Most people who submit songs to the Newgrounds Audio portal, on a regular basis, are much aware of the flaws and problems it has. In short, many users feel the rating they receive on there songs is very unfair. This rating is important to them because they have the chance to receive special privileged such as the entrance into the top 5 weekly songs or the top rated song list. This essentially defines the popularity of the artist.
It has come to my attention that many aspiring artists have actually quit submitting royalty free songs to the portal, some to the extent of removing all of there content. As you can see, it is easy to prove that the audio portal has problems, but rather then emote you too these problems, I have come up with a solution! If you have made up your mind that there is no solution, or if you are happy with the way the audio portal works now, I would advise you to stop reading!
To find a solution to the problem, we first need to understand the source of the problem, which as previously discussed, lies with in the "rating system" and the "Top 5" system. My proposal is to base the choosing of the top 5 against something which is true and does not change. So how do we do this?
How the Top 5 Is chosen
Popularity / Time
Time = Amount of hours since the song was submitted.
Popularity = A sum of the views, downloads and reviews of the song.
* This value will only last until the end of the week.
Popularity:
This is only a test system and may need to be changed
0.1 point per view
0.2 points per download
(0-10)/10 Points for review, x2 if the review is helpful, /2 if the review is not
So lets put this into practice
At the time when the top 5 gets chosen...
Lets say song A gets
100 Views
10 downloads
no reviews
time since submitted - 10 hours
Song B gets
200 views
10 downloads
no reviews
time since submitted - 30 hours
Song A would have precedence over song B for the Top 5 because it has a higher value of popularity / time.
This value would be removed when the top 5 songs are chosen for that week.
The other top songs, which are not related to any timed, or daily activity, would be chosen simply by having the highest popularity. This of course would create a problem where these popular songs would be cemented in, with no chance of the song list changing. This is a small price to pay for fixing the bigger problem of the top 5, but I have also though of several solutions to this minor problem.
The most popular songs, which are say 5 years old or more, could possibly put in a "Hall of fame", which would change around the top songs.
The most popular songs could also be weighed against time, so songs that are older could be reduced down the tract.
The top songs could be reduced top 10, and the weekly top 5 could be changed to the weekly top 10, this would reduce the effects the problem has.
This system would essentially fix many problems which users face. People would not face angry users, 0 bombing there songs In fact, there is actually no way to make a song have a bad score because it can only be increased. If someone writes an insulting review, it could be flagged and removed.
The final change would be to either remove the rating system or leave it there for a simple indication to people viewing the song, how good the song was rated by other users, whether it be valid or not.I suppose the rating would become more valid because there would be no reason to lower it without legitimate reason.
The rest of the system would remain the same, your download only counts once per day, same with views, and you can only review once.
In conclusion...
Pros:
Would make many people happy, and improve the quality of songs on the top 5 list.
Would also be easy to implement because everything can be calculated from current data.
Cons:
Would cement the top songs.
Would take some time and work to change the portal.
Would be hard to get people to adopt the change, even if they want a change.
I hope I threw song nice ideas out there for you guys at the audio portal to discuss. I would just like to remind you of the rules of the audio forums and create some of my own :D
Please try to respond with reason, don't just say "this sucks" " dumb idea", this took me a long time to write
and I would appreciate respect for the care I have for the audio portal, and newgrounds.
I do appreciate criticism, but don't be mean lol, at least tell me something you like as well :D
Thanks a bunch If you respond and take this onboard, Cheers, Box-Killa
