Silk Road forums

Support => Customer support => Topic started by: BongSong on May 11, 2013, 03:06 am

Title: Vendor ranking has disapeared from my vendor account
Post by: BongSong on May 11, 2013, 03:06 am
I was ranked at 98% over this last year and now it shows:

has been a vendor for 1 year
was last seen: today
is unranked with 0% positive feedback from 28 transactions
has 34 fans - become a fan

Is this a bug?
Title: Re: Vendor ranking has disapeared from my vendor account
Post by: scout on May 11, 2013, 03:08 am
I haven't heard of that happening, but it might be worthwhile to get in touch with Vendor Support over on SR and see if they can fix that for you.
Title: Re: Vendor ranking has disapeared from my vendor account
Post by: Libertas on May 11, 2013, 03:13 am
I was ranked at 98% over this last year and now it shows:

has been a vendor for 1 year
was last seen: today
is unranked with 0% positive feedback from 28 transactions
has 34 fans - become a fan

Is this a bug?

The Wiki's got this one guys! :)

http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/wiki/index.php?title=Feedback_Score

Quote
Feedback Score

What is Feedback Scoring?

You may have noticed the (100) next some vendors names, this is their Feedback Score. This is a quick way of finding out how reputable a vendor is, a step to take before reading some of their actual feedback. This score is a weighted average, based on many aspect of their transactions. The weights are determined by a few factors, and here they are, in order of importance:

    How active a buyer is in rating other vendors
    The age of the rating
    The price of the transaction

In order for a vendor's rating to appear next to their name, they must be reviewed enough for it to be a meaningful average. This requires roughly 10 reviews per month, but can be more or less depending of the weights of the reviews.

The Formula

The buyer activity weight is determined by finding the average and standard deviation of the log of the number of vendors reviewed by buyers who've ever left a review. If the log of the number of vendors reviewed by the buyer who left the feedback is greater than the average, the review has a "buyer activity" weight of the number of standard deviations above the average plus one. If it is below average, then the weight is the inverse of the number of standard deviations below the average minus one.

The age weight is found by raising 1.02337 to the power of the review's age in days and then inverting it. We got 1.02337 by making a review half as valuable after one month as one that's just been posted.

The price weight comes from the following formula: 0.2*log(0.02*($price)+1)+1 where $price is in dollars.

You then multiply the weights together to get the total weight for that review. Add up all of the weighted reviews and divide by the total weight to get the weighted average, then do 25*(1-avg) to get "percent positive reviews" metric.

To get the seller rank, we find the averages and standard deviations of the "percent positive feedback" and the log of the total weight of the reviews for all active sellers. We then average the number of standard deviations a seller has above or below the average with a 4 to 1 weight on their average feedback over their total weight. This is a seller's rating, and we rank everyone according to this rating.

There are a few little details left out for brevity, but that's basically it.

BongSong, please take particular note of "This requires roughly 10 reviews per month, but can be more or less depending of the weights of the reviews."

Libertas
Title: Re: Vendor ranking has disapeared from my vendor account
Post by: BongSong on May 11, 2013, 03:15 am
I did contact support. I hope this can be fixed.   :'(
Title: Re: Vendor ranking has disapeared from my vendor account
Post by: Libertas on May 11, 2013, 03:18 am
I did contact support. I hope this can be fixed.   :'(

Don't know if you had the time to read my post before you posted yours, but I don't think this is something that Vendor Support will be able to help you with, it has to do with your transactions over a period of time and the weight of your buyers feedback.

Libertas
Title: Re: Vendor ranking has disapeared from my vendor account
Post by: BongSong on May 11, 2013, 03:18 am
Well I guess getting sales on SR are over for me.  :-\

I have switched to a different product. I have gotten a couple of sales before my ranking was changed, but as a buyer I usually would avoid the people with no ranking next to their name

Title: Re: Vendor ranking has disapeared from my vendor account
Post by: scout on May 11, 2013, 03:23 am
I did contact support. I hope this can be fixed.   :'(

Don't know if you had the time to read my post before you posted yours, but I don't think this is something that Vendor Support will be able to help you with, it has to do with your transactions over a period of time and the weight of your buyers feedback.

Libertas

Good points, and I knew that about the percentage ranking that shows after a vendor's name, but the fact that it shows 0% positive feedback was what confused me.  I wasn't aware that that part would ever revert to 0%.
Title: Re: Vendor ranking has disapeared from my vendor account
Post by: Libertas on May 11, 2013, 03:25 am
Well I guess getting sales on SR are over for me.  :-\

I have switched to a different product. I have gotten a couple of sales before my ranking was changed, but as a buyer I usually would avoid the people with no ranking next to their name

Everybody's gotta start somewhere eh? You had to when you first started up your vendor account! Just provide good quality product at good prices and you'll make your sales. They might be a little slow at first, but if you keep up a high level of service and you make customer security and satisfaction your number one priorities you'll build up a good reputation in no time! :)

Libertas
Title: Re: Vendor ranking has disapeared from my vendor account
Post by: Libertas on May 11, 2013, 03:31 am
Good points, and I knew that about the percentage ranking that shows after a vendor's name, but the fact that it shows 0% positive feedback was what confused me.  I wasn't aware that that part would ever revert to 0%.

As far as I'm aware it's because he hasn't "been reviewed enough for a meaningful average". It says it only shows up if a meaningful average can be calculated (it's worded a little weird) but if he needs roughly 10 reviews per month (possibly more if the reviewers don't carry much weight) then only making 28 transactions over a year+ of vending wouldn't cut it.

Also, if you ever see those vendors who have excellent reviews and feedback but then one review for a relatively inexpensive product drops their feedback by quite a large percentage - they're the feedback padders whose own fake buyer account weights counted for nothing at all! ;) Good system to have!