I'm a bit concerned with the ratings on the AEC, but please don't understand this as whining - I just want to know whether my observation of the ratings system is accurate or not. I don't want any special treatment or anything.
Ok, that out of the way, here is what is strange to me:
The AEC is currently on spot 5 in "payment systems" under e-commerce. It has 59 votes and 37 reviews. Of these, we know that 30 are 5-star votings.
This entry has been around for quite some time and since I have only been able to give the development and customer support full attention in the past half year, I estimate that there is quite a number of old votings that just would not come up like this today.
What I find problematic now is that on the second spot in the ladder is an entry which has 7 votes and 6 reviews. Of these we can gather that it has at least 5 times 5-star rating.
So how can it be that an entry, which was rated "best" 6 times more than another entry still ranks 3 places lower?
I guess that the answer will be that the problem lies with the grey-zone votings that we have no information about. But if that is the case, it would make more sense to start over every once in a while, wouldn't it?
And again - not to be whining, I have no issues with being in that spot - but could it be that the rating is a tad off balance here?
A few ideas:
-> Votings that don't come with a review should not count as much since it is far more likely that it is either not well thought through or artificial
I have already talked to a lot of people giving me a bad voting AND review and they have agreed that they were wrong and glad I could help them out. This is also why I have it as a necessity to register on my site (for free) - as I can most of the times make a link by searching out the ExtensionsDirectory username in my own database.
In any case, votings WITH a review are a lot more helpful for users to make an estimation. While it is nice to just "flip a star rating" quickly, I find that less useful and it should not count as much.
-> Very old votings (and maybe reviews also) should not count as much
I don't think that we need any fancy gradual decline of importance here, but maybe votes that are older than half a year or maybe even a year should not count up that much. In software development, already half a year can mean mountains of difference.
-> It should be more transparent how many votings of how many stars were given
Maybe add a small overview. If you know how amazon.com does it for example, you know what I mean. I find this incredibly helpful, not only as owner of an entry, but for the customers as well. If you SEE that there are 30 "best" and maybe 5 "worst" ratings, that can help you make a better estimation of the quality of the opinions.
-> It should be easier to contact disgruntled customers
Now I don't mean to encourage stalking every customer down who gave you "only" 4 stars. But as I said earlier - maybe a customer just got something wrong. Most will try another way and find out how to do it better, but certain types will go to the Directory and write a flaming review about how nothing works at all. Or even worse - just leave a bad voting that you cannot trace.
Many of these "0 star - nothing works!"-customers even claim to have tried to contact me, which is obviously a false claim in most cases. But getting in contact with them on my part is what I consider to be a huge factor in good customer support.
Ok, just a few ideas, let me hear what you think about it
