The Abuse of the Ratings Feature

[Zelgadis 638]

We have multiple ratings systems on Simtropolis.  There is one for City Journals and one for items on the STEX.   It has come to our attention that people are creating clone accounts to rate these items multiple times.  This is not acceptable behavior.

When a member writes a CJ or makes something for the STEX, the only thing they get from it is feedback from the community.   Attempts to unjustly alter that feedback can only be regarded as cheating.

We are currently in the process of hunting down, and banning, members who cheat in this manner.   There are logs for the ratings and they are being actively reviewed on both the STEX and the City Journal section. Any bogus ratings will be removed. We have banned several dozen usernames already and we anticipate banning more.

Remember that this site and the games it represents are all about fun!  In the interest of keeping things fun for everyone, please play fair.

[Korot 6]

How can the admins be sure that it is the same user, and not another member of the household having a separate account? I understand that they can hunt down e-mails (same e-mail for multiple accounts), but if I just made another e-mail, I would be able to make a new account without noticing, right? Although there is that IP-address, but that could be because the user lives in a multi person household, as said before.

Regards,

Korot

[Jasoncw 11,949]

That's a common excuse, and it's rarely true, though it is occasionally. "My brother did it" "my friend was over and he did it" etc.

The staff doesn't take action to "punish" people, the ultimate goal of moderating decisions is to stop undesirable behavior (like downrating).

If someone has a sibling who is doing bad things on the site, they should contact someone on the staff so that a solution can be worked out. But any sibling claims will still be under heavy scrutiny. The admins know how to figure that kind of stuff out and you'll be caught if you lie.

[Korot 6]

Alright, thanks for explaining.

Regards,

Korot

[Patricius Maximus 236]

Hehe, I knew when it began that it would be abused in some fashion. That said, I hope the efforts work out.

[Godzillaman 21]

It was bound to happen, knowing that people occasionally go too far...

[renemone 15]

A member or more may have more IP adresses than one but not been noted yet to continue with

an abuse with the site but beware to no ban the wrong member to remove badguys with an IP adresses.

[Larks2242 251]

Yea,it's not fair for people to do that im happy that it can be stopped.

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

Originally posted by: renemone

A member or more may have more IP adresses than one but not been noted yet to continue with

an abuse with the site but beware to no ban the wrong member to remove badguys with an IP adresses.quote>

Don't worry, we all use different computers and IPs to log in the site. The admins can understand that, but when numerous clones are created to downrate city journals, eyebrows are raised.

[renemone 15]

Thank you, ilikehotdogsalot i understand.

[benvoliothefirst 36]

I think the real solution here is to go to these people's houses and find out why they don't have anything better to do than screw with people on the internet.

...Then we make them join the Peace Corps and fight poverty overseas.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Glad to hear something is being done about this. Nothing ruins a hard day's ( or week's or month's etc...) work when it goes from a 5 to a 3 in the blink of an eye.

Should we alert you guys (admins/ mods) with the "report" on the STEX for this kind of thing? I really wouldn't want to flood folks needlessly.

[Zelgadis 638]

Please feel free to let the staff know if it seems like something fishy's going on. That's why we looked in the first place, because many people were noticing CJ star ratings dropping percipitiously.

ISF

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Hmm, sounds like my CJ too.

Thanks Zel.

[earwax_man 18]

Why would you do this? What would it give you?!

[Evillions 552]

Happened to me too.

EDIT: Similar to what SimHotty was saying. Applying to my CJ, the ratings on mine were about 3.5 at most. Then some idiot(s) down-rated my CJ to a 2.5 . Its was very fishy to me.

[Korot 6]

Question, why would they do it? There is no advantage they get from it, it only costs them time for making/programming these accounts and they could lose their main account.

Regards,

Korot

[paroxysm 2]

This makes a lot of sense. I noticed, in the past, my CJ (Republic of Terrana) was at 3.9 and the next day it was at 2.5. Very irritating. However, I am glad this is being attended to by the very able Simtropolis Admins.

[Evillions 552]

If those who did it were to be captured. IF possible, could you delete those ratings? And if that happens, then would our CJ's or CJ(s)'s ratings will be back as it used to be?

