No rating doesn't mean 0 -- it means it hasn't been rated.

So far this thread is rated 2.5 with 6 votes. My guess is 3 for 1 and 3 for 5.

So it all evens out in the end.

There's a huge difference between something being rated poor and unrated. So just because something is new, does that mean it is worse than poor? No. It means that nobody has taken the time (or had the time) to rate it yet. There is the chance that it could be poor, but that doesn't immediately make it poor. It could also be excellent...

I think the best solution is just to show how many votes a thread/modification has, and either show the number, or combine them into a score.

These rating systems only work if the people using them understand how everything works... and it seems they don't.

Anyway, back to the topic: hopefully the promised hack database will have more than one field for ratings (stability, features, efficiency, etc). I don't really think this is a problem with modifications being labelled, but just a problem with the rating system in general: it is not clear. I think it should be clarified what they are rating - the thread or the modification. Someone with good intentions could rate it 1, because of some spam or goofing off in the thread of a great modification.

I personally don't think it's a big deal, but that's probably because I don't release hacks here. I would really like to see how many people rated it right beside the stars (everywhere they are shown).

I find it disturbing that the moderators and admins of a community who are trying to encourage coders to be active and help the community, are actively going against a suggestion which clearly doesnt matter much to most people, but seemingly affects the coders greatly.

Not all coders agree with the premise of the thread so your statement is not accurate.

It certainly looks like the majority would be for it. You can never please everybody, but have to try your best.

Precisely.

You might want to remember that almost all those moderators and admins are also coders. :cool:

Ratings are there for anyone who wants to use them, and have been for five (+) years without any ill effects. There is no compelling reason to suddenly remove them. Personally I don't pay any attention to the thread ratings of mine or anyone elses threads - but that doesn't mean I agree we should just turn them off. I don't pay much attention to any of the style/graphics forums here either, but I'm not about to suggest we should remove all of them. :)

It's just that you guys failed to notice the ill effects. They've always been there...

I agree, I don't see much point in removing them... but here's a thought:

The people who will see a rating of one star and walk away are probably the same ones who will have troubles installing it and rate it 1*...