Brawl Vault Problems, Updates, and Suggestions

[Red93]

Didn't realize until just now that I guess you're suppose to report false Brawl Vault reports here. I've just been editing them off (Though I've only gotten 2 so far).
Does it even make a difference anyways?

[??_?]

Here I am, suggesting a rating/review system, prepared to debate it.

[Victory Badguy]

Didn't realize until just now that I guess you're suppose to report false Brawl Vault reports here. I've just been editing them off (Though I've only gotten 2 so far).
Does it even make a difference anyways?

Not particularly.  If you get false reports on your hacks it's great if you get rid of them yourself.  Now, if you suddenly get a whole bunch of false reports from one person then you should let us know about that.

Here I am, suggesting a rating/review system, prepared to debate it.

Oh God, here we go...

[??_?]

Oh God, here we go...

What's the matter hun?

[Flygon]

*grabs popcorn*
Just Kidding

I'm sure most of the reviews would be
-omg i hate dis delete now
-can u make my sonic oc?
-CAN I MAKE RECOLORS?
-This is why the brawl vault quality is down

[Segtendo]

I thought that it was discussed thousands of times, ending in a "never," but let's see what you have to say, Noah.

[??_?]

*grabs popcorn*
Just Kidding

I'm sure most of the reviews would be
-omg i hate dis delete now
-can u make my sonic oc?
-CAN I MAKE RECOLORS?
-This is why the brawl vault quality is down

This is avoidable.

I want someone (preferably someone who actually decides things like picano or vyse) to illustrate all the points of why they don't want a rating/review system before I make my argument.

[Victory Badguy]

What's the matter hun?

Because the answer is always no.  It's always been no and it will always be no.  I'm 99% sure that the site isn't gonna relent because of anything that any one person says, be they a new user or a veteran such as yourself.

[??_?]

Because the answer is always no.  It's always been no and it will always be no.  I'm 99% sure that the site isn't gonna relent because of anything that any one person says, be they a new user or a veteran such as yourself.

So, you're saying the reason that there shouldn't be a rating system or discussion of rating system is that the answer is no? I object!

[Segtendo]

Victory, let him state his reasoning. We just need someone, like he said, like Picano or Vyse to come in so that he can state his points and talk it out.

[Victory Badguy]

So, you're saying the reason that there shouldn't be a rating system or discussion of rating system is that the answer is no? I object!

No, there are plenty of reasons to not have a ratings/review system for hacks (like how it would almost certainly be misused from day one onward).  The reason I don't think  this debate is necessary is that people have brought this up plenty of times before and I doubt that you have anything new to offer to it.

But, by all means, if you think you do have something new to bring to the table, speak your mind.  It won't change anything of course, but I suppose reasonable discourse can't be that bad.

[Vyse]

The reasons have been in the OP forever.

Things that will likely never happen.

• Ratings
  
  • Arbitrary
  • Easily (and often) abused or misused
  • Resource intensive

I can elaborate on those a bit.

Arbitrary: How many people here would rate down a Shadow mod simply because of its name? How many others would rate it up for the exact same reason? Or a Naruto mod? Or Cloud? The hack's rating would never be indicative of its actual quality, and that defeats the purpose.

Abuse: We already had/have people pumping their download counts. This would just invite more of the same. Ratings really only serve to inflate some egos and stomp on others. There's too many cults of personality around here for ratings to be effective.

Resources: Keeping track of every rating that every user has given every hack, checking to make sure users can't rate hacks twice, calculating the averages for every single hack... The last would be cached, like most other stats, but it still seems pretty demanding.

[Resistance]

who deleted half my stuff i didnt do anything wrong i gave creded to the one who posted it and plus if they wanted credet they chould have asked you cant deletet stuff for nothing

[??_?]

There are different methods of ratings and reviews that avoid all of the listed problems.  First, I don't think that "arbitrary" works as an argument against ratings or reviews.  While there are many aspects that are based on preference, I wouldn't consider game ratings or movie ratings arbitrary.  There are systems in place there, many factors are considered, and personal taste isn't a large determiner of movie or game ratings.
The point of ratings and reviews is to fairly evaluate something and indicate its relative merit for the benefit of the user.  Bottom line: ratings and reviews are beneficial to the users.  They highlight good qualities and they show problems.  They can put deserving things in the spotlight they deserve, and vise versa.  Besides screenshots, nothing is really indicative of those things on brawl vault now, unless the creator makes a self-review and puts it in the description box.
Obviously, having a rating system similar to say, youtube's, is impractical because as stated, they would be abused and misused.  I do not doubt that for a second in this community.  For that reason, it wouldn't be realistic to propose a rating system in which everyone could contribute to.  There have been efforts made by some to create reviews, such as

SilentDoom's

. They're unbiased, quality reviews. Ain't nothing wrong with these reviews.

All that being said, my preposition is this: A review subboard that has some kind of qualification/restricted access/special privilege magic.  Set up a rubric/template for reviews and scoring, similar to IGN's but with pertaining sections and clear guidelines. Add a read/submit review to the brawl vault entries, similar to csps, and have a box for the forum link, and a box for the score.  Use a system like Metacritic's to calculate a weighted average and throw out outliers. Easy math, not resource intensive. People that abuse it can be removed from the review board.

Yeah, that's my suggestion. Ratings and reviews are beneficial to the community; they allow for constructive feedback that helps modders improve their works, they give users of brawl vault more insight into what they are downloading before they download it, and they allow people that don't contribute to the community through brawl vault submissions to contribute in this way.  I really think something like this would be beneficial to brawl vault.  Please consider.

[Vyse]

There are different methods of ratings and reviews that avoid all of the listed problems.
 First, I don't think that "arbitrary" works as an argument against ratings or reviews.

You're not "avoiding" a problem by dismissing it and acting like it doesn't exist.

personal taste isn't a large determiner of movie or game ratings.

It is. That's why, for example, EGM would have multiple people review the same game. Different perspectives of the same thing.

The point of ratings and reviews is to fairly evaluate something

This is not something I believe is possible.

There have been efforts made by some to create reviews, such as SilentDoom's. They're unbiased, quality reviews. Ain't nothing wrong with these reviews.

That is not a review. That is a showcase. The only time that comes close to being a review is when he says it might be a bit overpowered. The rest is descriptors like "good" and "fun" and "satisfying"; that it's good would be evident from any video, and "fun" and "satisfying" are totally arbitrary.

Ratings and reviews are beneficial to the community; they allow for constructive feedback that helps modders improve their works, they give users of brawl vault more insight into what they are downloading before they download it, and they allow people that don't contribute to the community through brawl vault submissions to contribute in this way.

If people didn't use them to just circlejerk and spam, threads on the board would already serve all of these purposes.

Please consider.

I've been talking with Miacis lately about putting a lot more emphasis on features instead of team posts on the blog. There's some minor differences, but our ideas basically amount to the system you've described, using the blog instead of a special board.