Track ratings

[dreadnaut]

Hello pipsqueaks! I was planning to have a working version of this for tonight, but since it's not ready I'll post a screenshot and tell you about it

If you take part in a race, at the end of the race you will see a new prompt where you can rate the track just completed. It only appears if you submitted a replay, and it disappears after 2-3 weeks if you don't rate the track.

My plan would be to the hide these scores until the end of the season, when they become visible on the season's track list, and the highest ranked becomes the Track of the Year.

There would be no way to change your score after submitting it, or maybe it would "lock" after the same 2-3 weeks period. It could be visible, only to you, on the track page. Something like " [your rate] " and, after the end of the season,  " [your rate] [average rate] ".

Optional feature: when you rate the track you can also enter a short comment or review, that remains on the track page.

Suggestions? Shaking of heads?

[Cas]

I think this is a great idea!  I like it that it's anonymous, but the results are public. For a suggestion, at the moment, I can think that one could rate different aspects, like good design, fun to race and maybe something else. This could be optional too, like, by default it's only one rating, but if you click something, it splits and the general rating is the average. If you don't split it, all ratings are set to the general rating. Anyway, it's already great as it is. What I'm suggesting makes it a little more convoluted perhaps, but maybe it can serve as an idea for some other feature.

[dreadnaut]

I can think that one could rate different aspects, like good design, fun to race and maybe something else.

I considered that, but I'd like to keep it simple. And after all, a track is well designed if it's fun to race, and the other way around

[KyLiE]

What you have described sounds good to me.  I agree that it is a good idea to keep it simple and if you decide to allow comments or reviews, they should definitely be optional.

[Cas]

Yeah, I just added something because it's better to say something, but it's great as it is. With rains of ideas, from time to time, something cool comes up, so I like adding.

[dreadnaut]

Yeah, I just added something because it's better to say something, but it's great as it is. With rains of ideas, from time to time, something cool comes up, so I like adding.

And ideas are always welcome!

Would be useful to get some feedback from Duplode and Overdrijf as well, who have been involved with "Track of the Year" threads.

[Duplode]

Would be useful to get some feedback from Duplode and Overdrijf as well, who have been involved with "Track of the Year" threads.

A simple one-click anonymous star rating sounds good to me. If we feel like going over the minutiae of track design, we can do that long form here on the fourm.

[Cas]

Now I have another related idea. Again, just throwing it. How about a flag there, when you're giving the stars, that says "This is my favourite track/race of this season". You can set it and, if you had selected a previous one, it'll switch to this one or maybe you can change that at any time from somewhere else. This is like a sixth star, but that you can only give to one track. I don't know.

On the other hand, instead of this, it could be that, when you rank a track higher than you have ranked any previous track in the season, you get a message saying "Hey, this is your favourite track of the season so far!".

These things wouldn't be useful. Just for coolness.

[dreadnaut]

Track ratings are live!

It's now possible to rate a track from 1 to 5 stars. Voting is open for three week after the end of a race, although I might leave things open a bit longer for these first races. You should get a prompt on the home page, and on the track scoreboard. You can only rate tracks for races in which you took part.

What's there:
- rate recently concluded tracks from the home page
- rate recently concluded tracks from the track page
- see your rating on the track page

Coming up:
- see personal ratings on the season track list
- update your rating during the three-week window

Later this year:
- once the season and voting is over, show average ratings on the season track list
- once the season and voting is over, highlight the track of the year
- add a page with a list of tracks of the year -- possibly adding those from previous seasons

[KyLiE]

I just rated the last track and it appears to work well!

[Cas]

Indeed. Track rating appears to work well and looks good!

I've noticed something else that might be a bug, though. While looking at the leading times for the previous race, the coloured bar below "600h total" looks nice, but the colour coding appears to not coincide with the content. I mean, if you follow the colours, it says Duplode is yellow, for example and CTG is green and the tags below the bar to the right match that, but if you hover with the mouse, the pipsqueak name that will show up for each section does not coincide with this. Maybe I'm just misinterpreting it, as I have never had any significant leading time on any race 

[dreadnaut]

Well spotted Cas! Replay labels were off by one, they should be fixed now

[dreadnaut]

One thing that I realized, is that track authors maybe should not rate their own tracks. Is that reasonable to block?

[KyLiE]

One thing that I realized, is that track authors maybe should not rate their own tracks. Is that reasonable to block?

Yes, definitely.

[Cas]

Oh, I hadn't thought of that, but you're right!