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Burr · 07-22-2002, 09:43 PM

*agrees* All my ideas have ended in the same general place.

Of course, there's one other course of action we could take that doesn't have all these problems.

Don't rank the muds.

The system isn't fine as it is, because it has at least as many problems as all the systems we've been trying to come up with, and it is rather meaningless besides, as it mainly only an inaccurate measure of total playerbase, a measuremen we've already got in more useful form listed in the mud info.

That said, besides the possibility of cheating, which seems to be present in any possible system, they all also have the problem of comparing apples to oranges. That's what I was mostly concerned with. But even if we get an accurate measure of their average quality, people's personal preferences vary too much. Giving someone the mud with the best average quality doesn't help them much if it isn't the kind of mud they are looking for in the first place.

Given all of that, the real problem is that we presume to think we can adequately rank the muds at all.

Now, of course, listing the muds randomly each time a person visits the site would make things more fair for the mud admins, but that wouldn't help the person the site is really intended to help: the mudder looking for a mud to play.

If you wanted to offer someone a piece of fruit, out of hundreds of kinds of fruit, you wouldn't immediately start listing the fruit. Rather, you'd first ask an intelligent probing question such as, what kind of fruit do you want? Big or small? Citrus, deciduous, berry, or exotic?

In the same way, it makes no sense to have a list of muds as the first thing a person sees when they walk in. (And it makes even less sense to present such a list as a ranking of quality, when it logically isn't.)

It woud make much more sense to put a prelimary search on the front page, allowing the user to choose how they wish the entire database of muds to be listed. Here's an example...

***

Let me see muds in the following order:

Playerbase: Ascending, Descending, Ascending Deviation from Mean?

Focus: Playerkilling, Roleplaying, OOC Social

***

For the focus, give mud admins a choice rather like stat modification in character generation. Give them a fixed number of points and make them divide the points up between the focuses.

If there is a tie, then order the tying muds randomly within that particular area of the list.

Edit: Another way of listing sites might be on the basis of Challenge Level (Ascending or Descending). That way mud newbies could find muds that cater to newbies, and mud vets could find muds that cater to vets.

07-22-2002, 09:43 PM	#18
Burr Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 123	agrees All my ideas have ended in the same general place. Of course, there's one other course of action we could take that doesn't have all these problems. Don't rank the muds. The system isn't fine as it is, because it has at least as many problems as all the systems we've been trying to come up with, and it is rather meaningless besides, as it mainly only an inaccurate measure of total playerbase, a measuremen we've already got in more useful form listed in the mud info. That said, besides the possibility of cheating, which seems to be present in any possible system, they all also have the problem of comparing apples to oranges. That's what I was mostly concerned with. But even if we get an accurate measure of their average quality, people's personal preferences vary too much. Giving someone the mud with the best average quality doesn't help them much if it isn't the kind of mud they are looking for in the first place. Given all of that, the real problem is that we presume to think we can adequately rank the muds at all. Now, of course, listing the muds randomly each time a person visits the site would make things more fair for the mud admins, but that wouldn't help the person the site is really intended to help: the mudder looking for a mud to play. If you wanted to offer someone a piece of fruit, out of hundreds of kinds of fruit, you wouldn't immediately start listing the fruit. Rather, you'd first ask an intelligent probing question such as, what kind of fruit do you want? Big or small? Citrus, deciduous, berry, or exotic? In the same way, it makes no sense to have a list of muds as the first thing a person sees when they walk in. (And it makes even less sense to present such a list as a ranking of quality, when it logically isn't.) It woud make much more sense to put a prelimary search on the front page, allowing the user to choose how they wish the entire database of muds to be listed. Here's an example... * Let me see muds in the following order: Playerbase: Ascending, Descending, Ascending Deviation from Mean? Focus: Playerkilling, Roleplaying, OOC Social * For the focus, give mud admins a choice rather like stat modification in character generation. Give them a fixed number of points and make them divide the points up between the focuses. If there is a tie, then order the tying muds randomly within that particular area of the list. Edit: Another way of listing sites might be on the basis of Challenge Level (Ascending or Descending). That way mud newbies could find muds that cater to newbies, and mud vets could find muds that cater to vets.