This came up in a thread talking about the overall quality of the average SMW hack.
As it is now, the way hacks are rated is a very ineffective way of giving information about the quality of the hack. There is no criteria for what constitutes a good or bad hack. Users have the option to give a full review, but this is rarely done and only gives the perspective of a single person.
A much better rating system would be to require users who wish to rate a hack to take a small survey about the hack. This survey would ask the user their opinion about various areas of the hack (such as level design, ASM, music, graphics, etc.) with three possible answers for the questions.
Sample Question: In your opinion, how good was the level design in "Hack Name"?
() Good
() Average
() Bad
Each answer would be worth a certain value (the exact number would depend on the number of questions), and different questions could be weighted differently (For example, level design should probably count for more than custom music)
The average overall score would become the hack's rating. Individual questions would also be averaged from each rating to give more detailed information about the hack. Certain optional aspects of the hack could be disabled from the survey for hacks that do not contain these things (ASM for example). The hack creator would have to ask for this when submitting his/her hack.
Sample rating:
"Hack Name"
Overall Rating: 6.5
Level Design: 7.3
Overworld: 6.6
Fun: 7.4
Music: 8.2
Graphics: 5.4
Plot: 3.8
ASM: N/A
(This could perhaps be presented as a horizontal bar graph to give a visual representation, color coordinated with high scores being green and lower ones being red.)
The specifics of this suggested revision would need to be decided by the forum staff (How many questions the short survey would contain? what areas of a hack should be judged? How much is each area weighted?). This would give a consistant system to determine the quality of each hack as well as a more detailed report about where the hack is strong and where it is weak.
Users could still review hacks in order to give their perspective withr reasons.
I have a hack thread - Link (Now with a demo!)
Also a music thread - Link
C3 Projects
2013: Modern Spiny Pack
2012: MGSS v0.1
Spring 2010: SMB2 Autobomb Sprite
As it is now, the way hacks are rated is a very ineffective way of giving information about the quality of the hack. There is no criteria for what constitutes a good or bad hack. Users have the option to give a full review, but this is rarely done and only gives the perspective of a single person.
A much better rating system would be to require users who wish to rate a hack to take a small survey about the hack. This survey would ask the user their opinion about various areas of the hack (such as level design, ASM, music, graphics, etc.) with three possible answers for the questions.
Sample Question: In your opinion, how good was the level design in "Hack Name"?
() Good
() Average
() Bad
Each answer would be worth a certain value (the exact number would depend on the number of questions), and different questions could be weighted differently (For example, level design should probably count for more than custom music)
The average overall score would become the hack's rating. Individual questions would also be averaged from each rating to give more detailed information about the hack. Certain optional aspects of the hack could be disabled from the survey for hacks that do not contain these things (ASM for example). The hack creator would have to ask for this when submitting his/her hack.
Sample rating:
"Hack Name"
Overall Rating: 6.5
Level Design: 7.3
Overworld: 6.6
Fun: 7.4
Music: 8.2
Graphics: 5.4
Plot: 3.8
ASM: N/A
(This could perhaps be presented as a horizontal bar graph to give a visual representation, color coordinated with high scores being green and lower ones being red.)
The specifics of this suggested revision would need to be decided by the forum staff (How many questions the short survey would contain? what areas of a hack should be judged? How much is each area weighted?). This would give a consistant system to determine the quality of each hack as well as a more detailed report about where the hack is strong and where it is weak.
Users could still review hacks in order to give their perspective withr reasons.
I have a hack thread - Link (Now with a demo!)
Also a music thread - Link
C3 Projects
2013: Modern Spiny Pack
2012: MGSS v0.1
Spring 2010: SMB2 Autobomb Sprite