RatePoint to Launch Second Life Ratings Service
RatePoint, which provides a way for users to rate, share, discuss and connect based on how they rate sites on the Web, will launch a new avatar ratings service for the virtual world of Second Life on Monday, according to a press release. I’ve been talking to the RatePoint crew over the last week or so, and the service seems pretty cool (note that RatePoint is an advertiser on 3pointD at the moment, so take that as you will). I especially like the fact that RatePoint will try to match people with other users who’ve rated avatars similarly — more or less like Last.fm builds a constellation of “neighbors” for you based on similar musical tastes. The question for RatePoint’s Second Life service, though, is how much uptake it will actually see in practice. Ratings systems have been a controversial thing in Second Life, and there hasn’t yet been one that’s been wildly successful. Can RatePoint break the mold?
Starting Monday at 9:00am SL Time (noon Eastern), you’ll be able to pick up a “Ratepack” at the RatePoint Cafe »in Second Life«. There are two components to the system: a HUD that lets you give out ratings, and which displays ratings information about people who are nearby, and an optional ratings bar you can wear over your head as an attachment to show off how other people have rated you.
You can see both at work in the screenshot of the RatePoint gang, above. (Note that RatePoint CEO Chris Bailey, aka SL’s ChrisRP Mapp, has received only a three-star rating from his minions. Hmmm…) The boxes at the top of the screen are HUD elements showing how each of the nearby avatars have been rated. It looks like MikeRP Mapp took this screenshot, since he’s not represented there.
The HUD shows you the ratings of the four avatars closest to you at any given time. What’s interesting about the ratings shown here is that they may be drawn from three different sources. As I understand things: This may undergo some adjustment as new features come in, but at the moment the system defaults to show your personal rating of an avatar, if you’ve rated them. If you haven’t rated them, it will show a “ditto” score composed of ratings from people who tend to rate like you. Otherwise, it shows the aggregate of all ratings that gave been given to the avatar.
I like the sound of this sytem, and that it differentiates between different types of ratings. I’d love to see some extra functionality added in here, so that you could switch between all three views, and this is something that might come in at a later date it seems. Another nice thing is that you can click through the ratings HUD to a page showing comments that users have made when they rated avatars. You can add those comments in two ways: either from a pre-determined list that you can choose from in-world, or by going to the Web page to add a comment to a rating you’ve just made. One thing I’m concerned about is being able to see ratings on avatars other than the four you’re closest to. It seems unwieldy to have to reposition yourself in order to change whose ratings you’re seeing in the HUD, but perhaps it will be easier than I think.
What I really like about the system is that it creates a kind of social network that connects people who rate things similarly. This function won’t be very prominent in the initial implementation, but it may come to the fore as things develop. In the best case, this could be a great way to find people whose tastes you share.
As noted, though, ratings systems in Second Life have been controversial. Linden Lab’s original ratings system was almost completely gutted by the company because it had been hopelessly gamed by users. But two other user-created trust networks for Second Life now see regular use, though they’ve not been adopted on a terribly widespread basis. If RatePoint can grab a bunch of users early, the service could catch on in a useful way. Added features might also help, especially the social-networking aspect. The best thing to do at this point is probably show up on Monday, grab a Ratepack and see for yourself if you think this will be a useful addition to the world.
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[…] going to be released on monday, RatePoint will be adding avatar-rating and social networking features to SecondLife. quite amazing, considering it’s based solely on SL’s scripting language. […]
It’s a shame that the HUD ratings just line up across the top of the screen. They should take the 3D projection code from the open source SLateIt demo and experiment with a subjective view that augments the virtual world by having ratings overlay the avatars. Of course then they’d have to release the code under the GPL…
This could be a good idea. We will look into it. Thanks! RatePoint
I wish Shaun Altman’s slreps.com which launched a few weeks ago had even one tenth of the media feting this service is getting — but maybe he didn’t have a big advertising service. His rating grows out of his rating service of last year which even created a payment system to ease the transition out of stipend delta payments that the Lindens used to make, which they discontinued when it was overly gamed.
Some of the news stories about this service call it “The Better Business Bureau”. It’s nothing of the kind. It’s little better than a six grade girl’s slambook, or gossip on her MySpace about other girls in her class.
Better Business Bureau is something so many big makkers want to play in Second Life. It’s because they always imagine themselves as the “better business” and everyone else as “the slumlords” (as one of their ads says about the people everyone is going to rush out and rate negatively — something I don’t fear because for every complainer ranting about my failure to meet their entitlement-happy expectations on their $1.50 US a month rental, I have at least 25 happy, content, even $25 rating customers who even send me fan letters. Imagine!)
No, a game that rates *people* isn’t something that helps you then rate *businesses* which are one step removed from people and sometimes made up of groups of people.
Unless they are in a dance contest or going for the trifecta on their cybersexing for the night, people may find it odd to have a rate bar hanging over their head. The system could fill up with lots of drivel — but then, all social software does, and there are still people mining it for advertising and philosophical gold.
I signed up for it and I hope to use it honestly as I did the SL system and the slreps.com which is great, too (in enables you to rate anyone near you, but also any build or object owner near you, so that you don’t have to wait to come into contact with the person, you can rate their build if you happen to fly by). That is, I think that rather than have “raving” as they do idiotically on Kaneva, completely polluting and devaluing their rating system in advance of the opening of the world in really inexcusable ways, I hope people really assign the points based on their real feelings, and try to justify what they are doing.
Like all rating systems that spawn leader boards or monetary rewards that come at least with popularity (or notareity), this one will be “all or nothing” as Reuben Steiger of MOU very aptly said for another news outlet
A BBB functions differently than a rating system, and it is really worth going to study the BBB for this reason; people write evaluations based on criteria which is sifted through by central editors, not endlessly averaged automatically.
The trouble with all of these systems is that there will only ever be a tiny, tiny subset of people using it - and I mean no offence here to the creators, you understand, this does not reflect on them at all, it is just very hard to get any sort of reasonable uptake. Basically, viewing ratings will mean viewing ratings by a small subset of early adopter types who are prepared to keep another HUD sitting there and click on it occasionally. If you wish to see what this group thinks about a certain person, then fine.
The far bigger problem is that this service has several bugs, and their Island is horribly set up. “Well we have 65,000 meters or so here, lets transport everyone into a 512 meter room with no exits whatsoever. I get that it is a new service, but this design could use work.