Don't understand why anonymous ratings seem to carry more weight!

[digitalartist]

The ratings detail page states that "There are some Top Rated Photos rankings, including the default,

which use only the anonymous ratings from the Rate Recent feature". Can you please tell me why anonymous raters are the default raters? That doesn't make sense to me. They hide behind their anonymity and yet are given preference in the rating scores! Why don't those of us who sign in get at

least equal billing as those who don't?

[Matt Laur]

These ARE people who are signed in. But when you are rating images in the "Rate Photos" area, your rating isn't shown as being FROM you. If you choose to go into a person's gallery and directly rate an image, it will be clear that it was from you.

 

The ratings in the default presentation of the TRP area rely only the first variety. This was because, historically, people who rated an image poorly were often the victims of revenge ratings. Childish, but true.

[Matt Laur]

I should mention that there are other views of recently rated photos that DO include the non-anonymous ratings.

[joshroot]

They are not anonymous, site administrators can see every rating and where it came from.

 

As to "why", Matt has given you the correct answer. Anonymous rating is in place because people could not act like adults.

Harassment, revenge ratings, and nasty email were all common when all

ratings were public. You personally may be able to take criticism well, but many,

otherwise normal, people have proven that they cannot. If they think

their image is better than it was rated, they react horribly.

 

If you do not wish to mess with ratings, you can submit your image for

"critique only"

[Michael R Freeman]

<i>"The ratings in the default presentation of the TRP area rely only the first variety. This was because, historically, people who rated an image poorly were often ..."

</i><P>

Actually, if memory serves correctly, the reason the default view of the Top Photos was changed to include only anonymous ratings from the Rate Photos queue was abuse of another variety.

<P>

Specifically, direct public ratings were used to manipulate and effectively hijack the display on the Top Photos pages. AKA mate rating. By emailing all of their buddies to let them know they had uploaded a new photo (wink, wink ... give me a 6/6 or a 7/7 and I'll do the same for you ... wink, wink), these pathetic souls garnered scores of (usually undeserved) high ratings, which pushed their photos to the first few pages of the Top Photos. Members who didn't "belong to the club" that were equally (or more) deserving of exposure on the Top Photos pages had their photos effectively pushed off or buried deep in the back pages. This was blatantly unfair, so the change was made to hamper this childish "mate rating" behavior.

<P>

Despite their shortcomings, the anonymous ratings from the Rate Photos interface (taken as an average, not individually) is a more "honest" representation of what people who are not your "mates" actually think of your photos.

<P>

AFAIK, only the two "Recent Ratings (Average and Sum)" sorts use only anonymous ratings. The other sorts use a combination of anonymous and direct ratings, or direct ratings only.

[joshroot]

Michael is right as well. All of this stuff went into the rate-recent/default-view decision.

 

Most of the parts of the ratings system that people find annoying were done to try and defeat cheaters.