Help us with the Cartographers Choice! - Rate Maps!

[morikahn]

You guys need to define what the rating system means and what the different ranks mean. Without this it is completely subjective and I think most people will rank a map 4 or 5 as general compliment. I wouldn't be surprised if most ratings hover around there. No one really wants to hurt another person's feelings.

Ideally, most maps should rank as 3 stars. With a slight renaming of the ranks to reflect a more technical viewpoint and a description of what each rank means, I think this would be a more useful tool for community feedback.


Here is my example:

*****	Premier	This map excels in all aspects of map making: symbolism, functionality, typography, and composition. It is the sort of map you'd want as a high quality printed hanging on a wall at home, and something you return to often just to look at for fun. This sort of map we all strive to make, and usually fail at. This is the sort of map that renowned artists are commissioned to make for fantasy media. It is a unique work of art and make us all a little envious. Needless to say, this should be a very rare rating.
****	Remarkable	The map not only fits the style of map the artist strove for, but also has notable features impressive enough that viewers want to make a critical remark about them. These are the sort of maps that push the boundaries and add new ideas to the community. Other artists will want to incorporate these notable element into their own maps. People that get these ranks should write tutorials.
***	Competent	The map matches the style the cartographer intended. It is a competent piece of work and complies with the standards promoted on this website. This is the most common rank given to maps. Getting this rank on your map means you've proven you know what you are doing.
**	Needs Work	The map feels incomplete or has features that have been poorly done and should be reworked. It doesn't mean the map is unsalvageable, just that it was premature of the poster to call the map 'finished.' If a map gets this rank, the artist should feel inclined to read the critical responses and continue work on the map and resubmit it at a later date.
*	Unacceptable	The submission fails to meet the minimum criteria of what defines a map. This rank should be assigned rarely and is mostly reserved for material that shouldn't be posted on this forum.

[Azélor]

The number of threads with a rating is probably below 1%. It's 0.2% in this section: http://www.cartographersguild.com/fo...c&daysprune=-1
The tutorial section fares much better with 20% (still very low) but that's not representative.

Using a ranking system would be good but so far, it has rarely been used.

[morikahn]

The rating may not be used as it just not a feature people want, or it could be the for the reasons I stated: its nebulous nature and the impression that ranking something 3 or less stars in insulting is preventing a wider adoption.

[a.coldyham]

I can't seem to see any way to rate or even vote on the tapatalk app version of the forum. I don't know how many people are in the same situation, but it's at least a factor

Sent from my SM-G357FZ using Tapatalk

[ladiestorm]

is it possible for the mapper to see what rating(if any) his/her finished maps have? I didn't realize that there was a rating system, or I would have been rating. I also don't know where to look to see if my maps have been rated. Is there anyway we can add this if it isn't already there? I don't want to see who gave my maps which rating, just an idea of how my maps rate.

[Ilanthar]

You can see the rating here (in my red circle) :
rating.jpg
The rating tool is here.
rating2.jpg

Hope it helps!

[Mark Oliva]

@Ilanthar

... but this addresses ratings for threads, not ratings for maps. Or am I missing something?

[J.Edward]

I think most of the time people are generally rating a thread 'because' of a map.
That was how i always viewed it. I'm not sure that there is a map-specific rating.
People rate the thread and rep the map maker... but I don't think any of it can be tied directly to a map itself.

edit - though maybe it should be done as more map specific or tutorial specific.
Maybe that's something that can be dealt with at some point, if that's something people are interested in or concerned about.

[Obbehobbe]

I always forget to rate a map until a see a masterpiece - then I think that I need to show the world that -this- map is awesome, and I get reminded about the rating.

[J.Edward]

After just going through and rating maps for 16 pages worth of Finished Maps... my thoughts are that I only really rate a map that I think is a 4 or a 5. If it's a 3 or less I just don't rate it.
Maybe I should but it just doesn't happen. I also noticed that I forget to rate maps until I see someone talking about rating maps.