The ratings system is a critical part of this site which is very underutilized.
The ability for members to vet other members is crucial to the success of this community, as it not only enables members to establish legitimacy for themselves and other members, but it provides the website (and the community) overall with legitimacy and a track-record for success.
However, the current implementation leaves much to be desired, and potentially alienates members from using the system.
Here are some reasons why the system does not work at present:
- A 5-Star ratings system is not ideal. Nobody is going to realistically rate someone who let them into their pants less-than 5-stars, or vice-versa. (Case-and-point: are there any peer-to-peer reviews here which are not 5-stars?) Members are also allowed (rightfully) to delete reviews about them, but this also subverts the 5-Star system; would anyone really allow a less-than-5-star review of themselves to exist on a site like this? If people have a less-than-5-star experience: they are more likely to just not post a review than they are to post a less-than-5-star review, unless they have a vendetta and want to post a one-star review, yet that recalls the fact that members can (rightfully) delete reviews of themselves; the ratings system is thus, again, rendered useless. (Think about how worthless Amazon product reviews would be if sellers could cherry-pick their reviews.)
- There is no option for anonymity. Plenty of members have met on this site, but not everyone wants to have a publicly-accessible list of sexual escapades and faces to go along with them. Some people don't care, but others do, and an ideal ratings/vetting system would encourage the majority of members to use it as opposed to alienating a significant portion; people desiring a degree of anonymity are definitely a significant portion of this site's membership.
To address these problems, the following is proposed:
- Change the ratings system to the widely popular "like" and "dislike," thus replacing the 5-Star system. Another option is to use something like eBay's "positive/neutral/negative" system. (Note: this is not a proposal to add "like/dislike" buttons to every page; this is a proposal to replace the ratings system for members who have actually met in real life.)
- Ratings are then sent to the member being rated for approval, but the approval prompt does not specify the actual rating quality being left; the approval is for verification purposes only, and merely asks if the person being rated actually knows the person who is rating them, and whether or not they met in real life.
- Members being rated are also offered a chance, upon accepting their rating, to rate the member who is rating them.
- Possibly include a few 5-star sub-ratings (like eBay sellers receive) which are optional, for example: "Ease of scheduling," "Personability," "Conversation," "Kinkiness," "Appearance matches profile photos," "Comfort Provided," "Likely to recommend," "Would like to see again," etc.
- Overall ratings are displayed as an aggregate score instead of on a per-user basis; like: "4/5 users enjoyed meeting this member" or something.
- Profiles being rated should have the option to reveal members from whom they have received ratings, or to keep individual conquests anonymous.
- There should be a prose/free-writing option for users to be specific about their individual experiences (as the rating system has now), but this detail should be displayed at the discretion of the person being reviewed, and also should be removable by the person being reviewed. However, deleting this freely-written section would not delete the overall like/dislike review.
- Also add an option to provide photos of "the event," which will also be subject for approval by the profile being rated, removable by the profile being rated, and visible according to individual profile privacy settings.
- Members would only be able to "like/dislike" another member once to avoid falsely-inflated ratings.
I believe these kinds of changes would encourage more users to make use of the ratings/vetting system.
Please share your thoughts and ideas, and thank you for your time!