Medal Voting

I wanted to take a few moments to talk about medal voting and why I changed the way it works. If you are unhappy with the change, or are simply curious, I hope this explanation can clarify why I thought it was necessary.

The number one complaint I got about the site prior to this change has been that people were very frustrated about getting no-medal votes and not getting any explanation as to why. Previously, I had tried to discourage such behaviour with the karma system, but in practice that turned out to not be a very good deterrent.

Another issue with the old medal voting system was that it was prone to abuse. Voting was so easy that people would register for extra accounts specifically to vote on looks. Some people did this to vote gold on their own looks, while others did this to vote no-medal on specific looks. The biggest abusers had their accounts and votes removed, but the fact that it was so easy to do made it an attractive target.

To counter these issues, the new system has two components. First, instead of directly voting on a medal for the look, you have to score the look across five different categories. Second, the site now flags some votes as requiring a comment first in order to be saved.

The comment requirement is activated if an account is new or if the vote is for a low medal. The new-account limitation is to discourage abuse, by making it require a bit more effort to vote with new accounts. Requiring comments for low scores is something I would love to hear feedback on. Currently, some bronze-medal votes will be flagged as well as no-medal ones. Is the cutoff too high? Should this restriction be removed entirely? Let me know what you think in the comments.

As for the sliders themselves, I will not be going back to the direct-medal votes system, but I am very open to adjusting the current system to make it better. I understand that asking people to make 6 clicks instead of 1 to leave a vote is a big deal, but I think the level of feedback the new system gives look owners is far more useful than the old medals were. But there may be some middle ground: is 5 categories too many? Would you rather it be limited to a subset of the current ones, or different categories entirely? Let me know in the comments.

I would also love to hear from people who have posted new looks since the change went live. How is the new system working for you?

This was a big change, and it certainly is not perfect yet, but I believe it is moving the site in a good direction. Please leave any other suggestions or complaints about the new system below.

Lorelilly
Fashionista
I think the new system is useful in a way it makes people think more about what they're voting on, instead of the quick click based on a glance. (Or the down-voting for the envious sake of down-voting.)
It forces you to look more at the different aspects and effort people put into the armor.

Concerning the nr 1 complaint; personally I never noticed that voting no-medal removed karma, it wasn't until I stumbled upon the 'about gw2 style karma page' by accident that I saw it and by then I had already uploaded and voted on a lot of looks

I'm actually excited for the new system, you make it sound much more involved and I think that if people want to vote no-medal/bronze they should give an explanation as to why.
So no, I am of opinion the cut off is in no way too high and I definitely vote to keep it!

Concerning the sliders, (I can't get them to work on my tabled, but that might be my tablets problem) on my computer they work just fine.
But back to the subject on hand, it's not that I think that 5 are too many, it is more that I find it hard to vote on certain things like the description. Not many people put a lot of information up and then there is the point of when they do; what kind of information? Is it like a creative piece or more fact based? For myself I haven't figured out a fair and objective way to vote on it. On the other side I think it will encourage people to put more effort into writing a description.
When it comes to screenshots I'm a little conflicted because not everyone can produce the same quality screenshot. (Some use add-ons or photo-editing software.) Maybe it could be combined or specified with the originality one, so that it puts more focus on the creativity of someone's screenshot (the pose, the background, etc.) rather than the quality? (since, lets be honest, that's what first catches ones eye)
Absolutely loving the option to vote on armor mix, dyes and originality!

A thing I find interesting about the new system is that you get to see in what areas people think your submission lacks details, information, etc.

Now I probably said it somewhere already, but I think this is a good change and (despite my pet peeves) I like it!

Kind regards,
Lore.
2015-10-14 16:59

chiuna
Fashion Police
Thank you for taking the time to weigh in!

On my tablet, I can't slide the sliders with dragging, but if I tap the slider track where I want the slider to be set, it jumps to that position. Does that work for you?

