nitro2k01 wrote:So, how should I put this... I'm in the camp that supports there being some form of active rating mechanism. (Likes, 5 star rating or similar.) I think the idea behind the current system is that everyone should have equal opportunity, and preventing favoritism. However, there are two problems. For the listener, if you don't have the time and will to browse through 20 songs, it's practical to have some form of quality screening. And if you're an uploader, some form of reward is an incentive to upload good music. As unfortunate as it is, 90% of music uploaded is going to suck (or at least not blow anyone's mind). A rating system can help bring attention to those other 10%.
I can see certain specific problems with a rating system, which could be solved with some tweaking of the rules. Sockpuppet accounts: restrict voting to people who have a certain amount of activity in the forums or similar. Favoritism: If a person reaches the top 3, restrict them from reaching top 3 for the next x weeks. And so on. I do think some form of rating system would be good for the site.
This pretty much sums up my feelings on the issue. I like the idea of booting people off the charts for a period, after reaching the top. It would be great if we could limit voting by IP address.
I think the popularity contest on 8bc was fueled by the "Likes list". When you can see all the people who 'like' a song, it's temping to stick with your friends, and upvote just to be a pal. I think the only purpose of voting should be quality control. Therefore anonymity would be best.
Maybe there could also be more filter options. Filter by newest, weekly top rated, all time top rated, most comments, most downloaded, most used tags. It would just be helpful in sifting through the uploads.
