Yes, they certainly do. When people like a modification, they click install. When they decide they dont like it, they click uninstall. There are 50+ installs on most modifications. On the contrary, it's hard to find a modification that has more than 5 ratings, and most of those ratings are negative, because (mostly) only highly irritable people who like to give headache to the authors even bother clicking it, and they rarely click anything different than "1". Therefore, unlike install counter, it serves no good purpose
I've seen modifications with extremely high post counts, that I feel are poorly written. On the other hand, some one might think it is a great modification. We all have different judgements. The thread rating allows people to input those judgements. I don't think someone sees a thread rating of a modification and decides whether to use or not immediately on that.
I don't think someone sees a thread rating of a modification and decides whether to use or not immediately on that.
Try paying some attention to what's going on and you'll see that the first rating in any thread is usually a 1, placed by someone who attempted to install the hack but wasn't successful, and they didn't have a uninstall button to click so they clicked low rating instead. =)
Thread ratings are flawed by design, possibly because it takes three clicks and a refresh.
From what I've seen on all but the biggest forums, only one or two people use the rating, and generally people who are unhappy use them more than people who are happy. Because so few do use them they aren't even close to a representation of what people really think.
Therefore I agree they should be disabled for hacks. Alternativey put (x votes) under the stars so people have an idea if it's a single voter or a good range.
We need a hack rating system, but I agree that it needs be customized a little rather than using the thread rating. Maybe have some sort of review form that they fill out explaining the rating.
Try paying some attention to what's going on and you'll see that the first rating in any thread is usually a 1, placed by someone who attempted to install the hack but wasn't successful, and they didn't have a uninstall button to click so they clicked low rating instead. =)
So.. they had problems with something and chose to NOT rate it highly?
Seems fairly logical to me.
I have also seen many MANY mods that are not rated at all.
When I see these, do I think "OMG! 0 stars! It must be crap!"? No.
So.. they had problems with something and chose to NOT rate it highly?
Seems fairly logical to me.
Not when you take into account that a large majority of the people who do have problems installing have them because they didn't follow the instructions correctly or made a mistake; something outside of the Author's control.
Actually I think that allowing thread ratings decreases the professionalism of a board. Therefore they should be discontinued on the boards of both vbulletin.com and vbulletin.org.
kall brought up a good point, though, it also signifies that the current rating system is not needed in modification threads. What means more to me is the support given; how the author handles issues and PR. Many issues seem to be client-side but if the author answers without belittling the person, even to the redundant questions, that earns more respect than 5 stars.
if some one does not feel the thread went his/her way then i feel they should have the choice to rate the thread to let others know the quality of the thread, i.e. how it has helped them, I feel its needed more so on the hack database...