Avatar Arena Bugs & Enhancements (updated 12/06)

[pirula]

Hey --

As a dev behind the new arena, I am starting this feedback thread to give you updates on our continued progress and get any reports of bugs or things not working as they should. There have been a couple of other feedback threads for arenas generally, but the Avatar arena is special because its the largest and also has some extra features because of the weekly contest.

IF YOU KNOW OF AN ISSUES THAT SHOULD BE ON OUR LIST TO FIX
add it to Panagrammic's thread here:



Fixed/Added
- cosplay
- choice of black, white, or gray backgrounds
- timing. & gold grant to winner is automated (PM if not)
- winners page & winners circle
- showing you your rank to you during the week (for the top 100)


Still working on...
- changes to spotlight/new: we are tweaking some of the algorithms to have more randomness and make sure that everyone has a chance to get seen.

OK ... so we did make changes in week 48 and it didn't work out so well. None of the winners exploited anything, its our fault for changing the standards and we will change them back.

Still working on making sure the spotlight gets randomized and rotated enough.


- removing PM when you delete a comment
- fixing the feeds in MyGaia so it doesn't show every single thing you voted on
- taking you to a random entry when you vote rather than taking you to a collection or showing the same entries over again.


This is just some of what we are working on within the arenas. We are doing our best to keep things running smoothly, fairly and fun. I will keep this first post updated with additional feedback and questions, so check back.

[Kunai Jones]

First of all, I want to thank you for all the work you've done in recent days and the last couple of weeks. It's nice to finally get our concerns heard. Thank you so much for taking an active role in improving many people's favorite feature.

That said, a couple of quick questions. Things are getting better, that much is certain, but I feel that what it's really missing is randomization. What's happening is that every time a more popular entry draws a vote, it dumps the next pageview onto the following avatar in the order in which the entries came in. So that entry is getting lavished with views and comments that are spilling over from the entries highlighted in the Popular tab, while other entries are ignored for hours or even days at a time. It's better if there's a random selection after each vote to spread those followup pageviews around. More randomization is needed in other areas as well. Clicking the "Avatar" tab itself in the Arenas takes you to a random entry, but clicking either of the sub-categories under that tab takes you to the same pre-selected entry over and over again. Last week that particular entry drew over 6,000 votes from that exposure. Those rates could have been spread around much more effectively if that had submenu had led to a random entry. I know randomization is more difficult now that id numbers are given out sequentially for every category of the new unified arenas, but it would be a massive improvement to the issues of fairness and exposure.

The other big issue is that you can see a person's current average rating by going to their Gallery page. Don't get me wrong, I love the Gallery system, it's a truly inspired change to the setup and I couldn't be happier about it. I like seeing the history of a person's creative impulse, it's very fun. But the issue is that if you can see how a person is doing score-wise then you can target them for downvoting. It seems unlikely, but a person could easily bring a guild of 100 of their friends to attack a person's high average. It's fine for the creator to see their score as it develops, but it's very dangerous to expose it to everybody. Gaia should know that fact better than anybody, since it was part of the guidelines you included in the previous incarnation of the Avatar Arena. You used to tell users not to give away their rank and average score as it made them susceptible to malicious voting. Now you're the ones exposing that vulnerability.

Those are my major issues at the moment, I sincerely hope they can be resolved speedily. But thanks once again for all of your hard work on this, it's really phenomenal. And thank you for setting up a Cosplay Arena. I see a lot of potential in that going forward. Umm..as you may have guessed.

[Wolfram Ysud]

Gold granting without a speed timer for voting would be a tremendously BAD idea. The original form of Arena was botted to the point where it got utterly ridiculous. It was only THEN that captcha was used for comments.

i still agree with a few radicals that VOTING should also have a required timing where you have to wait a specific amount of time to vote on the next person, AND that it should be captcha'd.

The arena format needs to have a better semblance of random. We're just going through a list and people have to resort to the Browse Recent and Browse Popular to find the next to vote on.

Suggestion 1) MAKE IT RANDOM. It's a simple enough concept. We have so many entries to go through (n, for this case) that ... i'll type it in the formula first.

(n)(n-1)(n-2)(n-3)...*(n-(n-2)) = n!

