I for 1 would love to see something done, And if these are the only idea's we have they arent so bad so i say go with them. I hate the 1 rating with no comment situation as well.

Get a petition to end GOWK threads and using multiple usernames (you KNOW who you are) to bump up one's squads and I will get behind it.

Well, with the new feature of showing who has logged on from different computers it can be misleading, because it says strate_jakit and i have logged on from the same one, but that is becase when we are hanging out i will sometimes check my BM's on his computer and vice-versa. Also consider sibbilings, parents, and their children might log on from the same computer. So dont just assume who has multiple accounts. Now im sure that there are some cases in which there are users with multiple accounts, but due to the reasons above we cant really know who has multiple accounts, and who has multiple people using the same computer.

As far as ratings go its kinda lame I have gotten random 2s and 3s as well... I don't really want a pat on the back for what I build but a reason for ratings and why they think it wouldn't work would be nice... But any feedback is nice...

I think it is funny that peeps have multiple accounts to drop and higher squad ratings. GET A LIFE THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN SQUAD RATINGS. In addition, Bloomilk's squad building page is a very good tool to teach yourself how to build better squads and exploiting it is giving in to the dark side. Ewoks beat the dark side, therefore; if you do cheat then you are so weak you will get beat by furry midgets. (I don't think dark jedi's score either all i have ever heard about is the jedi having kids.)

Posts like this make me sad.

You can use Bloo Milk to build squads, even if you aren't happy with the squad rating situation. Either don't make your squads public (so no one can rate them), or just make them public and ignore the bad ratings (and laugh at the good ratings, when a squad doesn't deserve them).

There is a big benefit to having everyone post their squads to a community site like Bloo Milk. People may have just acquired Boba Fett, Mercenary or Mandalore the Ultimate or whatever and they want to see what kind of squads other people have built with these minis. A new player may want to know what kind of squads he can build in the Sith faction. Making your squads public allows people to find them in the Squad Search. It also affects the Character Usage page, which a lot of new players have told me they use to determine what pieces they should buy at first.

Also, it bothers me when good players and squad builders like yourself, Dean, say that the rating system doesn't matter. If everyone who is knowledgeable enough to actually rate squads accurately stops rating, then it is a self-fulfulling prophecy. All that is left are new players who rate squads based on how much they like a certain character, and players who are just rating their squads 10s and other squads 1s.

Well, I stopped commenting specifically when I rate a squad low in many cases, specifically because I tired of the complaining, the flame wars, and being reported to Shinja for it :) That's why if I give you a 1, you will rarely know it was me any more, because as a community, we are not mature enough to deal with accurate ratings.

I don't believe the rating system matters one bit to me either. That may be sad, but it's none the less true. My single rating doesn't do enough to counter all of the poor ones done before or after me, so I have little reason to rate most squads. I also was a victim of more 1s than probably anyone on here, so again, I see little reason to seriously even rate my own squads. I pretty much give them all 10s now, to offset at least one of the 1s I am sure to get within minutes of posting a public squad, after that, it's out of my control.

I look at the list of squads on the top 5 at any given time, and I cringe at 4 of them at least in most cases, even sometimes when it's been one of my own. I don't think this community as a whole understands how to rate squads, and certainly do not rate based on the same criteria.

Shoebox's worked better, and had less cringing, because the only ratings it took into account were when people tagged your squad as one of their favorites. Squads with the most tags made the top 5. Generally, I only had to cringe at about 1 of the 5 on average, and usually that one was some kind of unique gimmick, or hate squad that people really liked at the time anyway, so I could live with it. Oddly, that system produced much better top squads than this one.

Ways to help going forward.

1. To start with, I think a list of criteria should be posted as a sticky on the forums. Give people guidelines on what to rate squads based on. Most people want to be honest, and if most of us were rating based on the same things, then that would help eleviate the issues. As it is now, I might give a squad a 1 because I based it on say "competitive play" and others might give it a 10 because they liked that it used Niem Numb. It doesn't matter what the categories are, just some consistency would help.

