Evening everyone!
I've come to recruit you to review your favorite maps. At Nibbits we're moving away from the typical ratings (since they're crap), and forcing users to write detailed (at least semi) reviews. The system isn't completely transitioned yet, but you can already review maps. The eventual switchover will remove generic "ratings" from all pieces of content on our site, and replace with with a simplified Like/Dislike system (details will come later). Reviews are going to have a MUCH larger impact on rankings than they do now, and ratings (the weak reviews) will have a miniscule impact.
So for example, if you wanted to review Shuriken 1.4 (the current most popular SC map), you'd hit up the project page*, and select "Submit Review". This is found right below the Description/Change Log, or by clicking the "Reviews" tab. Reviews have some requirements, one being that they must be no less than 200 words, and two that they must be approved by a moderator. The moderation will slightly change, as we're going to tag ratings onto reviews ("I like this review"), so that users can self moderate. For now though, this is our entry-level fix.
Anyways, reviews also give you a nice XP boost (60) once they're approved, and they have the side effect of everyone being in awe of your amazing critiquing abilities. The big "gotcha" right now, is that if you're not level 3, you're not going to be reviewing. Again, these are about quality, and if you haven't been a member of the community its unlikely that you're going to submit quality.
Hope you all enjoy our ever-continuing attempt to improve the mapping community :)
* Note: Project pages are linked most everywhere except search right now, but that will be changed soon.
Yes this is a wonderfull idea actually usefull for both creator and reviewer.
:) Thanks!
http://sc.nibbits.com/maps/project/73489/alliance-asia-2010scx Is where you have to review the map. I found it through Maps->Browse->As.
http://sc.nibbits.com/maps/view/131299/alliance-asia-2010scx
This is the map I want to review. There is no way to submit it though. I tried to see if I could change "About" into "description" by editing and re-submitting the description content. It didn't work.
Actually, you can review any map regardless of popularity. If you are having trouble reviewing a map, scroll down to dcramer's first comment on this.
i think we should be able to review any maps, regardless of its popularity.
wat if map was popular for a while but declined in ranks? would u still be able to review it?
its inconsistent. some maps are so bad or rigged that it would actually be fun to write a long and very critical review, but they happen to not be so popular.
I always rated the terrain by aesthetic appearance as well as how it worked with the gameplay. For me if it was a melee map units was used to rate the mineral placement (there units in the editor...) and if it was a UMS units was used to rate the unit placement/new names, etc. Sound was sound but on melee maps I usually used it to mirror the other ratings. Re-playability is always a practical rating for any map. The system wasn't so bad.
It will be sad to see it go :-(, now we will have a ton of maps with the exact same ratings and less ways to distinguish them--especially melee maps because nobody is going to write enough reviews of maps to make up for the distinction we will be losing that maps had previously with the multiple ratings.
Well, I think those multiple ratings especially "units" were a bit stupid. It wasn't always clear what I rate for. For example if I vote for terrain it's not clear whether I am voting for it's aesthetic appearance or how well it fits gameplay, some maps (like Astrogears) have simply looking terrain at first glance, which is not that easy to make. And so on. However I support -BW-Map_God that having a numerical criteria is important and that probably just having like or dislike is not enough. I support the opinion of leaving an "Overall" rating as it is in it's current form. However I think that having a "Favorite" button in addition to the overall rating is good for organizing your favorite maps and for showing your personal preferences to the rest of the community. One may vote map 3stars but personally like it very much (for example this is what I would have done to the Hide n Snipe map, I realize it's not perfect and could be polished better in various ways but I still like it very much). The overall rating takes into account not an objective opinion about the given map but your personal attitude towards the author, your subjective views on the map's quality, it's originality, subjective estimation of the effort which was put into it's creation and many other things.
While the first is probably true, I can say that one having some experience in SC map making can appropriately rate the map without playing it. From the description, name and the minimap one can easily determine amount of effort put into the map, the author attitude towards his work and make proper conclusions which turn out to be true in most cases.
Well the idea was we'd just convert existing ratings to either like, or dislike.
The issue with ratings is too many people just rate things without any real merit or reason. I'd bet a lot of the ratings havent even been from someone who's played the map.
I think adding in reviews is good but I don't think we should remove the ratings. Being able to give various numerical ratings to judge a map (even if some don't really fit all the maps as far as categories go) is much better than a simple like or dislike button which won't help good maps stand out as much unless a lot of people check them first. Not to mention some people have tried to rate a lot of maps on this site to help people search for good maps better--especially in the melee department--and I feel like it will make everything less organized again if the ratings are removed. I for one don't want to see my 20,000+ ratings deleted :-(.
wormer, it's because you're on the map page, rather than the new project pages.
Again, we're still on an early draft of this new system, and I hope to have it to where there's much less "wtf" very soon :)
As of right now, the only way you can get at project links:
As soon as I have time (maybe this weekend) I'll be tweaking the search so it can do both projects (default) and maps (including old versions).
Btw, here's a page which shows the astrogears maps (with links): http://sc.nibbits.com/maps/browse/?sort=name&order=asc&an=A&p=21
What is the problem I can't review the map?
Alright! I approve of this.
I know I personally like to know of people's actual opinions rather than just seeing a number with no visible reasoning behind it.