Work it so that we can try to go through all the entries, but with more random precision that gets narrowed for every entry you vote on. i get a random entry and then another and then another, but eliminating from my list what i voted on. Ultimately i will run out of entries to vote on.

Suggestion 2) Don't allow us to cancel our rates and re-rate. This can be abused.

Suggestion 3) In line with suggestion 1, take out the Browse Recent. i can just bump myself like crazy to get votes and i really shouldn't need to find that NECESSARY.

Suggestion 4) Remove Browse Popular. Pirula, you're exposing the top 12 at any instant. This is unfair to all entries.


CONCERN: You can see someone's average by searching their KEYWORDS. i searched Paladin and saw others had averages of 2.5 or 3 in the avatar arena, and it's the only way i know if i'm still holding to a 3.75+ average.

[2_D]

1. The option to re-edit information when you have a submission active for voting. Sometimes mistakes are made or information may has spelling errors or etc.

2. The ability to click on the reference image to have it re-size to a bigger image in a separate window.

3. Browse recent users and Browse Popular should be removed. Almost unnecessary and unfair to user to be seen. And in some cases, 40% of the time, the same user are on both lists.

4. Browse Random Avatars. That would be better than Browse Recent and Popular. And have it cycle users who has not been viewed in a certain amount of time or have it completely randomized.

[Wizzleteats]

The original winners circle needs some work. It only shows the ones that get above a four rating instead of showing the top ten of the group. Now how is that fair!?? I hope you are working on this problem because it needs to be resolved quickly.

[Szinriia]

Wiener Schnitzel

The original winners circle needs some work. It only shows the ones that get above a four rating instead of showing the top ten of the group. Now how is that fair!?? I hope you are working on this problem because it needs to be resolved quickly.

Oh is that the reason? O.o

Yes. This isn't fair. Please fix this one fast!

[RenkonNairu]

Szinriia

Wiener Schnitzel

The original winners circle needs some work. It only shows the ones that get above a four rating instead of showing the top ten of the group. Now how is that fair!?? I hope you are working on this problem because it needs to be resolved quickly.

Oh is that the reason? O.o

Yes. This isn't fair. Please fix this one fast!

I third this complaint.
And it's been discussed allot in other "non-feedback" threads. The whole of the Arena seems to be in agreement that the "Most Popular" box needs to be changed or expanded.

[Dire Anne]

Bugs????????? What????????

[Ogihci Ikasoruk]

I am dying to see the winners for week 43. ; A ;

[Hime Hina]

Just wondering...
are the missing winners for week 41 & 42 ever gonna be added?

Thank you for all your hard work, I'm sure you're doing everything you can to fix the current problems.

[RenkonNairu]

First I just want to thank all of you guys for all your hard work and the improvements that you've already made to the Arena. heart

Recently, there's been a problem with comments just up and vanishing. They're not being deleted, they're just disappearing. My feeds say that I have 2 new comments on my entry but when I click on my entry's page I can't see them. Another user has also noticed this problem and has started a discussion thread for it: Dissapearing Comments...

Comments and feedback are one of the main reasons I enter in the Arena and it would really suck if contestants couldn't receive feedback anymore and vice versa if voters couldn't give feedback anymore.

[RenkonNairu]

Sorry to bother again sweatdrop But another user has just made a good point:

Wolfram Ysud

Brilliant idea.


But the execution is s**t.



i'm not entered.
Those aren't my scores.
This avatar arena score belongs to someone else.
I should not be able to see their average.
I should not be able to see any average but my own.
Fix this.

Once again, I just want to thank you for all your great work on the Arena. I is appreciated (even though we (I) complain allot.)

[shiroihikari]

Having a bit of a problem and I was just wondering if anyone else encountered this bug.

1. I go to "view all" on the Spotlight/Popular tab
2. I click on an avatar that I want to rate
3. I give it a rating
4. It sends me right back to the Spotlight/Popular page and I get no gold

This only happens when I go to avatars from "view all". neutral

[The Sweet Mango]

I'm having a big problem!
I submitted an avatar into the arena 3 weeks ago, and it has yet to be allowed into voting.
For the past 3 weeks it has said "The entry is still in submission phase and cannot be rated."
And now it has changed to "This contest is not open for voting."

That really .. irritates me that I entered it and it never got a chance to be voted on.
It went straight from submission phase to OVER phase - I'd really like to see this fixed.