Ideas

[Rob]

Hey All,

I had a pretty good idea I thought might be cool for both the Calypso community and the CND community but I figured I'd see how you all reacted first.

I think most of you have heard of the Zagat Rating or Zagat Guide. If not, basically, it's a guide that rates restaurants from around the world with reviews and recommendations. Well, maybe we can set up a small disinterested organization that does the same except for shops and services.

To rate them, a survey can be made with a few categories:

Customer service and relations, Appearance, Pricing, Availability and maybe one or two other categories. Each category can be rated 1 - 5.

1: Very Poor
2: Poor
3: Satisfactory
4: Good
5: Outstanding

So, for instance, if there were 6 categories total then the max score a shop/ service could get is 30.

Now, here is where it gets a bit more involved. I had already talked to MS9 about this and she brought up a few very valid problems that could occur. However, I think I may have come upon solutions to each problem.

Problem #1: The judge could show favoritisim to a friend and give them a high rating. Solution: Instead of one judge, have 3 judges. Get the average of the three scores and that will be the shop/services rating.

Problem #2: People will be upset if they don't get a high review and hold a grudge against the judges. Solution: Instead of producing ratings for all shops and services in PE, just produce a Top 5 list for each general category: Space Flight, General Service, Resource Shop, Clothing Shop, Armory Shop, etc. This will give people motivation to make their shops the best that they can be to maybe one day be on that Top 5 list. To avoid people holding a grudge, someone like ND could say that he has selected 3 judges without providing the names of those individuals. He could then have the judges report back to him with their results. There could be another way to avoid conflict but those are just two ways I thought of.

I think those were the only two things MS9 was afraid of so I hope this is a good solution to both. Maybe these reviews could also eventually be put into the Entropian Magazine. Just a thought. Well let me know what you guys think and also, I can't think of a name for the Review/ Rating so if you all could come up with a catchy name, that would be cool too.

[The Ripper]

Sounds pretty decent m8

I have worked at a place before irl where they had a top 5 of contractors to use to do work for us and when ppl saw they werent at the top it only benefited everyone because all wanted to be the best.

I think this aspect of it would be good, although agree with MS9 that the issues raised could be troublesome. I think also that your suggestions for a resolution for these is also a good one.

I think if it were to be implemented who would go round all of the shops to check it out? maybe something that PE wikki or PE directory may be interested in?

Good to see you thinking ahead all the time bud. very encouraging for all.

My opinion, it would be a good service to have a rating etc, somewhat tricky to implement but positive none the less.

Rip

[Shocky]

<secretly bribes all 3 judges> great idea! I say we go for it! <wink wink>

[Rob]

<secretly bribes all 3 judges> great idea! I say we go for it! <wink wink>

Which is why their names are not made public to anyone. Actually, Zar brought aup another point which is a great idea. Whoever is in charge of the Entropian (Azi?) can pick three random people but not let them know each other that way one can't influence the other. They bring their results back to (Azi?) and then the Entropian or whatever is made up for the shop review name publishes the Top % in each category.

[Shocky]

Well if you thought i was actually planning on bribing the judges...well..nm..it was a joke just laugh at it don't take it serious!

[Rob]

LOL....sorry Shocky...I thought it was funny but then I realized that some people would actually try and do that. But it was still funny

[Epictetus]

While it's a creative idea, I think this goes against our goal of promoting the mall because it makes some shops look good at the expense of other shops, which will look bad if they are rated poorly.

We shouldn't have a mechanism that makes any shops look bad in the eyes of the public.

[Rob]

Exactly Epic, that why you just do the Top 5 in each category so as not to make anyone look bad, just recognize the best

[Kay]

I think it is a great idea because it will force us to improve our quality; and if the store at CND are rated very high, it would mean that 'this place' is of high interest for shopping.

I have difficulties to know where to go when i want to shop, for example, if i want a coat, where should i go on Calypso without losing too much time and having a booth or SK which is totally empty !

[MindStar9]

I have to agree with Epic on this one ... it's a creative idea, but I think it's a more productive and positive effort on all our parts if we support the mall as a whole, and not single out any shops at all.

Knowing ND as well as many of us do, he's all for promoting and helping everyone succeed. We're not all going to be at the same level at any given time due to time and resources, so I don't think those ppl should necessarily be placed in any kind of an "assumed" position with regard to whether their shop or svc is good or bad.

I fully understand your intent here Rob, and commend you for creative thinking, but I feel it's best if we don't introduce any type of public-viewing assessment that has the potential to discourage a shop owner from improving svcs and/or products.

If there are specific challenges with a shop, then CNSA can address the issues without making it a public display. I think everyone deserves an opportunity to succeed, and perhaps some encouraging words in a more positive format would help to turn things around for any shop in question.

I also think that CNSA should work on a Mall Directory that not only lists the name of the shop/owner, but also what that shop sells in order to make it easier for the community to make a decision as to where they want to shop.

There's another way we can go with the directory as well ... perhaps subtitles like ... Clothes, Armor, Weapons, Ores/Enmatter, etc., and then list each shop underneath each subtitle who sells the listed item(s). Then someone could write down those shop numbers and chk out each one to compare inventory and prices.

If we start listing only the "Top 5" ... there may be shops that have better deals than the most uber shops bcuz they may not have the same resources available, and then that shop owner may miss out on a sale as a result, and we don't want to promote that.

Yes, it's a competitive environment, just as IRL, but we don't want to put systems in place that DIScourage rather than ENcourage.


***