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- New tab ratings: I'm calling bullshit
New tab ratings: I'm calling bullshit
So why bother starting this thread if people are gonna come up with good ideas but you are just gonna stick with the totally flawed system that you are moaning about but hope the arseholes who are abusing it are gonna behave themselves,
Priceless
I'm not saying we have to stick with the system we currently have. And in case there's any question, I'm not ignoring or disparaging others' ideas. What I'm saying is that regardless of whether we stick with the system we currently have, or we tweak it, or we come up with a totally new system, it's still going to come down to the user, and whether or not they use it properly.
I started this thread for the same reason I've started similar threads in the past – to call on people to stop abusing the rating system, as it completely undermines the purpose of the site. I feel I've been very clear about that.
I have a Blondie tab that is quite accurate, viewed over 5000 times, 5 star rating 4 times and faved 7 times. I like.
I also have a Stepponwolf song that I've tabbed how I played it in the 80's so its not accurate to the original song which I think the tabber should point out, yet, viewed over 4000 times, 5 star rating 3 times and faved 4 times. I also like. So it looks like one has been rated 5 star due to its accuracy and the other for its, i dunno, style of play perhaps. Anyway, my point is all ratings should have a comment left or perhaps click boxes where different aspects of a tab can be rated thus doing away with the apparently tedious task of typing comments, also if its a requested tab, which i think should be limited to 2 or 3 at a time, you can't request another until you have rated and commented on the ones that have been posted. Honesty on ratings is vital and I think all the tabbers are capable of taking an connstructive comment on the chin so as to do any rectification as may be needed.
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also if its a requested tab, which i think should be limited to 2 or 3 at a time, you can't request another until you have rated and commented on the ones that have been posted
I like this idea. Of all my tabs, I'd estimate roughly half (if not more) were requests, either taken from the request list or requested of me personally via PM. But of all those requests I've filled, I'd say at most only half (if not less) have been rated. Which is why you don't see me tagging as much stuff on the request list these days, and why I've posted a notice on my profile page that I'm no longer taking personal requests.
I still think there should only be the option to say that a tab is either good or bad, and not super fantastic 100% died in the wool perfect five stars, and if it is good more people will say so, and if ten people say it's good then that's a more accurate system than the present crappy one. There is one other thing to take into account, perception. I'm a big fan of Sweet Child o Mine by GnR, back in the 90s the song was tabbed in Guitarist magazine and I got my trusty Strat out and slaved over the guitar intro, I learnt it note for note as tabbed ( I just couldn't play it like Slash!), then, about five years ago, I was jamming with a bunch of lads and we did that song. Steve, the lead guitarist, one of the best I've ever seen, he used to do EVH solos better than the man himself!! was playing Slash's intro but not the way I knew it, how could I be wrong, but Steves a rock god so how can he be wrong? It's all about perception, how each person perceives something so who's to say that their tab is correct? Lon, you're a movie buff, you must have seen Rashomon?
I have (love me some Kurosawa) and you're right, a lot of tabbing is about perception. That said, some folks' perception is better than others. It's about how well tuned your ear is, not how long you've been playing or how technically proficient you are. Ask Michael Anthony how many times he had to lay heavier on the bass to cover up Eddie Van Halen unknowingly playing out of tune.
So there are over 40 versions of The White Stripes “7 Nation Army”/“Seven Nation Army” on this site. Most are just about the same, but some of them are utter bollocks. With 5 star ratings. Multiples, in some cases.
Now without debating that the line isn't actually played on a bass (baritone guitar), there's really not a need for 40 (40!!) versions of a tab here. Especially on one of the simpler songs you'll ever play.
Cleaning up is a completely different problem, but we really need to keep things from getting too much worse.
1. No showing a rating until there are 3 ratings on the tab
2. List who has Rated the tab. And what their rating was, at least for Admins/Mods
3. Require a comment for all ratings, or for none. The current system seems to push 5-star ratings
4. Add a ‘Like’ function so people can show support for the Tabber. Or “Kudos”. Which could also be on Forum postings. People with lots of “Kudo” points would show how involved their are in the community (how many would Lon have???). Yes, there would be people who “Kudo” everything to “win,” but they wouldn't be causing any damage to the rating system that way
5. Name the submitter on the tab title, along with their Avatar, and the number of ratings. A 5-star, 1 rating tab with a Bieber Avatar would be easy to skip over in favor of one from a known good contributor.
That, and a funky groove, will get people dancing. Which the funky groove will do all on its own - shows what my opinion is worth!
Go through all those Seven Nation Army tabs and count how many are identical – submitted by different users who copied from the same outside source. We have LOT of tabs like that.
It's also not the only tab we have of a guitar lick wrongly credited to bass. The popular lead lick from The Bad Touch (aka the Discovery Channel song) by The Bloodhound Gang is guitar, yet every tab we have of it is for that guitar lick, not for the actual bass, which is nothing but disco-like roots-and-octaves eighths.
EDIT: I meant to say this but got distracted earlier (my niece and nephew are visiting for a couple weeks and right now it's like trying to think through a din of cackling hyenas):
I think it would be of great help if Johnny had more people who could screen new submissions in order to help weed out those kinds of duplicate tabs. Not that we should disallow multiple versions, but if it's just another user copying the same tab from ultimate-guitar that someone else copied from there, it's pointless to have it in our database (in fact if we could get rid of every tab copied from another source, that would be aces).
And I've said this many times before as well, but it would also be of great help to edit out comments some tabbers tend to include, like “100% correct” and “perfect” and other such remarks they include when filling in the title/artist fields. Not to mention if people actually bothered to spell band and song names correctly. It only takes a second to look it up and see that it's The Police, not just Police; The Offspring, not just Offspring. Guns N' Roses, not Guns And Roses or Guns 'n Roses. Ozzy Osbourne, not Ozzy Osborne, and on and on.
That's a good point there Lon, there's Johnny and The Dude working on tab submissions and just yourself moderating the Forum and as we know, Johnny has been busy working on his degree so it's hardly surprising that the White Stripes fiasco has got out of hand, an editor to weed out the crap is a great idea. Someone like Sidsquishus would be ideal but I'm not sure if he's still active so Mr Zee or Just3boyz are a good choice, imo.
Unless you are up for the job, there's not a lot of moderating required, as you know I make St Peter look like Charles Manson
Lon Said “And I've said this many times before as well, but it would also be of great help to edit out comments some tabbers tend to include, like “100% correct” and “perfect” and other such remarks they include when filling in the title/artist fields. Not to mention if people actually bothered to spell band and song names correctly. It only takes a second to look it up and see that it's The Police, not just Police; The Offspring, not just Offspring. Guns N' Roses, not Guns And Roses or Guns 'n Roses. Ozzy Osbourne, not Ozzy Osborne, and on and on”.
I totally agree with this. All bands that have “THE” in front of their name seems to cause so much confusion. You end up with two searches for those bands because of “THE”.
Just to throw a spanner in the works, what happens if you get variations on a band name that is deliberate?
Echo And The Bunnymen used their name this way for their first 2 albums.
From their 3rd album to the present day they use Echo & The Bunnymen.
Do you group everything together under one version of the name?
Do you keep the separate versions as that is how the records/songs were released?
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