When I saw the new rating system I thought it would be a great idea but after some days it looks like older projects are really affected by this change, and newer ones without old ‘-’ ratings can easily raise in the rankings. Now everybody has around a 7.x rating and all downloads have severely decreased. Some examples from my projects:
GTK theme: old rating 92% +1000 downloads/day => new rating 7.9, 650 downloads
ICON theme: old rating 84% 800 downloads/day => new rating 7.4 450 downloads
GNOME theme: old rating 88% 650 downloads/day => new rating 7.8 300 downloads
And this is happening for all creators This is really anoying, my gtk theme was the first one in gnome-look’s rating page after a lot of hard work and now it’s the 12th and going down.
Don’t get me wrong. I think rating method needed to be changed and I think Opendesktop is doing a great job, but this change is a bit frustrating.
Thanks for the reply @daniruiz06 , thought it was just me complaing again
That’s why I brought it up.
Surely the best rating method is by ‘downloads’ (you can’t even do that now) rather than getting 3 or 4 people to give you 10s, which is what I am seeing happening, downloads don’t lie!!
40980 downloads, last time I checked before the change, it was the number 1 most downloaded wallpaper. In a few days it will be nowhere to be seen.
It seems that that guy has cheated on the new rating system. That new rating system is easily hacked and cheated than that old rating system. Just go to each category, you will perceive that it is always the same guy.
One icons theme was created by that same guy 4 days ago. It was released two days before and it became 8.5 only two days after. Impossible, because getting more than 8 requires more than 10 votes. It sounds cheating and hacking.
Its not just him, I see a few people up-voting each others work and its the same people that never upload original work, just to make a quick buck, its weak and knocks me sick.
Unless something gets sorted I may have to join the darkside, my downloads have gone way down.
Well… at least they used to. I’ve lost over 1000 downloads/day from one day to another with no explanation. I agree that download rate should be the best rating system, no more haters and confusing ratings. But at the moment downloads counters are a complete joke.
For example, this theme wasn’t my best one, but since first day I uploaded it at least it had 50 downloads. Today it has 6? I have dead posts with more downloads
It can be for two reasons: 1) cheating and hacking, and 2) OpenDesktop developers’ failure in relation to JavaScript, which is less safe. OpenDesktop ignored my advice to get an ethical hacker and system analyst for finding out and removing the failures so the site would not be easily hacked and cheated.
It is honestly hard to reply to such accusations and assumption of bad faith.
If you truly think we do this as portrayed by you, maybe it’s the best you move on, instead of continuing with those constant downbringing remarks and such grieving heart.
Downoads are not the best way, as it becomes a self fullfilling prophecy, since you cant take a bad download back. The downloads are always visisble like on distrowatch at the side, and DEFAULT sorting in KDE with all negative side effects as well. There is no perfect rating system as any amazon or holiday site can tell you, nevertheless we listened probably more than any other site to improve on the feedback we get, though it takes time to do, and as fully opensource project we’re limited.
The Rating sort is only based on Ratings (as the name inplies), not Downloads. So was the previous Tab, just the Rating system was completely obscure. Make something transparent and open and people find flaws (which if true flaws is good and can be discussed and ideas to solve though of). Leave something obscure, people are fine as no one can think about it nor criticize. Best is then Google rankings and youtube suggestions by that logic
I’ve even been passed by an old discontinued variant only maintained for older gnome-shell versions just because it doesn’t have as many 8 ratings and no old hating rates I’m seriously thinking about moving everything to the old one (let’s call it rating-swap)
Now seriously, the new rating system is much better, the issues is with old projects with lots of 8 ratings it’s really difficult to get out of 7-8 rating. How am I supposed to get over an 8 rating if I have 166 8?
You won’t until they fix it!!
Someone gave me a 10 rating on one of my products and it went up 0.1
I have seen products with only 3 x 10s and they are at 8.0 rating, so yeah its broken!!!
because it does not erase all the qualifications, maybe that would give us more opportunity to compete with the new projects, and maybe I’m not the best designer but I dedicate practically all my free time to that,
I’m adding myself to the list of complainers, like @daniruiz06 and @antechdesigns , sorry @opendesktop . I was waiting to see things solve themselves but I have now too many doubts and we think we need all some replies. Also, I don’t like complaining for the number of downloads/plings I’m getting since I think we are all very lucky to have this payout system (since it seems that voluntary donations are not a thing for the average Linux user in 2019, sadly).
The thing is that since some months (since February maybe?) the “Most Downloads” section in the “System Settings Add-On Installer” is completely bugged and messy (I would say “randomic” but I’m having doubts in this last days).
Actually, when I’m writing, the in-Desktop “Most Downloads” list for “Look-and-Feel themes” doesn’t even show my “Aritim-Dark LookAndFeel theme” (https://www.pling.com/p/1281836/) even if, since the first months it was out, it has been one of the most downloaded themes every day for the KDE section of the site.
Today I’m getting “overtaken” by themes like https://store.kde.org/p/1277447 that have really a lot of downloads less than my theme. (I just pick one theme randomly in the list, I’m not pointing my finger to anyone and I appreciate the work of all of us, we are a community and we are working together to let the Linux desktop be a better environment than closed-source alternatives).
That said, can we get a more clear view about the formulas behind the “Most Downloads” list? I know that a theme cannot be first forever and that a “random” touch sometimes is necessary to “equilibrate” things, but as I’m speaking, I’m really not getting what’s the algorithm behind that system. I’m thinking myself that there are problems that you are unaware of, that’s why I’m adding to the discussion.
Just to let the number speak: I was sitting at a 400-800 downloads per day for my theme, as I’m speaking I’m at 177.
yet the product I posted above has got a rating of 8.0 with just 3x10 (when I posted it)
Its not complaining per say, these are just observations, some will choose to bury their head in the sand and say nothing. If you think somethings wrong, say something
This is really anoying, my gtk theme was the first one in gnome-look’s rating page after a lot of hard work and now it’s the 12th and going down.
I’m seriously thinking about moving everything to the old one (let’s call it rating-swap) 
