List manipulation?

Easy Livin wrote: I guess there are two separate but related issues.   There are the individuals who try to push their favourites a little further up the rankings by giving them 5 stars, and their nearest competitors 1 star. Such people tend to give ratings only, as they find it too difficult to write a coherent review of an album they have not heard. They are probably unaware of the minimal impact their ratings only will have, and are basically harmless. That said, a simple count of the 1 and 5 star ratings for said album is corrupted slightly too, but for an album with fewer ratings this can be more relevant. I don't think there' is too much we can do about such visitors. M@x has decided to make it easier to post ratings only, and this will be one of the effects of that decision.   Then we have the concerted hyping of bands and albums by the artists or well meaning friends, agents, whatever. Most of our regular visitors are able to smell a rat when they come across such attempts, and take the reviews with the large pinch of salt they warrant. Those concerned think they have beaten the system, and congratulate themselves on a job well done. Behind the scenes, the admin team use the tools at our disposal (the obvious ones and others we'll keep to ourselves) to identify such efforts, and where appropriate, we take action. We tend to do this quietly and without publicity. We appreciate the input form the site members pointing us towards potential hype attacks, but please understand that we may not comment openly on any action taken.

Well said Bob.    Thanks to the admin team for their efforts in keeping this place what it is meant to be: A useful tool for prog lovers.

As I've said before, I think the problem of list manipulation will work itself out eventually almost every time with these two elements of our system: Admin monitoring (with member reporting!) and collaborator reviews.

harmonium.ro wrote: And I've just looked through the ratings of five albums! This whole thing makes me So many albums that I like are getting hammered just so these guys can pump up their favourites! My question is: how deep is the impact of these practices? Right now I feel like quitting this place, I'm not sure it's worth spending more time and effort....

Oh c'mon man!


The impact is as deep as you want it to be. I find only coherent reviews worthy, and that's it...


BTW, here's another fanboy: maciek313

^ Yes it's a plague, I don't think the solution should be that we Collabs try out some of these top charts albums just to moderate the exaggerated ratings.
I've had a few of those this year and I can't say I feel good about it. It feels dirty. I don't want to be around such music and force listening to be able to review it..

muchas gracias, Alex  

Yes, it's a pity  at least 'Statick' and 'Giant Clown' are band members for sure
don't understand such a behaviour (I'm a fanboy of my own) - embarrassing

ah .. by the way - I like their music ... there is no need for such a nonsense!



Edited by Rivertree - November 21 2010 at 10:35

I do lose some respect for bands/ artists when the musicians rate their own works very highly, and when it is obvious that their friends/ family/ associates/ publicists... are trying to prop up a record. I'm more okay with it when friends and family state their relation, but in various past cases it has been obvious that people were actually lying in their reviews or when -- stupidly in the past,  some musicians have claimed that they just discovered some band when it's  their projects (has happened with forum topics advertising a band as well as reviews).  At least one of the raters of Bun who gave it five stars isn't hiding his relation (a band member), but to me it seems disreputable when you rate your own work really highly (even if it is a collective effort).  I understand that publicity is important, and many would not notice such details.

The reviews are from different people, from different locations in the world (no fakes, I checked IP addresses). If the band is as good as they claim, the collab crowd will start reviewing soon enough, and if the album is not a master piece, the rating and ranking system will even it out at that time.

With the latest reviews which are well written it is obvious this is a new talented band, many people come to the site I am sure to find new music and it helps immensely to have well written reviews.

So be it. I am sure it is a very talented band.

^ There is one solid review of the band by epignosis..........the rest of the reviews are a disservice to the band and the site written by folks who obviously joined the site to write  weak reviews about the band