So I looked at my reputation score today, and I was frustrated to find that I had bad scores on a number of things. These things made no sense at all.
I have a bad score for response time and response rate. Why does this factor into my score? I have a low response rate because a number of messages I've recieved weren't from customers at all, but personal messages from sellers and discussions about custom work. Why should these effect my seller rating? I only missed one customer message since I started my seller page, and it turns out the message was just a bad review, left by a customer who didn't read the description of the model, and was upset it wasn't 3d printable, which was not the model's purpose in the first place.
And response time, serously? I very much doubt anyone on this site makes enough income from selling 3d models each month, that they can devote their full time work hours to this site. I personally run a 3d printing business as my full time job, selling 3d models was just a side hobby for me. As a result, I don't have time to sit at my computer and watch for questions from customers on this site. I do in fact respond to customers, when they actually have a question or comment that requires an answer. Expecting me to respond to every single message or comment, regardless of where it came from or what it was for, to keep my score high, is incredibly stupid. It means I'd be locked in an endless back and forth, frantically responding to every notification, message, comment, etc, making up answers in order to keep a decent response score. Conversations don't generally go on forever, thats not how communication works. Sometimes they can just end, with no need for a response.
Also, I noticed there are scores on models as well. These also have absurd and arbitrary requirements for a good score. Why do I need to have so many tags and preview pics? If a model can be fully shown to a customer with a 2 or 3 pictures, punishing me for not having a hundred freaking preview pictures is insane. And seriously, the number of TAGS. There's only so many words a person could use to describe a particular item. Why do I need to come up with a huge list of random barely connected search terms, just to get a good score for tags? Having a few key tags is all you need.
Another thing, having a rating for file formats is nonsensical as well. If a model is rigged, there's only so many formats you can export it to, to preserve the model's rig. Exporting a rigged model to OBJ is pointless, and completely defeats the point of selling a rigged model in the first place. I just today posted a 3d printable model, and the rating system complained at me for not having a dozen other formats along with the industry standard STL format. Why should 3d printable models need any other format than STL? Its the only truly common format that every 3d printing software uses. I don't understand why I need to export models that are designed for 3d printing, into formats designed for 3d rendering and animation. More nonsense policies that have zero basis in logic.
I'm not sure how these scores effect anything, but I'd be very angry if I found out that they give your models less priority in the search system for customers, as a result of a lower score. Considering how pointless the score system is, All you'd be doing is punishing sellers for no reason, and preventing your sellers, the people you claim to want to support, from actually doing what you built the site for.
You are right with some points for example the tags or preview pictures.
Why seller with less but relevant tags (bus model tagged as "bus, Mercedes") should have worse score than seller which gives bus model "bus, Mercedes, car, airplane, ship, train, street, city, modern, superb, stunning, great, best" tags.
I agree that this gives absolutely no sense and it only supports category spamming in other words it supports models to be placed in incorrect categories.
AFAIK response rate and time does not affect anything, it just shows to your customers what to expect from you in case they would need support. You don't need to respond to every single message to keep response rate high, only the first response in the conversation counts towards the rate.
As for the models score, i partially agree with you, there are lots to be improved. You need to keep in mind that model score system was introduced to promote good model publishing practices. There are tons of very poorly presented models on the marketplace, which leads to customers frustration and negatively impacts cgtrader's revenue. Model score system supposedly should improve situation, but i think it has quite a few flaws. Keeping good score becomes a chore for some and it is heavily abused by others. I think it's time for cgtrader to revise the system, so it more faithfully serve its intended purpose.
"Publishing score" was a good but badly applied idea. But if CGT has enough money for server space and allows to upload thrash-info (irrelevant additional file formats, unneeded pictures etc.) -- it's CGT's problem, not our. At the start I've tried to add additional formats (useless for me or for my customers OBJ, Parasolid, STEP, IGES and other) but finally I'm just adding copies of pictures... spends time... But anyway I feel some kind of guilt (because buyers deserves just to have ENOUGH information without any spam)
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