The Old SL Profile. Image Credit - Science Roll.
Anyone who joined Second Life before mid-2007 may remember the Avatar Rating System, which allowed you to rate other users on their Appearance, Behaviour and Building skills. The system was dropped by Linden Lab to relieve the load on the servers.
The system was supposed to separate good avatars from bad avatars, but it inevitably jut became a popularity contest and only really showed you how long someone had been in Second Life to accumulate so many “rates”. Each rate would cost L$10, and each time you rated someone, it would show in the final field. Just in case anyone thought you might be stingy..
Well the guys over at Modular Systems are thinking of putting it into the Emerald Viewer! Playing with the new beta, I got a tip off that the code contains this little snippet:
// NOTE: This is here as a sort of load indicator if we decide to reimplement the long gone
// Ratings feature. Should remove before release.
// We hash the key to pacify paranoid people.
// We also use POST so that the logs show nothing.
// (if you think we’re going to log every single profile view, even if we wanted to, you’re insane.
// 85k users * how many profiles a day?)
#if 1
void LLPanelAvatar::sendAvatarRatingsRequest()
{
LLMD5 hashed_key = LLMD5((unsigned char*)mAvatarID.asString().c_str());
// Have to take this slightly obtuse approach because LLHTTPClient::postRaw will delete the data when it’s finished.
char *hex_cstr;
hex_cstr = new char[MD5HEX_STR_SIZE];
hashed_key.hex_digest(hex_cstr);
LLHTTPClient::postRaw(“http://emeraldratings.appspot.com/profile”, (U8*)hex_cstr, MD5HEX_STR_SIZE – 1, new LPanelAvatarRatingsDownloader(this));
hex_cstr = NULL;
}
Interesting, no?
It’s just a load test to make sure things don’t start blowing up, and I assume the developers are just exploring the idea at this stage, but I’m interested to see if Second Life’s users are ready to see the return of the avatar rating system in the platform’s most popular third party viewer.
According to the inworld group chat, Emerald Devs are also considering implementing the L$10 charge to rate another user, and pocketing the money to cover costs for maintaining the database. As well as that, they’re working on an API so other viewers can also take a cut of the revenue if they choose to implement it in their own viewers. This has the potential to be a huge money spinner.
But then there are many questions about whether users want this system in their profiles. Perhaps the option to be rated should be Opt-In, so people can’t start rating you or vice versa unless you say so. But would that not defeat the point of the whole system?
Tweets that mention Emerald Viewer to Resurrect Second Life Avatar Rating System? « Metaversally Speaking.. -- Topsy.com on June 29, 2010
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Miro Collas, Prad Prathivi. Prad Prathivi said: Remember the Second Life Avatar Rating System from pre-2007 era? It could be coming back! http://bit.ly/aIEikz [...]
Lalo Telling on June 29, 2010
Yes, it should be opt-in.
Yes, that would defeat its purpose.
Yes, its purpose should be defeated.
“…but it inevitably jut became a popularity contest…” like everything else, another system to be “gamed” (see also: Vote boxes and Traffic).
As I delve into the early history of SL, the schemes they’ve come up with to “monetize” through micropayments — a.k.a. “nickel-and-diming” the Residents — never fail to baffle me. The only one that has survived is the L$10 for uploads, which is also a surprise. I certainly hope Emerald aren’t serious about this — but who can tell, with some of the loose cannons on that deck?
One sure way to opt-out would be to not use Emerald — suppose they’ve considered that?
Heidi Halberstadt on June 29, 2010
Ridiculously juvenile, if implemented. Need I say more?
Eboni Khan on June 29, 2010
In the past ratings earned the avatar money. If people can’t earn money from ratings, they won’t care.
Wol Euler on June 29, 2010
It was a bad idea then, and it’s still a bad idea now. Let it rot in peace.
Trouble for Gemini Industries? - Page 2 - SLUniverse Forums on June 29, 2010
[...] In other news: Emerald Viewer to Resurrect Second Life Avatar Rating System? Metaversally Speaking.. [...]
Kalel Mommsen on June 29, 2010
I don’t think they would do something like this without a purpose. I’m sure they didn’t like it either… lets just keep an eye on them and think positively….
emerald is open source.. lots of other clients have their functions.
Innula Zenovka on June 30, 2010
@Kalel — yeah, and Phox explains that purpose in the Modular Systems forum: “The revenue will be split depending on which viewer does the rating, a small portion (Which is yet undetermined since we’re unsure of the load generated at this point) will be kept by the maintainers of the system to cover server costs (that’s Modular Systems), the majority will go to the team who implemented the API in their viewer.”
http://modularsystems.sl/forum/index.php?topic=3597.msg18707#msg18707
The Emerald Viewer avatar rating system controversy | Burnman Bedlam on June 29, 2010
[...] http://blog.pradprathivi.com/2010/06/29/emerald-viewer-to-resurrect-second-life-avatar-rating-system... Filed under Viewers Click here to cancel reply. [...]
Nber Medici on June 29, 2010
I agree that it was a bad idea then. I remember going to rating parties where the whole point was to rate as many people as possible.
brinda allen on June 30, 2010
I came to Secondlife just at the end of that system…
It’s important to remember what the concurrency was at that time.
In early to mid 2007 a big day was 35,000 on line…averages were 28,000.
At the end of 2005 I believe the concurrency was around 170,000.
In 2003 and 2004 I’ve heard SL as decribed being a lot like high school where most everyone knew everyone else.
Those days are long gone and I see any system like that as entirely too unwieldy to work today.
Roblem Hogarth on June 30, 2010
Of course I remember the popularity contest of ARS. I also remember the main issue when it when it went away was. “where did all the $10L go with every vote?”.
Now “opt in?” Please, no more of this “new black” facebook privacy concerns. Obviously they are looking to differentiate themselves from the marketplace. Hate it, don’t look at Emerald to see your score. (assuming any of this happens)
kumi kuhr on July 2, 2010
why?
this is the most useless feature I’ve ever seen.
Gwyn’s Home » Blog Archive » What have you achieved?? on August 7, 2010
[...] Or wasn’t it…? The Emerald guys apparently found out that the ratings are still there, they just don’t work on the viewer, so it seems that they are tweaking their own SL Viewer to display the ratings again, like Prad reports. [...]
Foxxe Wilder on August 24, 2010
Don’t bother to waste your time on this ‘feature’. You are correct in the assumption that it was merely a popularity contest that, I should point out, could be ‘won’ by mere monetary purchase. With an alt and some expendable lindens, I could create an inSANELY high rating on my avatar. (and I often saw this on people who were some of the worst builders, biggest A$$holes, etc…. )
Ever take a look at Phil’s avatar??? It’s very reminiscent of a cross of a very tacky anime character and Lisa Simpson. No beauty contest winner for sure but I am sure his profile reflected foolishly high scores. (See Ferenghi rule of acquisition #33 for details there).
No, it’s a waste of space, coding and insight. In the words of Dr. Leonard McCoy, “it’s DEAD Jim!”