Please, devs, protect the authors

You flatter me to think I could cause such so much angst amongst such an elite group of players.

lolDetectivework

Okay, IANAL, but I do know a thing or two about harassment. The most important thing to know about the laws and terms defining harassment is this:

Harassment is not ruled according to intent on the part of the harasser, but according to the impact on those harassed.

What this means is that I can make a simple joke, but it offends someone. I then make another joke, and the same person finds similar offense with it. I'll give an example here:

1. Farm 'Arcs' in AE are like Carrot Top. They clutter the stage with a bunch of dumb props and the dumbest people in the world laugh because their sole remaining functional synapse is stimulated.
   
2. The AE system is like Gallagher. At one point it was a refreshing thing that had never been done before, but now it's a SAD shell of its former self that is barely able to perform what was once the signature portion of its act.
   
3. Stories in AE are like music. Everyone has different tastes, but they all agree that rap barely qualifies. AE farms are a lot like rap, just with a certain letter tagged on before it.

I Am Not A Lawyer.

Personally, I'd love to see it done like YouTube.

Like/Dislike. Bye-bye star ratings.
You can subscribe to authors whose arcs you've enjoyed, receiving gleemail notifications when an author you've subscribed to adds a new arc.
And the UI shows "because you played X, you might like Y".

And the front page should CONSTANTLY be random, with say 2 random DCs listed first, and the remaining 18 (or however many display per page) being random arcs. If people then CHOOSE to sort by "Likes", "Title", or some other search feature, fine. But STRICTLY FOR MYSELF, I am so sick and tired of seeing the same 20 arcs on the front page. Give me raw variety every single time.

As far as anti-griefing measures:

a) you must complete an arc before you can rate it.
b) you cannot PLAY more than 5 (or maybe 10) arcs in a 24-hour period.
c) you cannot RATE more than 5 (or 10) arcs in a 24-hour period.
d) put a cooldown time between arc ratings to minimize the likelihood of griefing.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I have always found myself griefed far more often by AE Naz-...um, not-so-nicies than by farmers. For instance, I had an arc called "Malpractice, the Undead, and You". I actually still have it, but this was back when I was 'looking for feedback' on it. It got a lot of 1- and 2-star ratings because "Puns are not solid writing" and "Mobs are a little bit spread out on the first map", as if I have a real say in where they spawn on that particular outdoor map. And yes, that particular map had a storyline reason for its use. I just wish I could have added screaming civilians to it running hither and thither, it would have worked better.

I agree with the "Like" option, no "Dislike". I don't agree with the inability to rate an arc before you finish it. Let's face it, some arcs are freaking terrible. You *should* have to complete at least half of it before you can rate it lower than 3 stars.... but the "Like" system would be much more preferable.

I don't think having a system in place that suspends your rating privs if you give too many 1 stars within a certain span of time is a bad idea. If its a tight span and a large number of 1 stars it would obviously be someone downrating on purpose.

That said, any judgment system is open to the whims of those that are able to participate in judgment. The only solution is to remove rankings and instead go by amount played.

Wow I had no idea about that, that's really awful. I have never experienced it, but it's just ridiculous that you can be one-starred for not producing enough xp or simply for no reason at all. Farmers are one of those things you have to live with, but that they believe they are actually in the right by farming is a notion I can't understand. Mission Architect was not created with the purpose of allowing players to create farms. But I digress.

You should be unable to rate an arc you cannot complete. The weighting system for ratings should be altered so lone one-stars amid several 4 and 5 stars can't have such a negative impact.

There should be no front page of arcs, people should have to search.

I'm not sure what the "Like" system would achieve. If you had that you might as well not have a rating system at all. Ratings are present for two reasons, one so writers can get a sense of how good their arc is, and two, so people can find more highly prized arcs. With this system, an author would find it difficult to work out whether someone thought his arc was good or not, especially if they couldn't even put Dislike, so he wouldn't know he needed to improve it. People searching for better arcs would unequivocally fail, because the number of likes would be massively associated with the number of plays. And Farms get the most plays.

If you were to institute the "Like" system, don't have a rating system at all.

One issue with the current rating system is that we get a vague, "You're near this whole number" tally. Allowing an author to see an actual breakdown of star ratings would give that author a better indication of where folks really stand. For instance, after the latest round of one-star smashings from a couple of weeks back, all of my arcs say that they're at four stars. But which ones are REALLY liked best by my audience and by how much? I have no real clue as-is.

Such a view would also help us, the authors, better identify precisely when we get one-star slammed, and it would give us some ammunition to tell support, "Look, this arc has fifty five-star rates, twenty four-star rates, three three-star rates, no two-star rates, and ten one-star rates that have all appeared in the last week. What gives?"

I am in favor of abolishing ratings in favor of a "Like Only" system.

The idea being, when someone Likes your arc, they are added to a cross-indexed database system that allows you to:

- Contact people who liked your arc to get more info on what they liked/disliked.
- Find out who else liked an arc you liked.
- Find out what other arcs that person liked.
- Add/organize those who liked your arcs in categories: "Likes anime" "Likes mystery" "Likes xp"

This would allow you to improve your arcs by increasing the aspects that are liked as well as contact people for advise.

You would also be able to find arcs you will like by creating lists of people with similar tastes, and hunting down arcs they like.

If there must be a ratings system, I'd rather it be something like:

0 stars: I did not like this arc enough to recommend anyone play it.
1 star: I liked this arc, but it needs a lot of improvement.
2 stars: I liked this arc a lot; not perfect but great.
3 stars: I liked this arc so much I can't think of how it can be improved.

I will mention as another data point, that I do occasionally see "someone has rated Ctrl + Alt + Reset" while I'm on, I would say that it's only once or twice a week if that, but I do see it. Heck, when I sort through my saved comments on occasion, I'll even see that people have reported the arc for content violations. That's even rarer though, maybe once every couple months and I don't even get a notification on them, they just show up if I click on the "see comments" button on the arc.

This weekend saw the release of Real Steel and The Ides of March in theaters here in the US.

The Ideas of March has already garnered some critical acclaim for the story and acting. Real Steel is about a motherfarking robot battles with robot limbs being torn asunder and used as melee weapons to beat down the giant robots.

Guess which one will win the box office totals for the weekend?

There is a segment of the population that wants stories, desires stories and decries anything that isn't a good story. This is a minority. This thread even goes so far as to proclaim it a "protected class" minority.

Sorry folks....stories don't bring in the money. Some money, sure, but not as much as giant robots wailing away on one another.

Farms pay to keep the lights on around here. For the storytellers. You owe them a debt of gratitude and thanks.