yeh... i see what you mean...

and yeh.. some sort of mathematical formula could be worked out based on the forum etc.... wouldn't be too hard to come up with one

i think it is an amazing idea, how many times i had my chop rated 9´s and then a 1 destroys my rate, when that person rates 1 just to intencionally destroy our rate

would be awesome to have on a person post, the comment, then showing the rate they gave, this way we know how much they rated and why, only thing im afraid,
also, would be good if people can choose to post witout the need to rate, cause this whole rate + comment justify, can make people not be arsed to even comment

like 2 options:

1. rate and justify on post,
or
2. just post with no need to rate

I think we're coming up with some great ideas here. Out of all of this - at the end of the day, the changes we choose to make are changes that I hope will encourage people to put more thought and effort into their voting. That should be our primary goal.

If we make people obligated to have placed a comment before they can enter a vote - I think that will be the first step in a positive direction.

Exactly what RAS-Tuner mentioned is what I would have in mind to do as well - I think it'd be wise to make it show who voted what. For example in your posts, it will show the star rating you gave that Artist on their chop. (I like how Klaus did the mockup which show's how this will work - thanks Klaus!)

I think showing what you voted in your comments is important - it'll hopefully make people be more thoughtful in their votes and also enforces them to take ownership and responsibility in their decisions - therefore, hopefully they'll pay more thought into it each time.

Mixed in with Aesop's idea of only being able to see votes if you've already voted is another good one... (In doing this I hope it would prevent bias and things like that, as it would make choppers place a vote entirely of their own - without being swayed of what other people voted beforehand..)

Ollite20 also made a good point - I agree here, I'm all for freedom of speech and letting people speak their mind - being in an open community where honesty and freedom are key values is important to me. If you feel you only want to say 3 words, then that should be ok. So I don't want to enforce a minimum character count on posts - I'd rather reward good users for writing good quality posts. (Instead of the other way around of restricting/punishing users for bad posts).

Unlocking the voting - now I've already stated I really like that concept. But I will also state that of course, ratings won't ever be required - they will remain completely optional to do/not do as always.

Overall, some really good points are coming to light here. I'm glad to know that you guys feel strongly about these areas and I will always listen when you say you want to see things improved. I know it can be frustrating when you put in a lot of effort into a chop and don't think you get a reasonable amount of effort in feedback you deserve on it. It'd always be nice if people put in a little extra effort in their feedback, because afterall, it takes a lot of effort to create a chop. Again - overall, this rating/feedback system thing I think this is a good system with potential and can be enhanced further. And if we can work together to make it right, I think it'll be a great system. So it's good to hear all the suggestions and feedback coming in, and big thanks to Jack for putting forth this idea and initiating the conversation.

On a completely unrelated topic, how many GRS points is a comment on a chop worth? Is it in any way weighted by the length of the comment?

I think it would be pretty cool if it was, that way it would reward the people who gave longer feedback with tips to improve the chop.

Another thing I was thinking about was the very few comments that new choppers get on this forum. I wonder if comments in the new choppers area could be given a larger weighting in the GRS system than comments in Elite and Advanced, to encourage more comments in these parts of the forum and therefore help foster new and improved choppers. Just an idea.

You are correct, that is already in place. I can't recall the exact figures, but it's something like if you write 40chars, 80chars, 120chars posts I think are the thresholds for getting an incremental boost in points.

That my friend is a brilliant thought. Solving the problem of getting people to help others - especially the lesser experienced choppers was something that had been plaguing me and I couldn't quite figure out ways to bring a resolve about it. This may be one incentive certainly needed.

I had juggled with the concept of having a 'featured' chop section of thumbnails that appears at the top of the forum. This would showcase the newest chops from each forum. This would certainly draw more attention to chops, but it still didn't nail the root problem - getting people to actually post. I think your solution provided a good insight.

KLAUS Y U SO SMART.

Also Mark, that means that I can aquire gazillion points by simply posting an unlimited string of characters in any chop-thread? Amaze, I'mma go rack up

ilove the design buddy but i m just the starter in design. the design is nice.yes ur right.

some thing that could really work....

voting gives a rating... any votes outside ... say 20 % either side of the average vote will be ignored?

this would be a sensible solution...

I think we should see how much one person gave. The only reason is you can say "oh amazing chop" and give 1 (and nobody knows that it's you). While if we can see you won't try to destroy one's mark.

Yeah! This often happens.