Subject: interesting! what gives...

Your opinion is valued, Mr. Smells, as is everyone's here. The fact that it doesn't match my own is of no particular consequence - only a matter of curiosity.

In my four years at this site I have seen a spectacular amount of great, world-class music in the ratings picks, and I feel very fortunate to have many of those high level compositions on my iPod, given to me by their composers for free, to enjoy and be awed and inspired by.

Happily, the administration knows that not everyone shares my outlook or yours regarding this subject, and have allowed you and me both to use the ratings in the way we want, or to eliminate the ratings altogether.

Voting is a sensitive topic. It wasn't always this way. There was a time, in the waxing days, when voting wasn't considered controversial at all. However, MacJams is a much different place today and the impact voting has on the community changed.

To help us all try to be objective and to consider the issue in the broadest possible context I'd like to recommend a list of pros and cons for each of the various proposals up for discussion.

Please feel free to add to this list as you see fit or append other categories related to the discussion. Please respect the opinions of your fellow community members and the right of others to contribute to the discussion.


INCLUDING A NUMERIC FEEDBACK SYSTEM AT MACJAMS

PRO: A quick, abstract mechanism encourages more feedback from casual listeners.

PRO: A numeric mechanism allows an artist to "benchmark" the relative listener assessment of his or her song posts.

PRO: A numeric feedback system allows a comparative ranking of songs based on listener assessment.

CON: Comparative rankings lead to competition.

CON: The system is open to abuse as a means of "fixing" the ranking order of a song.

CON: The system is highly subjective and depends largely on the bias of listeners.



ANONYMOUS FEEDBACK (as opposed to "signed" voting)

PRO: Anonymous feedback allows a listener to vote honestly, without fear of giving offense or invoking retribution.

CON: Anonymous feedback eliminates personal accountability and allows abuse of the system.



HAVING THE OPTION TO DISABLE VOTING ON A SONG

PRO: Provides the artist with the greater control over the type of feedback his or her song receives.

CON: Creates two classes of content by excluding vote-disabled songs from rating charts.

cheers jim.....that did it. I had them all unckecked. valuable information. ta much.

Please, please, please - no ratings moderation. I like the idea of automated "normalization," or whatever is currently running.

While I'd like to see some of the basic functions fixed, there's no way you can fix the ratings problem. As Chikoppi pointed out, you are either anonymous and can rate things extremely unfairly or you are known and afraid to rate how you really feel due to a "revenge rating."

That said, I'm happy that MacJams is still here and still free. Simon is either really rich or has some good friends proving hosting space. Ok, I suppose the ads help a little. :P

Yeah, I don't think the ratings are all that bad. I agree with Doofy's assessment of the situation. And given the choice between some anonymous person casting the occasional vote that I disagree with (I hesitate to think of it as an unfair vote since everyone is entitled to their opinion), and the ratings ceasing to be the least bit critical for fear of reprisal, I think I'd prefer anonymous votes.

Ratings moderation would be really difficult to navigate, I would think. A better idea would be Forum Moderators; they could eliminate the whining threads about how so and so just got bombed unfairly. Or automatically disable ratings in perpetuity for anyone that starts a bombing thread. :P