There are some unbelievable responses to this thread. The idea here is to weed out the bogus votes. I'm just dumbfounded by the lack of logic in a lot of cases.
This might help, though it will often be done out of spite against a user someone does not like rather than any real reason. As long as the moderators use this wisely it is not a big deal though. The voting should not be an automatic ban though; just a flag to the moderators to check it out.
This makes no sense. How is a private rating any less relevant than a public one? I have done lots of surveys for my previous company and I can tell you that the most accurate voting is anonymous. Either way bogus votes are what we are looking to rule out and private voting is not an automatic source of bogus votes. Don't presume guilt and eliminate legit votes; some people like to remain anonymous. (BTW I tried to set my ratings public and it didn't seem to work).
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:requirement to incorporate date stamp of ratings and anyone that has not been active on Pinside for twelve months, has all their ratings excluded. This weeds out fake accouts and legacy voting.
I am really scratching my head here. I have been a pinside member for MANY years and never read the forums once until a year or so ago. I probably went at least 5 years without even going to the main website or rating a pin. How is my rating of MM that I put up years ago after having owned it for a couple of years any less relevant now than it was then? I can see not allowing votes until the software is relatively complete, but legacy votes should NEVER expire. Fake accounts are another problem to think about (good point).
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:don't list LE and regular editions as separate. They can be combined under generic LE rating. It is ridiculous the TAF rates so much higher than TAFG when they are exact same game. It shouldn't take up two spots.
Partially agree here. Games with significant different gameplay should be separate. Premiums and LE are close enough to lump them together, but pros are different enough to not be. TAF and TAFG is a different story. Tough call there.
Karma rating should not affect ability to vote or the weight of the vote. Why should someone who is a lurker but nonetheless and expert player/collector be excluded while some blabbermouth troll who knows nothing but arguing about pins gets counted? If anything karma should be a reverse indicator in my opinion!
Having to be a current or previous owner is another rule that makes no sense. Some people can't afford games but are still good players and should be given a vote just like the next person.
Lets face it, there are only a handful of games that are going to receive significant bogus votes (recent Sterns and any game JJP ever releases). The moderators should be able to go in and find those bogus votes easily and delete them. At that point repeat offenders can be warned and removed as required. Creating rules that eliminate even a small percentage of legitimate voters just because they have low karma, private settings, don't update their votes every month or any other silly reason is simply not fair and more importantly will not produce the most accurate numbers based on the full diversity of the pinball community.