Silk Road forums

So....for Vendors like myself, that don't or can't move in large "Volume" Even though we have or I have Awesome Customer service and explanatory skills that means Alot to Loyal Customers....this means we will be rated as bad Vendors?  Hmmmmm..... No Offense meant....but, Explain Please.


Hugs,

ChemCat

I see a nice average of 5 on your user page.  Not sure what the problem is.  You are unranked because you are on vacation mode, but when you come back you'll get your ranking. 

OP updated

the only visible changes at the moment are that the fan count is gone and the vendor rank is calculated differently.  the fan count was too revealing of a vendor's size, so we took it out, but the vendors themselves can still see it.

ok, we're just finishing up some of these changes and starting to push the data out to the pages on the site.  Most of it is hidden at the moment, but you can see the layout on the vendor pages has changed.

Here's where we are at:
The rating algorithm has been changed to the following:
A vendor's score, which determines their rank and factors into the weight of buyers, is found by adding up all of their sales with each sale multiplied by a factor that starts at 100% now and tapers off to 0% after 8 months.
A buyer's score, which affects how heavily their feedback is weighted when determining a vendor's rating (not rank), is found by multiplying the price of their purchases by the vendor score of the vendor they purchased from, and then adding them all together
A rating/review's score, which determines it's weight when averaging with other ratings, is found by multiplying the buyer weight of the buyer leaving the rating, the volume of the purchase, and the same dampening factor used for the vendor's score.

We also have a graphic that will appear on vendor pages and when browsing listings that shows the relative weight of the ratings 1 through 5.  I've looked at many of these for different vendors and I think it is much more informative than the simple average we have now and will take the pressure off of buyers to leave only a 5 or a 1.  This is hidden at the moment.

on deck:
The average rating (number in parentheses after a vendor's name) is still being calculated the old way.  We need to compare the new to the old before updating and make sure there aren't any major discrepancies.  Once this is done, we'll switch to the new system and display the rating graphic.

next, we'll remove the "leave feedback" box from the orders page and leave just the 1 - 5 rating, and add a link to the vendor pages that shows up when you've ordered from them that you can click on and leave a review.

then, we'll give the option to sort reviews by most recent or by review weight and display the buyer's stats next to the review (total spent, total transaction, number of vendors bought from, and maybe buyer weight)

There is one last thing on deck, but I'm going to leave it as a surprise

I just have to say again that I am so pleased with the reception the interview is getting with everyone.  Lot's of warm fuzzy feelings over here.  Thank you everyone for your support.  It wasn't perfect, and I've learned a lot about publicity and handling it responsibly already, but over all I couldn't be much happier with how it's all turning out.

I like your avatar.  took me a minute to realize what was going on there.

it's not an attack, it's a known bug that is requiring quite a bit of reconfiguration to get rid of, so we haven't gotten there yet.