The rating system on ccMixter has evolved over the last 3 years into what you see today. Here are some very common questions we get asked all the time:

1. “How do I rate an upload?”

You only have one choice: If you love an upload you can use the ‘Recommend!’ button to tell the world. If you don’t love then move on - or even better, leave a constructive review that will help the remixer and the community.

2. “Who gets to rate?”

Any registered user.

3. “Why are ratings anonymous?”

[UPDATE: Sept. 12, 2006 Ratings are not anonymous read more here]

4. “Why has no one rated my track?”

The number one reason tracks are not rated is because the uploader has not participated in the community. If you leave reviews and participate here in the forums you will get rated and reviewed.

If you want a 100% guarantee that you’ll be rated and reviewed then start remixing other uploads.

5. “I/My wife/My dog/My boss can’t rate my tracks!”

That’s correct. You, your wife, your dog and your boss can not rate your own tracks. Read and follow the advice in #4 above and you won’t feel the need to rate yourself.

If you create another account in an attempt to rate yourself we will know because ratings not anonymous to the admins who run the site. We know who you are.

6. “I got notified of a rating by email but it’s not there!”

If you are set up for email notifications about ratings you will get notified that you got a specific rating, but you will not get notified if the system removed it because the person rating it made a mistake, was removed from the site or some other technical reason.

7. “Hey! I can’t rate anyone any more?!”

If the system ratings abuse system suspects any of the activity above then the system is very quick to pull the trigger and ban a user from ratings. If this has happened to you and you feel is it unjustified, then you can try to appeal but un-doing a ratings ban is not taken lightly and is therefore unlikely.

8. “How are the ‘Picks’ calculated?”

Picks are calculated using a combination of ‘Recommend’ ratings, streams, downloads, playlist adds, etc.


9. “The ccMixter ratings system would be so much better if you did ________”

However you finish that sentence, the chances are very, very high that we’ve already tried it. After 3 years of extensive experimental coding on the ratings system the cold hard conclusion the authors of the site have come to:

No amount of coding will make up for the (apparently) crushing blow of no rating.

You got no ‘Recommends’. There’s a chance you might not deserve them.

10. “People (like the admins) are harsh with their ratings!”

It would be a very cool, groovy place if the everybody gave everybody else a ‘Recommend!’ rating. Everybody here would feel special all the time.

While that has a very attractive appeal to it, giving away too many ‘Recommend’ ratings damages the reputation of the site. We know many remixers don’t care about that, That’s cool. But we do.

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So in conclusion: The system is geared toward encouraging and rewarding the good remixers and inspiring weaker remixers without directly insulting their fragile sensibilities.

Peace,
Victor

The 5-star ratings system has been replaced.

Apparently I’ve been “banned” from ratings. Because? The only thing I may be guilty of is trying to equalize some ratings I felt were undeservedly low. Oh well, as long as I can still post reviews…

What if we happen to accidently give someone the wrong rating, as I did with eva_local’s never get out remix?

OK, I’ve recently been inundated by specific requests to tie ratings back into reviews. I can take a hint lol. At the risk of reducing the number of ratings I’ll be doing that in the next few days.

As a result, I’ll be resetting the ‘ban’ list.

VS