2. Consider adding a button to the squad creation link, that allows a squad to be considered for rating in two or more categories - for lack of better ideas - Competitive and Casual. That way, if you think your new way to use Maul is the best use of Maul out there, you can be rated against other similar squads, instead of actual competitive top level squads.

3. Someway to deal with repeat squads, and this one I don't know what the answer is. It isn't a race to make a squad, and very few times are people actually stealing an idea from someone else. In general, the person who makes a squad well known based on play, or discussion is more important to the community than some guy who made an unnoticed squad months ago that he/she never even played, or worse, played once locally and went 1-2. So I am not in favor of anything having to do with who posted it first.

But we also shouldn't have 2-3 of the same squad on the top of each list either. Perhaps some kind of rating link, that if you rate one, the other one gets the same rating, but even then, that doesn't deal with actual net deckers, or people who make a very similar squad with one piece different, nor with who gets "credit".

Maybe something like a "view similar" button on all squads, that links squads that are very similar to it, and the rater can decide for themselves which one deserves the highest rating.

I mean a very funny comparison right now, is my Dooku 150 squad and Fingersandteeth's. His is rated higher, but both are on the 150 list. Neither should be on there, even if GOWK were still legal. But in his description, he even writes, "Bill's squad with Lobot added". Yet for quite a while, people were rating his high, and mine low.

4. Perhaps a less numbers based system and instead something like:
Recommended, Not Recommended, Ambivelent - as the categories one gets to choose. And then the top 5 list is made from a points system of like 5ps for Recommended, 0 for Ambivalent, and -3 for a Not recommended. Something like that.

Well, I don't see there being any bullet-proof solution.

If I rated low and left a comment as to why, and then got flamed in the comments to follow, I wouldn't necessarily feel obligated to respond to that. Now if these users are following you around the site and being pests, you should be reporting them. As to them reporting you for making legitimate comments/ratings, I would be shocked if any action was being taken against you by the site operator(s) as a result. (this ain't WotC )

If you don't feel it is worth it to spend your time ratings squads because of crap like that, then don't. I wouldn't blame you one bit.

As to the kiddies typing ".........." or something like that - perhaps if the comment ALSO showed the rating that was left, now we would easily know who the culprits are. Doesn't stop them, but they lose anonymity, and gain exposure which could resulted in them being reported for abusing the system.

I like the idea of using "Like" "Dislike" or something along the lines of "Meh" instead of number ratiings. And maybe average the three to find how "liked" a squad is, based on number of an option and ratio to the other options.

The fact is, some squads deserve a 1, and others, though few, deserve 10's. If you get ones on good squads, shrug it off, it makes little difference on the actual playability of a squad. Giving yourself 10's doesn't help either, because you can delude yourself into thinking it actually is a perfect squad. In lieu of or until a change os made, just take it all in stride. Smile at the highs, consider the lows, and remember its a competetive game that needs competitive squads.

I don't personally rate squads because as I have said many times over I would not consider myself that great of a player to judge another person's squad. I have, however, said I thought a rating/comment tie in should be put into place. In fact I think the comment should reflect the rating so it is known what a person rated it. I think anonymous ratings only lead to dishonesty in the system. If it is obvious someone rated a squad with a motive other than to do an honest rating then allow these to be reported and removed. If you get yours removed too often have their rating ability blocked on their account.

I have used the rating system to look up squads to give me ideas for tourneys but found it a waste of time sorting through the bad ratings to find a squad worth looking at. I found myself looking at all the squads ignoring the rating altogether.

I for one keep my squads on SWM Minimanager. It is handy for me because I can send the files to friends for them to preview or throw it on a flashdrive to take with me wherever I go. I am hesitant to put them into any online program because if a site goes poof all my ideas go with it. Keeping a copy here and on SWMM is just redundant for me unless I want some critique to weed out my ideas on my squads.