Simply put, I don't see a reason for the thread rating system, especially in the customizations forum. In theory, the ratings system should help deter users from poor and/or poorly elaborated customs, but the reality that I've been seeing is that any thread like that is locked and moved almost immediately. What results, then, is that the ratings serve no purpose other than potentially hurting a legitimate combo's visibility.
For example, I don't see why this thread, whose parts are mostly random and whose thread and testing is poorly formatted and unclear/nonstandard:
http://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-MF-F-Dia...s-WA130-RF
Should be rated higher than this thread, in which I took great care in part selection, explanation of the part selection, and the formatting of the thread, and I posted very clear, standard, positive test results that showed the custom has a legitimate place in the meta:
http://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-MF-H-Scy...ed-6-21-12
I know this comes across as me being butthurt, but I honestly don't see why there is a rating system in the first place, especially with a userbase as young as this. Basically what happens is that the thread creator rates their own thread a 5, and then users who have even the slightest problem rate it a 1; I'd be willing to bet that the majority of users rating threads aren't exactly advanced members, but of course I could be proven wrong by the administration who has access to that data.
As I've already touched on, the fact that the ratings are X out of 5 is a very flawed system in the first place. What, exactly, makes a thread worthy of a 4 over a 3? How bad is a thread for it to deserve a 1 rather than a 2? Is any thread actually worthy of a 5, or should I save my 5s for "perfect" threads? From all my experience, users typically only go to the trouble of rating a thread if they dislike it, and the majority of the time they will rate it a 1. This is the reason why Youtube switched from its star system to like/dislike: the star system is too complex, and this complexity deters users from using it unless they just want to rate a thread a 1 because they don't like it.
Another big issue is that users cannot see how many other people have rated a thread until they, themselves, rate it, so there is no visual difference between a thread with one 5 vote and one 1 vote to one with 50 users rating a thread an average of 3. Thus, whatever the thread's rating is is most often considered to be the popular opinion, since there is no way to tell without voting first (something that, again, most users don't do).
I'd like to reiterate the fact that any problem threads that legitimately deserve low ratings are closed immediately before the rating would even be a factor. Thus, not having the rating system would be no different than it being in place in terms of problem threads, since they'll still be locked just as quickly. Please, if any moderator actually takes a thread's rating into account before locking a thread, I'd love to hear about it, because I'd be incredibly surprised.
In short, I think the rating system is highly flawed, that it serves little positive purpose in the customizations forum, and that there would be almost no downsides to it being removed.
EDIT: And yes, I rated this thread a 5, and I guarantee that, when browsing through this board quickly, many people will see the thread's title and the rating without reading the thread and think that the 5 is a popular opinion rather than just one vote. This, in my opinion, is a great example of the flaw in the system, and I will say again that it can only help if it was removed.
For example, I don't see why this thread, whose parts are mostly random and whose thread and testing is poorly formatted and unclear/nonstandard:
http://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-MF-F-Dia...s-WA130-RF
Should be rated higher than this thread, in which I took great care in part selection, explanation of the part selection, and the formatting of the thread, and I posted very clear, standard, positive test results that showed the custom has a legitimate place in the meta:
http://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-MF-H-Scy...ed-6-21-12
I know this comes across as me being butthurt, but I honestly don't see why there is a rating system in the first place, especially with a userbase as young as this. Basically what happens is that the thread creator rates their own thread a 5, and then users who have even the slightest problem rate it a 1; I'd be willing to bet that the majority of users rating threads aren't exactly advanced members, but of course I could be proven wrong by the administration who has access to that data.
As I've already touched on, the fact that the ratings are X out of 5 is a very flawed system in the first place. What, exactly, makes a thread worthy of a 4 over a 3? How bad is a thread for it to deserve a 1 rather than a 2? Is any thread actually worthy of a 5, or should I save my 5s for "perfect" threads? From all my experience, users typically only go to the trouble of rating a thread if they dislike it, and the majority of the time they will rate it a 1. This is the reason why Youtube switched from its star system to like/dislike: the star system is too complex, and this complexity deters users from using it unless they just want to rate a thread a 1 because they don't like it.
Another big issue is that users cannot see how many other people have rated a thread until they, themselves, rate it, so there is no visual difference between a thread with one 5 vote and one 1 vote to one with 50 users rating a thread an average of 3. Thus, whatever the thread's rating is is most often considered to be the popular opinion, since there is no way to tell without voting first (something that, again, most users don't do).
I'd like to reiterate the fact that any problem threads that legitimately deserve low ratings are closed immediately before the rating would even be a factor. Thus, not having the rating system would be no different than it being in place in terms of problem threads, since they'll still be locked just as quickly. Please, if any moderator actually takes a thread's rating into account before locking a thread, I'd love to hear about it, because I'd be incredibly surprised.
In short, I think the rating system is highly flawed, that it serves little positive purpose in the customizations forum, and that there would be almost no downsides to it being removed.
EDIT: And yes, I rated this thread a 5, and I guarantee that, when browsing through this board quickly, many people will see the thread's title and the rating without reading the thread and think that the 5 is a popular opinion rather than just one vote. This, in my opinion, is a great example of the flaw in the system, and I will say again that it can only help if it was removed.
![[Image: tumblr_m514839BXG1rxccsgo1_400.gif]](https://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m514839BXG1rxccsgo1_400.gif)
![[Image: gPp4aQW.png]](https://i.imgur.com/gPp4aQW.png)
![[Image: hazelsignature2.jpg]](https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v223/OrochiStorm/hazelsignature2.jpg)
![[Image: beybase-signature-is-beyblade-a-sport-Article.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/VLksgt2k/beybase-signature-is-beyblade-a-sport-Article.jpg)
But, then again, wouldn't that make the rating system evil? Hm... maybe we should change them to Pegasis faces, so that our ratings will be full of the Bladers' Spirit!![[Image: VOtj1.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/VOtj1.jpg)
![[Image: UwZsp7A.png]](https://i.imgur.com/UwZsp7A.png)