DrDevience http://www.fanpop.com/spots/castles/videos/257811 An example of my side on the ratings (Not the revenge ratings, but fair ratings)

Temptasia I have never actually done this, but I have had it done me! I can't understand why people do it as I have been nice to everyone on this site except for a special instance where I felt that someone was being cruel. I hope that I have never made any of the rest of you mad.

kathiria82 Temptasia, even if someone doesn't like you there is no reason why they should rate your contributions as garbage. In the end, ratings end up affecting Fanpop not the user so it is unfair. Like Doc said it is obnoxious and juvenile. In my opinion maybe they dislike something you commented on or whatever but to dislike you as a person...how could they if they never met you? I feel like even if your opinions differ from someone else's and that makes you dislike that user than you are being childish and close-minded. Doc, I have a question. How about if I am uploading a batch of pictures of an actor and the actor is like outside in some or at some event in others. Well do you want me to specify where the picture takes place or is the name of the person enough? It is difficult to put where they take place because it isn't specified as you find the images sometimes.

DrDevience I think the name of the actor is enough ;)

TweenaCat If I don't like something, I give it a low rating and leave a comment explaining why. If I do like it I give the appropriate rating and maybe leave a nice little compliment with a smilie, or even a prop. The person who contributed it isn't relevant to me because I don't dislike anyone on here at all, and even if I did, it wouldn't affect my rating. I agree, it is unfair when people do that.

DrDevience Kathiria... if the actor is doing something special in the picture, do put that in the tags, though.

Priscilita22 Hi! This is my first time commenting on a soapbox, pretty exciting! Anyway I completely agree with this article as it has happened to me several times as well... Lately I have been increasing my activity on fanpop considerably and I have noticed this same problem. Whenever I post a video it's because I want to share it with everyone. I think this is a nice thing to do whenever anyone finds a good video; but it's upsetting when I come back and see that it's rated very low. In fact I started thinking that maybe I should stop uploading certain videos for certain spots because they are clearly not liked for some reason. I should also mention, of course, that there are other people who do leave nice comments, so thanks to them! Anyway, I agree with alinazeer, if you like it rate it if you don't, I don't think there's much point in rating something low, at least it doesn't encourage me to keep posting stuff... But I should say again, thanks to those of you who are actually very nice about the ratings!

maybeastarbucks This is starting to irk me even more now. Not so much, just petty ratings, but also simply not rating. I have been frantically posting videos lately (especially in the Simpsons Spot) and they'll get rated by like 11 people - and that's over the course of a couple weeks - if I'm lucky. There are more than 1600 fans of the Simpsons on here. I can understand that some people don't visit fanpop everyday or even every week so let's cut out, oh shall we say 800 people. That still leaves us with more than 800 people. Then, maybe there are some people who just don't like watching videos. Let's cut out 700 shall we? That still leaves us with more than 100 people who should rate content. Even fifty would be amazing. I would even be shocked to see 30.

michael Okay, so here's how I feel about ratings. If you truly think the content is garbage - rate it a 1. Don't just leave it blank and not rate - non-ratings really don't help us in ranking content. If you think the content is not so good, but not complete garbage, give it a 2. A "three" means you think it's okay - good stuff, but not exceptional. A "four" is great stuff - the content is both relevant and contains info that you couldn't get elsewhere, is really well written, or top notch quality. A "five" is awesome - no where else on the internet is this content available and it provides insight, extreme pleasure, or it's one of the greatest things you've seen concerning this topic. If everyone rates everything a "5", which is the single most popular rating we receive on Fanpop, then it's really difficult for anyone to tell what really is "awesome" content vs. just "okay". Obviously, we prefer that people submit good content, but that means 3's, 4's, and 5's - not just 5's. In truth, I look around and we don't get all 4's and 5's - there is a lot of 2 and 1 content, but that's fine - we keep it there in case people want to look at all the content. Really, it's not a problem to submit a bunch of 2-level content to a spot. The problem is when people don't rate. If people don't rate, then one or two people who decide to rate unfairly will be able to have too much power. Let's say a link is worth a 3, but no one rates it because they don't feel they can give it a 4 or 5 and don't want to be mean. Then the "petty rater" comes along and rates it a 1. Now it's a 1. But it SHOULD be a three. If ten people rated it a 3, and the spiteful individual comes and rates it a 1, that's still fine because it'll still be a 2.8 which is pretty close to where the content should be rated. If no one rates it to be "nice", then we really do get a problem. (In that light, it really is "nicer" to everyone to rate it what you feel about it.) In theory, if everyone votes FAIRLY and TRUTHFULLY, then content 2.5 and above is worth looking at, 3.0 and above is "better than okay", and 4.0 and above is a must see. We got rid of self ratings because only a handful of people were rating their own content truthfully (unless everyone on Fanpop is just really optimistic and believe all their contributions are awesome content). Note: Simply submitting content is awesome even if the content isn't. Don't worry that much about how people rate your stuff - trust me, it's not that important. Submit consistently decent content and get people to rate - high, medium, or low - just get them to rate it. Trust me, when we start getting enough people who rate, the whole system will begin to work beautifully.

