Hi All,

As you all know, occasionally we add new features and tweak existing ones to keep MTS2 one of the best free Sims 2 sites on the planet.

Today I have implemented the following changes, some of which apply to uploaders and others apply to downloaders.

Thread Ratings

We have taken the decision to remove the ability for people to rate download threads. Why? Simply put, 90+% of all the threads that had ratings where rated a 4 or a 5, and very very few actually had average figures below that.

While we realise that some custom content creators might like to see 5 stars on thier downloads, we have to look at the site as a whole, and I believe that for the downloaders, seeing basically every download thread rated as 4 or 5 stars says nothing of the actual quality or time put into the project. We here at MTS2 think that the number of downloads and the number of thanks an item gets should be more important than what is effectively an arbitary - and, proven over time to be meaningless - value.

We appreciate some might be upset by the loss of the rating system, however, the site is growing all the time and this is something that has to happen to maintain a good quality level.

The scorecard for creators has also been updated to remove the rating column.

Download Thanks Posts

Another issue which has been growing is one of "Thanks posts". This is where, essentially, a download posts "Thanks this is great!" (or some variation thereof), and actual feedback or problems are lost within the massive amount of "Thanks" posts. No matter how great an item, we believe that it should be easy for the custom content creators to recieve actual, valid, feedback regarding any problems.

To help with this, we have changed the view of the Quick Reply screen at the bottom of download threads. You now see 3 buttons instead of 2. The first is the "Thanks" button which posts your comment as a "Thanks" post and also adds 1 Thanks to the thread. The second acts like a normal reply and is marked as a "Feedback" button. The last is the usual reply screen.





All people who comment in the download section are encouraged to use the "Thanks" style replies if all you have to say is Thanks. Remember, too, that you don't have to comment - you can use the Thanks button independantly of any Thanks posts. Anybody found to be posting "Thanks" type posts as feedback will have the post changed and a possible warning issued if it continues.

To facilitate easy scanning of threads that have both Feedback and Thanks posts we have altered the display of Thanks posts so that they are a more minimal view and with only the basic information neccesary to identify the poser.





I have also added some information at the top of thread comments to give you a quick overview of how many Thanks / Feedback posts there are, and also an option to turn off Thanks posts if you haven't specified them in your profile.





If you, as a creator or downloader, want to turn off Thanks type posts in your profile so that they don't display by default, you can do so in the User Options panel. Checking the "Don't show Thanks posts" will disable these type of posts site-wide but you can still elect to show them individually if need be.





Scorecard

The creator scorecard has been changed slightly - it now shows the featured trophy before threads that have that flag, and also removes the Rating column. I've also added some stats about the featured items too.

Conclusion

Hopefully you'll all like the changes - and like I said, we realise that some of them might not be to everybodies tastes, but I hope you'll all continue to support MTS2 now and for the future. Feedback and comments on the changes are appreciated.

Kind regards from all here at MTS2.

Delphy.

Last edited by Delphy : 31st Oct 2006 at 12:48 AM.

Awesome new features, Delphy! I'm not going to miss the ratings, and I think the new thanks system is great. Thank you very much!

I'm liking it. Many thanks Delphy

It always bugged me how generous people were with the ratings, so much so to the extent that they weren't even helpful. If they liked it, five stars. If they didn't, four. And then, if someone was just being honest and rated two or three stars, everyone else would get mad at them. I'm glad the rating system's gone. It was a good idea but didn't hold out in the long run.

I love what you've done about "thank you's", too. It will make it so much easier to browse for problems.

I concur with PurplePaws. It felt like the Official BBS to me, where everyone gets a 5 whether they desrve it or not.

While its nice to have people thank you for all your work on an object/ect., being able to rid of all "thankyou" comments will make it so much easier to look for posts that contain actual feedback or problems about the creation. This is a great feature.

As always you ensure that mts2 in continually growing and changing, along with the needs of the creators as well as the downloaders. Thanks so much.

thanks Delphy, thanks button is the most important after all ^^

I defenetly like these new changes. Sometimes I would get upset when I saw something that didn't take a lot of effort yet got five stars. Even looking at some of my past posts, some really didn't deserve five stars. My first ever really only deserved three. I got even more upset when something that you can tell deserved five stars was givin one star by some immature member. So getting rid of the rating sytem all-together would make things much easier.

Last edited by General Oohoh : 31st Oct 2006 at 2:08 AM.

