Do you understand what the software is for?
- Is the software the latest version of Adobe Photoshop?
- Are you tired of getting software you don't need (or understand)?
- Vote for whichever side has the most votes. (Go with the crowd)
Voting is optional - and the reasons why you voted is never asked (it can be your dirty little secret).
Rumor has it, some people are training their pets to cast the daily vote - to make the results even more statistically significant (and give cats, dogs and birds a voice on the internet - ie. Game Giveaway - I love Kittens! - proof of the power of the kitten lobby groups - voting works).Posted 15 years ago # -
tkr5
MemberThere is no need to make drastic changes to greatly improve the voting/comments. I suggest:
1. As Dlira suggested, have two thumbs ratings: Usefulness and Quality
People won't take the time to read explanations of what these mean, but the words are descriptive enough that it would probably help to see where the issues lie.2. Allow the comments to be categorized and sorted/filtered
As others have said, I find reading the comments to be more enlightening than the rating, but it takes a lot of time to slog through them. So, it would be wonderful if comments could be sorted (or even filtered) not just by time of submission, but by:a. Usefulness of comment: Sorting is better than simply throwing out low rated comments because of the reasons previously mentioned.
b. Categories, such as:
- Activation / Errors
- Usefulness / Alternatives
- Quality / Usability
- Overall / Review
When submitting a comment, people could simply be asked to select a category (such as the ones above) from a drop down box. If people don't, perhaps the moderator could assign one.I like not having to register to submit a comment and this is my first time in the forums, so I would not like those solutions. And, it would be nice to have people vote with their comments (and be able to sort on that), but that has more potential problems that would have to be addressed.
Posted 15 years ago # -
alpha omega
MemberThe voting is simply on wheteer you agree or disagree with the comments as it stands now. It is not representative of anything whatsoever except how many people liked or dislike comments. Sadly, it is not representative of the software.
Recently I have seen some voting with lots of thumbs down, mostly because a similar function software is available free. That has no real meaning whern applied to the software offered.
By continuing to use this voting method, you will discourage software developers from offering their software on GAOTD, or offering it again, because they do not want to get beat up with lots of thumbs down. And I believe that you do not want that to happen, but it already is starting to happen - all some people see are the number of thumbs up vs. the thumbs down.A standard box with questions - have you used this software before? if yes rate it from 1 to 5 stars. did you download this software today? Did it install OK? Please rate the software from your experience so far - 1 star to 5 stars, Would you like to add a comment? if yes, a comment box pops up. simple and easy to understand.
Posted 15 years ago #
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