[BBUUBBBBLLEESS 0]

i know that what i am about to suggest may cause a bit of an uproad, but please, i dont mean to, its just a thought...

if people are abusing the system, why not just get rid of the rateing system?

or, just dont pay any attention to it?

i dont normally even look at the star rating, ill read the description and look at the pics (assuming its a mod) and if its a CJ, i read the first few posts, and if i dont like the sound of it, i move on....

would that not work?

but of course, its up to the guy (or girls) that run the site to decide, im just thinking aloud

[Keegan V50 15]

well i assure that the admins have their way to investigate this peeps,and yeah some of them are being badly rated for fun or by ruining someones CJ status..

all the best

victor

[CSGdesign 27]

BBUUBBBBBLESSS (Sorry if I got that wrong but DAMN man use less consenants!) I agree totally with you.

That's exactly how I look at a mod/BAT too.

I've read enough comments to know that some ppl down-rate a BAT cuz it's too simple for them and they wanted something sparklier, or cuz it doesn't have the right type of footpath for their needs - really dumb reasons like that with absolutely no thought whatsoever in what it took to build it, or how well it achieves what it was designed to achieve.

So I adopted your method - that is ignore what other people think of it completely and make up my own mind. If in doubt, download and try - it's not like we're talking about 10 or 100mb here!

Mmmk bye.

[Cobra_nVidia 30]

I think my CJ is being downrated. I originally thought just someone didn't like it, but it's just fallen in rating and it was about 2 minutes after I posted it

I don't know how much control simtropolis has over the ratings systems, but if people with 2 posts are rating STEX items and CJ's, that's a bit of a problem

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Context is important, is it due to a reasonable rating (like a 3/5) or is it from a 1/5? You can figure out the rating if you know the number of ratings and the rating at that number.

if for example you had a 4.0 with 9 ratings:

(rating before)(number of ratings before)

4.0 x 9 = 36 total points.

(total points) + (estimated rating, 1 to 5 as an integer)

36 + 1 = 37 total points after

(total points after) / (number of ratings after)

37/ 10 = 3.7 Rating.

Now I am just guessing, but this is the kind of thing you need to take into consideration before telling a moderator or someone. I have been tempted to tell mods about the down rating on my CJ (it happens a lot actually), but I just let the people voting decide if it should be higher or not. If the community thinks it should be higher, then it generally will go back up in due time (which has happened to me every time it was abused).

Best of luck,

-Todd

[Zelgadis 638]

If your CJ is fairly new, expect wild fluctuations in the star rating.  Before you have many ratings, one great rating or one awful rating can send you soaring or plunging.

Once you get established and have lots of ratings, then it won't change as much.

ISF

 

[emgmod 16]

I've been noticing this in my CJ (U-Build-It) the moment I read the thread.

When 8 people voted, the average was 4.13

The next person voted, and it's now 3.78

If my math is correct, the person voted it a 1.

I'm not suspicious yet, but this could become a problem.

[Jezus53 18]

Kinda late to the conversation, but another way to tell if people are abusing (and if you ask me a very simple way of telling) is to see if the the people who made the new account went straight for the CJ or STEX item and rated it and that was that. That is very suspicious and most likely someone abusing the system. And this should be especially true if it's done multiple times. Personally, that type of abuse should result in a loss of voting privileges from the ip, though I'm not sure how you can do that, it would be great.

[joshriddle 29]

Originally posted by: Jezus53

another way to tell if people are abusing (and if you ask me a very simple way of telling) is to see if the the people who made the new account went straight for the CJ or STEX item and rated it and that was that. That is very suspicious and most likely someone abusing the system. And this should be especially true if it's done multiple times.quote>

I don't know if the admin can track people, but I am pretty sure they have a list of people that have an account. And another way for the admin to track down and ban people who create cone accounts, I don't know if I remember or not, but when I registered I had to put in my name and last name in the registration form, the admin could track them downt that way, that is, unless they created a false name or something like that. Well, really it wouldn't make any sense to place your actual name again, that would be like giving yourself away.

[Chptrk 86]

Originally posted by: joshriddle

I don't know if the admin can track people, ...quote>

Oh, they can.

[joshriddle 29]

Oops, I said "cone" account.

People can track people throught the internet. How great is technology these days?