Cinders I don't know why, but I just read this whole thing, comments and all. And now I feel as if anything I could say has already been said, so let me just say this. meg, aleciane, and kathiria: I have seen your stuff around and to me you guys have a reputation of adding very good stuff and I try to rate it accordingly. In short, I hear your righteous indignation with these petty-rater monkeys and I shall battle it in the only way I know how: By mounting an expedition do seek out and upbraid these cheeky monkeys for their very uncalled for behavior. Or, you know, I could just rate your stuff highly as you deserve. So I shall now seek out these poorly rated contents and judge for myself if they are petty (I believe that indeed they are) and battle it with my OWN ratings! Gwahahahaha! Priscilita, I haven't seen your contributions around, but you seem like a perfectly nice, intelligent person, and I'm sorry you have been victimized by the petty-rating monkeys. You too shall be avenged in some way. And the rest of you too! Now, I have a quest. Yay.

DrDevience Thank you Michael!

DrDevience aleciane... see Michael's post. 3 is not low. The link you provide to Nicole Kidman, that one page of links, those were my ratings. I explained that in this comment section. YOU are not what is being rated. The website you link to is what is being rated. If you did not create all of those websites yourself, then why take the rating personal? It is in no way a reflection on you, nor does a lower rating mean the link should not have been posted. It merely means there are better websites than that one, not that it is totally useless...

DrDevience Adrien Brody... now that was petty rating. I rated them honestly. More folks need to do so to get those averages up.

megloveskyle Wow, I really appreciate everyones comments!

michael Aleciane's right - if a video is not functioning, you shouldn't rate it badly because you haven't seen the content yet. Click the little flag icon to report is as broken. The Fanpop moderators will see it and the original submitter will receive a message informing them of the broken content. Check back in a few days and see if it's working again. (You can use the "save to favorites" feature to temporarily save the content so you don't have to go digging for it again.)

DrDevience I will do that from now on, Michael. Thanks.

cressida Wow -- a bunch of GREAT comments! Michael, cheers. I think you fully explained the actual meanings behind stars (the 5 = the bomb diggity). It's like the American grading system: everyone wants As although technically As mean exceptional, while Cs are average/basic/good/decent. But we all know think that Cs are horrible. Me included. Also, I like that aside that 5s are for content you can't find anywhere else. That's why I tend to rate soapbox articles higher than any content -- the user is taking time to create something new and so that's amazing. In fact, there are a few soaps that I wish I could rate as 6. But I will fully agree with my fellow often-fanpop-contributors that sometimes low content feels like a personal attack. I know it's not, but still. Let's just have a group cheer for all contributions and contributors *hip hip hoorah*, and then rate the Fanpop way. (One last thing.) Maybestarbucks, I totally agree that I would be shocked to see an item rated 30 times. Only Fanpop content has been rated that often, if I recall correctly. But hopefully it will spread out across Fanpopland soon enough. More users equals more raters...right?

emirc2363 I agree completely with this article. I've written a few soapboxes and received low ratings for them, even though I didn't offend anyone and I didn't really understand why they would be rated low. I try to be as positive as I can on fanpop, but there are times when I get really irritated. Rating is a very good thing, but some people can take it too far. They see it as a way to get revenge on another fanpopper and I find it just crazy. Example (hypothetical of course): If I rated a video a 2 because I didn't really like it, but it was a good effort by whoever put it on fanpop, then I'll come back in a few days to that spot and see that a lot of the things I had submitted rated very low. It could just be because a lot of people didn't like it, but I think I know where it's coming from. Okay, that is just stupid. I'll admit that I am a very generous rater-I rarely rate below a 3. But I am going to start working on being more honest with the ratings. Everyone should just treat each other well!! Great article, Meg.

kateliness2 I don't know... I have never "petty-rated" something. I just watch or look at, rate and sometimes comment. I think I'm pretty easy going when it comes to ratings, I try to be nice. Someone took the time to put stuff on. I do make sure to always rate, I think people deserve it. Good article - I rated it a *5* :D

michael emirc2363, what soapbox articles have you received low ratings for? They look okay to me...

emirc2363 i had written one in the JAM spot that had a low rating, but i think i might have deleted it :( oops..i was probably just angry about this "petty rating" situation and got frustrated. oh well, if i can remember what it was about, then i think i'll re-write it!

miller52 Lets all feel sorry for aleciane

Cinders I know how you feel, emirc2363! The petty-ratings monkeys have struck me too! Whilst on my quest to actually rate content according to quality, I myself was victimized by the scoundrels via my soapbox articles! Most notably, here and hither. Now-- let me explain. I recognize that on the whole these are not bad ratings-- I understand the system. However, I know that there are those who rated it rather low, because of sudden drops in the average, and I would not have issue with this, if they explained. The two linked articles are creative ones-- one in the Creative Outlet spot, the other in the Debate spot. Now-- I can understand why one may rate my debate spot article poorly. How does a creative piece relate to debate, they may ask. Well fine. Then ask the question! Don't just rate it poorly and leave, because that doesn't help improve my article-writing, does it? My qualm is with rating content badly-- in this case, specifically Soapbox Articles, which are written by fanpop members (unless they are copy-pasted from Rush Limbaugh's website, which is another matter altogether)-- and not explaining why one has rated it as garbage. In my opinion, if one has put thought into a soapbox article-- and I guarantee you that I have, and that megloveskyle certainly has-- why rate it as "garbage" without an explanation? Now I can take criticism. I'm an actor, I get rejected all the time. But if you rate it poorly and don't tell me why, then I cannot improve myself, or the content I submit, can I? I know I'm beating a dead horse, but... *Kicks the horse and runs away.*

aholic I totally loved this article, but the comments are just as interesting actually :)

emmett yeah i only rate low and comment bad if i've added it before and my one got 0 ratings and theirs got like 50. That just annoys me to death.