RATINGS

I just noticed that few of my files have rating 4 stars…Well,the question is why would someone rate it like that…?The project does not require any pug-ins,just simple picture changing or logo importing,fast and easy rendering and I even include in depth video tutorial,I get 4 stars or even less…Does anyone has the same experience?I really try so hard to make it easier for customers to use them and it ends up that way…Or can some of the buyers give their opinion on how to make things be better?

Oh! A Colleague )

1 Week i have 4 stars second 5 stars this is like pain in the a.s

Luckily, still didn’t have that expirence… But I can imagine, it’s frustrating

Delicious had four stars for a long time. Then it went back up to five stars. But I’ve got lots of projects with four stars and even one with three. And motion graphics too – less than a five star rating, when you’ve seen the finished product (only smaller) in the preview. There are even many AJ authors who get 4 stars from their buyers, even though what you see (well, hear) is exactly what you get.

On the rare occasion that I have found out why people are not giving five star ratings, it tends to be reasons like this…

It would have been perfect if it were 1920×1280

It’s not exactly what I was looking for

I would have preferred it in red

etc.

Curiously, they never get in touch to ask if perhaps I have a full HD version or a red version. Obviously, some buyers are not thinking that hard… and not realising that their personal preference for red, full HD or their inability to find something to suit their needs is of absolutely no relevance to the author or to other buyers.

But nevertheless we have to live with it. I have long been in favour of an eBay style system and a bit more encouragement for buyers to rate, with an upfront message when they log onto their account. That would also include qualified feedback. Maybe the system could be made thumbs up or thumbs down, since some people interpret 4 stars as a good rating, others as less than perfect. On the other hand, thumbs down is always negative and would indicate a disappointing experience. I don’t know, this has all been discussed time and again.

What’s clear is that the rating system, like the searching system needs a pretty urgent overhaul.

-f.

it is very big “miscreation” and wrong rating system use in such place.

in my opinion the solution would be the number of overall rating divided by time number the file exists. Like if a file has 20 stars collected (its another big task to get them) it will be not equal to a file which is here for years and has 40 stars. we dont want that.

so as i say solution would be collected stars number divided by number of some sort that resembles time that passed since file upload.

Doesn’t work… the rating would drop over time if you divide by time. Why should a file get a lower rating because it’s older? Or are you talking about weighting the ratings according to how new they are? Either way, it seems over complicated. I suspect at the moment they use a simple mean average and there are various ways that that could be improved…..

For starters, the system could show fractions of stars. That would prevent the sudden step down from a 5 to a 4. With a mean average, 3.52 and 4.49 will both show the exact same rating – 4. Fractions of stars would let users see in which direction it tends.

Or how about not using the mean average? Mean averages are easily effected by a small number of errant ratings. Where the sample is small, it always means there’s a danger of getting a dodgy rating. Another statistical method is to strip off the top and bottom 10% or so of ratings, which will contain the extremes and make a mean average of the rest. Or you could use the median. Or even a modal type of average….

Imagine the following scenario… here are the overall ratings for a hypothetical file.

5 stars – 12 users
4 stars – 6 users
3 stars – 0 users
2 stars – 0 users
1 star – 1 user

In this example, the rounded mean average will give you a 4 star rating, although 95% of users rated 4 or above and of those, 63% gave it the top rating. Even with a relatively large sample (for Videohive) one single disgruntled user drags the entire average down by a whole star from an otherwise near perfect score. That’s the trouble with the mean average…. and if it’s because the user misclicked, then doubly frustrating.

Incidentally, in this example, the median would be 5, the mode would be 5 and the mean with the top and bottom 10% stripped off would also be 5.

But I get tired of saying this….

-f.

Here’s my sugestion:

The buyer could rate following:

- overall design

- project adjustment (in terms of how many options buyer has)

- project organisation (in terms of layer’s, folder’s etc.)

- tutorial quality

Then, these subject ratings would add and give final rating score.

?

We always get this suggestion (and it’s not a bad one).

But the problem is that only a tiny percentage of buyers bother to click a single star-rating, let alone four.

I think that keeping it simple is the name of the game, but recognising that there are always different qualifying circumstances (and that no amount of quantitative categories can cover all this).

I still suggest that Envato go the way of eBay. A simple rating and a small qualitative assesment in the form of a line of text.

All of those “A1++ super service, you are my hero” type of comments on eBay are pretty much convincing… and of course cast doubt on the guy who says “This guy ripped me off” when all the rest are commenting about what a lovely person the seller is.

Here too, if you get 20 people commenting on the amazing and thorough quality of the user guide and one guy who rants “I couldn’t make head nor tail of this project” then other potential buyers can pretty easily work out that the ranter is someone who doesn’t bother to read the manual.

I think that’s all it takes.

...Oh and a bit more encouragement to leave feedback at all.

-f.

What do you do if you are buyer – you load videohive, you find a file, you purchase it, you leave.

THEN IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU BOUGHT , you need to go to videohive AGAIN to do the rating. As I come to think about it I would not go back either..just to rate. If only there was a way to do a mandatory rating before the “download” buttom becomes active.. This way of course you are forcing the client to rate before he even sees what he/she purchased. Seems like the extra “come back” step cannot be skipped. Let’s hope for loyal clients.

I also get the 4 stars rating sometimes. I try not to care too much. I start caring if I dont get any stars at all..

-inlife