Author Rating System Accountability

Hi EVvvverybodddy!!

(Hi Doctor Nick!)

Dear Doctor Nick,

I have noticed one or two apparently malicious ratings cropping up on perfectly decent chapters... the most recent I have seen being a 0.5 rating on Lady Remnants' 'Peach' chapter in The RiverTalker's 'Essence of Colours' thread.

This gave me pause for thought. If this were to happen to me, I would want to ask the person how I could improve the chapter in their eyes - or what it was that they didn't like so much. However, since whoever has been responsible for this spate of low-ratings (be it one or more people) hasn't left any accompanying comments to explain their disgust, how is anyone to know?

I propose that ratings left on chapters no longer be anonymous.

I imagine this may well mean a whole lot of work for you but I think it is very important for people's self esteem and continued enjoyment of the site that those who needlessly trash others' work be held accountable. Even if there was some way the new ratings graphs on chapters could be clickable, so you could click on the '2.5' column for, example, and a list of the users who had left that rating would appear.

At worst this could only encourage more open and honest debate about what kind of writing makes each of us tick - I think we're all big enough to cope with that. And if it means smoking out the bad eggs, all the better. I use other sites where users rate each other and are free to view what each user thinks of them - I think it would be a healthy step for Protagonize...

....whenever you've got a spare minute ; )

Let me know your thoughts - and many thanks for all your hard work!

Parky