Groups: Member
Joined: 4/1/2008
Posts: 1
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I'm questioning the use of a rating system on a Shop Site when we're trying to sell our products to the public. I can't help but think that a customer would think twice about purchasing a low rated product.
I currently have three shops on Zazzle and every time I get a TBA along with positive comments and 5* ratings, someone always comes along and gives it a 1 or 2 rating bringing the overall rating down. In two instances, the ratings were given without looking at the product page. I'm an abstract artist, so I don't expect everyone to like my artwork, but I'm beginning to feel that someone has it out for me.
If we can't lose the rating system, can we at least lose the ratings on the browse page giving the customer a chance to make up their own mind.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 3/19/2007
Posts: 1,152
Location: St. Louis
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I really have to agree with you on this..when I first opened my gallery here I was surprised to see a rating system on a site that sells to the general public. Personally I'd like to see it done away with..the awards are nice for a customer to see but not the rating stars. If they want to keep it fine but I'd like the option of turning it off the same way I can the comments.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 4/9/2005
Posts: 44
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Way back when, the rating system was more about the quality of the product. I remember going to the special "rate products" section of Zazzle and flipping through their selection of products, zooming in to see if the images on the products were good resolution or pixelated and whatnot.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 2/6/2008
Posts: 601
Location: Silly-con Valley
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I haven't seen it make one bit of difference, actually. People buy stuff from me that have 0 stars... 
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Groups: Member
Joined: 12/28/2004
Posts: 164
Location: San Antonio
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The ratings system used to bug the heck out of me, for the very reasons you have mentioned. It seemed as if I got a TBA or something, some jealous person(s) or someone just being a jerk would come along right after and give one star. I used to care, but as wilddeej said, it doesn't really seem to make any difference when it comes to sales. I would like to see the star ratings done away with, partly because they are abused, but mostly because they serve no purpose whatsoever. Just more eye clutter to further confuse and turn off potential customers.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 3/19/2007
Posts: 1,152
Location: St. Louis
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I don't find the rating system to serve any purpose at all, if it were something the customer were able to use as feedback and viewable only to the store owner it might be helpful, otherwise I agree it's just clutter and frankly I'd rather see 0 stars on a design than 1.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 5/3/2008
Posts: 211
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+1 to it being only visible to the gallery owner, like eBay's star rating system is.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 7/31/2007
Posts: 517
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Well the rating system is pretty silly. I use to look at the number of votes and ratings on products and just wonder sometimes. Of course then there is also the fact you can vote for yourself once everyday. At least when I first started here you could. I found that out by accident when my mouse crossed over the stars one time and they lit up ... LOL. Maybe the ratings should be hidden from public view???
Frankly I wonder about the whole TBA thing too. Did you ever really look at what gets TBAs sometimes? I've had my share. One had 3 ribbons on it and Zazzle stopped being able to print it, so that product is gone.
And I've sold stuff with 0 stars ... folks buy what catches their eye. So it probably doesn't matter much.
But I really am glad I am not the only one who noticed the 5 star then 1 star thing happening. I mean when you have 2 votes and you know one was a 5 star and then you are down to 3 ... it's pretty easy to do the math. The first time it happened to me was after someone I didn't know at all basically "spammed" my gallery comment wall with an extremely long comment that had nothing at all to do with anything on my gallery. I removed the comment and politely told them I didn't appreciate it. The next day all my 5 stars were 3 ... and it continued for quite some time. I always wondered if that was just coincidence?
Then again ... I've never given anyone less than 5 stars when I have voted. I don't get to browse around often but if I do see something I like it's gonna get 5 stars.
In short ... I guess I go back to my first sentence ... the rating system is pretty silly.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 12/28/2004
Posts: 164
Location: San Antonio
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Quote:Of course then there is also the fact you can vote for yourself once everyday. At least when I first started here you could. Actually, you can vote for your own product (or any other) 100+ times a day if so inclined. You have to log off and then log back on, but you can actually vote as many times a day as you are able to type. Found out by accident when logging off and on and voting a while back... I haven't done this in a while, so maybe that's changed, but you used to be able to do that. Probably something Zazzle doesn't really want widely known. But it just re-emphasizes how meaningless and useless those stars really are. As stated, customers will buy what they like.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 1/20/2007
Posts: 336
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you have to do a little more than log in and out to vote more than once now - but, yeah - it can be done. If you search back a while you'll find several threads about this system and that many of the contributors would just like it done away with - but Zazzle isn't going to remove it. It's part of their search ranking algorithm - but - here's the interesting part. As far as search rankings go - each vote counts the same. So when one of those jerks gives you a one star rating - it boosts you up in the search ranking. As for sales - I've never seen anything to show that it effects sales one way or another. Quote:+1 to it being only visible to the gallery owner, like eBay's star rating system is. ? do you mean that's how it should be, because everyone can see the star ratings now?
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Groups: Member
Joined: 5/3/2008
Posts: 211
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KRWWedding wrote:Quote:+1 to it being only visible to the gallery owner, like eBay's star rating system is. ? do you mean that's how it should be, because everyone can see the star ratings now? Yeah I meant I agree with mousearte's idea for it only being visible to the gallery owner, so +1 point to that idea  On eBay when you leave feedback for a seller you put in a comment and a Positive/Neutral or Negative rating. There's also a set of different star ratings for different things like communication,shipping,satisfaction etc. the results of which are only visible to the seller.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 7/31/2007
Posts: 517
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KRWWedding wrote:
It's part of their search ranking algorithm - but - here's the interesting part. As far as search rankings go - each vote counts the same. So when one of those jerks gives you a one star rating - it boosts you up in the search ranking.
Speaking of another joke
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