You are correct that I was hoping to encourage people to put more time into their descriptions by having it as a category. Occasionally I see looks where someone has typed out a huge story about their character, and I wanted to reward that effort in a way. Even more so because it contrasts (and I am guilty of this too!) against the vast majority of looks with descriptions along the lines of "Here's my mesmer, hope you like it!"

Similarly, with the screenshots, some people put a lot more effort into that than others and I thought it could be rewarded with its own category.

But you make a good point, that for screenshots, not everybody plays with a great graphics card and now that you mention it, English isn't the first language for many visitors either.

I'd love to hear some more opinions on this from others: would people like the screenshot and description categories removed?
2015-10-15 3:37

Roamin
Fashion Guru
I've Noticed that some people find the Voting system confusing, and end up giving a wrong vote.
one of them being an in-game friend who where just pressing the vote button without touching the sliders, and thought it worked as a Facebook like, until I explained how the sliders play a role.

Since then I've been following a few posts to see if I could spot other cases like this, and noticed some people seem to be leaving very positive comments with a Bronze vote.

My suggestion would be to disable the vote button for new users, until at least one of the sliders has been moved (you should be able to move the sliders back to the default position and then cast the vote).
This would force people to learn how the sliders work with the voting system before they can cast their vote, and hopefully make sure that everyone gets the votes they deserve :)

As for the Screenshot and Description sliders.
It's great how it encourages users to be creative with more than just the outfit itself, but I agree on the Concerns Lorelilly have. Maybe they could be placed in a subgroup for Presentation? So it wont affect the outfits rating, instead it could add something to the medal if the Presentation rating is high.

Overall it's a great voting system that gives the stylists a good response to what people like/dislike about their looks, and I definitely think the Screenshot and Description sliders should stay.
2015-10-22 11:29

ratfeast
First Style Supporter
I think there should not be an option of voting a no medal without a comment. There are some bad actors who consistently abuse the work of others, with no contribution of their own. It appears that the anonymity is both good and bad. I almost always get two coppers to start with, no matter how good the build is, that does not predict how well something will do. There seem to be some mean spirited people who seem to get pleasure ruining the experience of everyone else.

I too like the sliders; but it does not give them any differential values (if someone does not like to write, but does beautiful work); we should be allowed to override a score.... if you make a comment about it. I think golds are too hard to get. I had one that I was doing right at the change over-Prowler http://gw2style.com/look.php?id=8851 , that was a solid gold (I think it was six golds ahead of the silver), that became a solid silver after the switch.
2015-11-08 15:19

SIGfigures
Stylist
To echo what Roamin and ratfeast have been saying: I've been noticing a string of users leaving very positive comments, yet giving low ratings, as well as leaving low ratings with no comments. You said that, "Currently, some bronze-medal votes will be flagged as well as no-medal ones." I feel that all votes should be flagged, but if that cut-off is too high then I think that atleast "all" bronze-medal and no-medal votes should be flagged. Leaving no feedback or worse, false feedback, isn't at all supportive or constructive.

In addition to the medal-flagging, I believe a lot of this behavior could be alleviated by tying a user's comment to their vote? Although this may lead to no one voting badly for fear of reprisal, it may also lead to more in-depth commentary towards negative constructive criticism, which this website seems to be lacking.

All in all, I think the community for this website would have to change as a whole for this suggestion to really take off. As of late, I believe some things boil down to people not having any middle ground. People are leaving comments that are highly disparaging or insulting without offering any feedback on improvement. While others leave increasingly vague comments on "how" a look is good without going into details as to "why" they believe so. This community really needs to speak up about their reasons for liking or disliking a look, and not just say that they do. When posting a look it'd be nice to know "what" you did right or wrong so that you can either improve on it or continue with what's been effective.
2016-02-28 22:40

Egon
Fashion Guru
Voting tab doesn't work, it simply dissappeared! It's missing in any web viewer, in Chrome, Mozzila and even Edge. Please fix that!
2019-12-30 11:13