Freesound Forums

Recently I found out that I got a lot of * ratings whitch is Pretty Bad

However I don't know why I got these. If I knew, I could do it better next time or fix something.

I don't have a way to find and those who rated my sounds, and ask them why they had feelings they had about my sound.

So here I come:

How about making rating a public information just like comments and downloads?
I can see who downloaded each file, I'd like to also know who rated and what rating did he give.

It could also make us all think more about the rating we give after someone send us a question about that.

Let's discuss!

I actually like the privacy of rating.

So maybe a notice after rating a sound:

"The user who's sound you just rated would also greatly appreciate if you left him a few words."

?

unfa wrote:
So maybe a notice after rating a sound:

"The user who's sound you just rated would also greatly appreciate if you left him a few words."

?

I think the anonymous voting system, tends to keep it more honest. Plus no one will get in a verbal fight about anything, provided that the reciever feels the rating isn't "good" enough.

If people want to comment, the comment box is right under the sound, so it's no problem (well at least not in my oppinion)

Sometimes a ratings process can go like this:

User searches for 'foo', trying to find 'foo bar'.

The search returns 'foo car' results.

User rates sounds based on whether the search result matches what they were looking for, giving all non-'foo bar' results the most negative feedback.

Hmmm... well... ok...

unfa wrote:
Recently I found out that I got a lot of * ratings whitch is Pretty Bad

There are trolls who perversely rate good work as one-star,
so IMO don't pay attention to any initial star-rating.

[The number of downloads is a more reliable indicator than the star-rating].

I agree votes should be private.

Keeps it honest (as much as possible), avoids discussions and vengance voting "you rated my sound 1 star, now i am going to rate all your sounds 1 star!"

You can configure your search and I think you can ask the search engine to list search results basd on star rating.
1 * puts your sound ahead of all sounds with no *. so it is actually better than nothing
Again, I agree that number of downloads is a far better indicator.

For actual feedback, the comments box is far more usefull.
Also, to be 100% honest, if I want to give a user some detailed feedback, especially if it covers several sounds, i might post a fairly simple comment and then contact the user by PM.

Also, very true that some people will just give bad ratings or post rubish comments just for fun.
You should only take seriously feedback that is serious and objective. Like "good sound but cannot use it because has too much background noise" or "shame it is in mono"

I see.
Thanks.

People are weird... but that's better than if there was just uniform mass.

Something similar happened to me too. Someone rated my perfectly fine campfire sound with one star. http://www.freesound.org/people/matucha/sounds/170247/
It is funny because I hesitated a lot if I should give this one for free after risking to record fire with $5000 worth equipment and getting really nice result. One can never please everyone I guess .

Unfa > Was that the beatbox sample? I think it is ok, it is not anything exceptional (performance/recording-vise), but very usable in the right context. I gave you some counterbalance rating .

Wow! Noce recording! Yeah - recording fire from clos up is dangerous - you never know of your gear is going to melt... Sounds good, I rated up your sound I ony think that the fade-out at the end is not needed

Yeah - it was the beatbox sample and "Sweet B*tch" recording (http://www.freesound.org/people/unfa/sounds/184437).

I see now more people radet it high so it's n longer *, but well - yeah the download count better shows what's up with the sound.

Thanks.

Yep the fadeout is not necessary, but as long as the sample is this long, there is no harm I guess.

With fire there is danger of damaging the mic diaphrams as they are very delicate. Wind protection takes care about that quite well and you need some anyway. But the furry thing then smells like smoke and some of it can get burned... it's a hassle .

I'm tired of the 1 star rating.
For most of my sounds, the first rate I have is a one star rating.
I probably have an enemy on Freesound, but I would really appreciate if they were a way to stop that.
Maybe it could be a limitation of the 1 star rating... I don't know how. For example, it could be:
- you can't rate more than 25% of the sounds you rate with one star
- or you can't rate more than 5 sounds from somebody with one star

It's not very encouraging to have so many 1 star rating

I hope we will find a solution!

All best

Félix
www.felixblume.com
www.freesound.org/people/felix.blume/

Maybe better would be LIKE system - you like - you click. At least 1 or 2 star rating should be with obligatory comment from rating person.

I like the LIKE idea. It might also be useful to show a distribution of star ratings for each sound, like you get on Amazon. I think some early raters deliberately over or under-rate a sound to move the average to the value they think it should have - being able to see the distribution makes that effect more visible.

Alternatively, don't pay too much attention to ratings - especially early ones. The system allows users to rate sounds without even listening to them...

You're both right :
- obligation to comment a sound if you rate it wit 1 or 2 star is a great idea
- a system with just 'like' is maybe better than to have to rate
- and the obligation to listen to the sound to be able to rate is a good idea

We should give this ideas to the programer of Freesound!

One thing for sure Félix,

Your sound are great! You know you always challenge me to get better. Thanks for that.

I have listened your last sounds and he got 5 stars. Great as usual.

I'm not sure what moves anyone to give bad ratings to good samples, but since most downloaders don't rate or leave comments, the current system gives too much power to pricks. I also feel that in a website that relies on good-will and free contribution there is no place for "punishment" in the form of low ratings. Freesound should adopt a system similar to what is currently used on Gearslutz using likes/thumbs-up.

What exactly is the rating system supposed to work anyway?
What does one star mean?
Some people might think giving starts (any number) is a good thing:
*=OK, **=good, ***=very good, ****=extremely good, *****=awesome
This would mean that if a sound is no good, you should not bother to give it a star.
But you can also take it to be a full scale system instead:
*=awful, **=bad, ***=OK, ****=very good, *****=excellent

The main problem with ratings is that
1) exposed to troll action
2) What criteria do people use to rate anyway: Quality? fit for purpose? (i.e., according to what the user was searching for) "something I like?"
Some people will rate sounds based on what they "like" - A DJ might bother to rate kickdrum sounds highly and rate field recordings low because he has no use for them.

So, what do ratings do anyway?
1) When rating by number of stars, 1 star is better than none...
2) Ratings based on 1 or 2 votes really don't mean much. You need 6+ votes for the averaging of results to actually begin to reflect what the sound is "worth".

There is also another effect of ratings - People are funny
Do you find yourself more likley to rate a sound if you disagree with the rating?
I do!

I agree - it's meaningless: ratings have a different subjective meaning for every user. And it creates many perverse effects like you say. Eg if a sound has a five star rating, and I genuinely think it's a four star sound then I probably won't leave a rating because that would lower the average score for the user! Maybe those who upload sounds think differently about ratings from those who only download.

Moving to a LIKE system would allow people to recognise the contribution of sound creators in a positive way. It supports the old adage of 'If you can't say something nice about someone then don't say anything'. If people want to be critical of sounds they should do so, without the protection of anonymity, in the comments - most sound creators have no problem with sincere or constructive criticism. But if they do then they can simply delete the comment, which restores the balance of power in favour of the sound creators.