September 2011- month of Feedback

Published by JDDellGuy on September 3rd 2011.

Greetings artists! JDDellGuy here. September is here and it is the month of feedback! I will be hosting the topic this month. Sorry about being a few days late. I hope that the post isn't too poorly written. This month I would like to encourage everyone to offer artists helpful, constructive comments and ratings.

We'll start with comments. Comments are necessary in order to give the artist detailed feedback on what you liked or didn’t like about a set.

What is a good comment?

A good comment should state the following.
1. Whether or not you liked the set.
2. ‘’Why’’ you liked or didn’t like it.
3. If you didn’t like it, a suggestion on how to resolve what you didn’t like.

How about ratings? Ratings are a good way to show ‘’how much’’ you liked or didn’t like a set. The methods and reasons that people use to rate a set will vary depending on the person, but here are some basic guidelines on ratings.

What should you consider when rating?

1. How much did you like it? If you loved it, it should get a higher rating. If you didn’t like it, it should get a lower rating.
2. Is the set of good quality? Maybe you didn’t like a set, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it should get a low rating. If the artist clearly put a lot of effort into a set and it is of decent quality, it is probably worth rating it higher even if you didn’t appreciate the particular theme or color it was.
3. Is the set complete? When I rate sets, I usually give out higher ratings if the set is a full 15 cursors eve if it is lower quality. It works in reverse too. You can have a great set, but I may rate it lower because it is incomplete. How ‘’much’’ higher or lower I rate it depends on how many and which cursors are missing.
4. Is the set consistent? If a “flower icon set” has a rocket in it, it isn’t consistent. I would give a lower rating for that.

Why leave feedback?

Leaving feedback encourages artists to produce more and hopefully better work for people to download. When people respond positively to an artist’s set, it makes them happy and encourages them to do even better. ‘’Constructive’’ criticism also encourages improved work as the artists is made aware of what they need to improve on to satisfy people’s wants. Maybe they have good concepts, they just need to illustrate them better.

Additional information

We've gotten something new! When you comment on a set and include a rating, it turns into a review! I hope that this feature will encourage everybody to include a rating with their comments as the stars menu is located within the comment box itself, not far away at all.

In addition, when you write a review, you get a "button." Buttons can be redeemed at Skunkie's stand on the user list page for fun prizes!
Thanks Vlasta for these new features!

Also, some of you may have noticed this already, but for those who have not, here is an interesting notice.
If you Google a set and it has a rating, the rating will show up on the Google search page.
Here is an example.

Cool huh?

So to wrap things, up, I’d like to encourage people to start offering more helpful, constructive comments and ratings to sets. If you have time, maybe you’ll even make a trip through the whole gallery…

-JDDellGuy

Update:

Here is a link to a web page containing the core content of this blog post. You will also find a link to the page at the bottom of every review box in a cursor or icon set.