For each report, we also have several time frames that you can view. The time frame either indicates when the image was uploaded, or when the artist joined our website. There is a mimimum vote number for each time frame:

Daily Charts - 2 votes
Weekly Charts - 3 votes
Monthly Charts - 4 votes
Yearly Charts - 6 votes
All Time Charts - 8 votes

The images/artists also have to have at least a '7' average rating to be included in the top ten charts.

We would like to raise these minimum requirements, so that more votes are required to make it in the charts, but we can't do this until there is more voting going on for the images on the site.

All votes are calculated each night for those artists that have ratings enabled on their portfolios. Images that are skipped or votes that are over a '10' are not used in calculating the averages, even if they do show up in the image comments section.

Remember that ratings seen next to image comments are only about 20% of the total votes that image has received. The other 80% of votes without comments are hidden for only the artist to view.

If you make it into the Top Ten, you are sent an e-mail that day and a 'top ten' icon is displayed on your portfolio & image for the day. This icon will stay there until you are bumped off the charts by another image/artist with a higher rating. If your ratings are high-enough, you will stay on the charts for longer periods of time and keep the Top Ten icon on your artwork.

As with any user rating system, ratings are meerly opinions of those that got the chance to look at your artwork that day. It's impossible to compare a photo, abstract art and 3D rendering and say which one is better or worse.

The rating system was created as a fun feature to see what type of art is preferred by people surfing the website. We see many people that get too caught up in the ratings and forget the reason why they joined the website in the first place. Message board topics about ratings are always the most viewed and responded to, because everyone has strong feelings one way or another about the whole rating system. If you find yourself too caught up in the ratings game, simply turn them off in your member preferences and get back to creating art for the love of it.

Early next year, we plan to spend some time improving the rating system and the top ten charts with some of the suggestions we have read. Thanks for your feedback.

The last thing we want to say is just to encourage everyone to rate more artwork and offer positive comments on the artwork that you like. If you do get a negative comment from someone else, don't respond to it. This will only discourage people from leaving feedback on the site. Keep your comments positive or helpful and everyone wins. Happy voting!

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