As pleased as I am to say bye-bye to the meaningless ratings, I'm even more pleased to see you cleaning up all the "just saying thanks" posts. I like people to express gratitude for something when I've put a lot of work into it, but when I'm reading a thread, mine or someone elses, what I'm really there for is to find out what problems others have had, if any, with that item/hack/whatever, and how the problem was solved (if it was) Feedback isn't just helpful to the creaotr, but to anyone using the download.

I think I might have been the only forum member who handed out 2s and 1s when the downloads deserved them. Removing the rating system is a good decision, IMO.

i really like the idea of getting rid of the ratings. i thought they were going to be pointless when they first showed up. i mean, who's going to rate things they don't download, and who's going to download things that don't look like they'll be good?
And the whole "thanks post" idea is great. 3 cheers for the person who thought it up!

I was hoping this site would get rid of the rating system. Most rating systems are worthless because the rating a download has received is not necessarily indicative of the quality.

Thanks for the changes Delphy. And I'm glad the rating system is a thing of the past. My thought has always been that there's no way to tell what the quality of a downloaded item is until it's tested in-game, so I've often ignored the # of stars on a thread. It's been my experience where I've downloaded something that was rated only 3 stars but turned out to be of excellent quality (worthy of 5 stars) upon seeing it inside my game.

Sounds good to me. I do enjoy seeing those 4 and 5 star ratings, but I don't share for the ego boost, just to get that happy glow of knowing someone else enjoyed something I created or recoloured.

Thank you very much for this very needed clean-up. It was very annoying and time-consuming to have to go through all that pages of just saying " thank you "to find out if there are any issues with a download. Also it did take extra time to rate an object, and as I think everybody deserves at least 3 stars for any opload for the time and effort they have put into it, I think it is a good idea to let go of the rating system.
Hurray for the great moderators of MTS2.

Last edited by Cocomama : 31st Oct 2006 at 8:30 AM.

One single comment like "Your object / mod / hack enabled me finally to do this and that" is a lot more worth than a row of five stars throughout all downloads. I take my pride not from the rating, but from these little comments which tell me that the user had really need of this specific object. Good to know that the times of unnecessary ratings are over now.

Oh, and: Thanks! *g*

Oh, this is great! I so hated those little stars! And they did take extra time....

For me each download and each thank and is a star in my heart
It is sufficient for me to know that some other players like what I share with them
But I dont say that i dont appreciate the kind comments !

I agree this is a good move. I'd like to also comment that I wish there was a thanks button for all threads, because often someone is just imparting some valuable information. Especially with tutorials because a lot of people have read or downloaded the tutorial before it gets put into the section where it can get thanked, and I don't think many will return and thank later.

Such Wonderful work!! I will miss seeing the stars on my uploads but I fully agree with everything that is being done.

Keep up the good work Delphy.

cheers

That's a great move. I always thought the ratings thing was misused by some people (let's be spiteful because we are jealous or don't like so and so and 'downgrade' the thread.).

Yeah, some people do act like this is preschool.

Anyhow, nice idea and thanks for your hard work.

Last edited by HCAC : 31st Oct 2006 at 11:59 AM.

It was an interesting journey to watch how the rating of a thread changes, yet I guess I'm so dumb to learn more things out of it, so I back to kick it off.

As for the thank post option, am I dreaming? I want this option for a long time, yet socialising is good too but I guess pm and journal can do the jobs... :D
By the way, is it good for users (both the thread starters and the post-makers) to be capable of converting some old posts into thank posts? Surely, the act is voluntary.
In this suggestion, the threead starters can have an option button to turn a particular old thank post of the thread into a new categorised thank post. Post-makers can have an option to turn their old thank posts into the new categorised thank posts.
Despite a potential of an abuse to hide some unwanted posts by a thread-starter, people can still see the posts when they open the hidden thank posts or preset to view the thank posts to see if a thread starter does so. And, this sort of cases is reportable.

I just did a little test on one of the threads I've made. I clicked the "post thanks" after inputting a line in the message box... Still, it counted as a feedback or report. What could I have done wrongly?

Thanks for your reading and patience...

Added:
I've found nengi65 can do it well if I'm not mistaking that in this thread .

Last edited by niol : 31st Oct 2006 at 12:00 PM.

That's great indeed , i had a feeling this would change soon and i guessed right.

I bet some people will freak out now "Oh no i can't downrate just for the kick of it!"
I wonder what they'll do now LOL

Thanks for these changes!!Mainly it will be very useful browsing the replies for feedback and the thanks post being individual is really a great idea.

Corvi

You have one more happy supporter here! Thanks :D