Downvote spam in plugin store plugins (now discussion about plugin community problems)

[The26]

Me (and a few other members) have noticed that some of the plugins (more recent ones) have suspiciously low ratings. I happen to be the victim of this too. The worst thing is that there are no comments saying what's wrong with the plugin, not even a simple "plugin bad", no reports, nothing. Over the span of 1-2 days, the vote count on my plugin increased by somewhere around 20-30 and the rating dropped by around 30%. So, I'm curious, how many of you have experienced this dislike bombing, and why do you think that's happening? Perhaps they're bot accounts, trolls or someone organizing hate groups on certain people? I'd also love to hear your theories.

[Jinan]

I was thinking the same thing probably bot I been eye balling the store for a while now and most of the ratings indeed goes down by a huge margin if I look at your spruce tree and the mini store from Shiruku they probably lost 23%-35%of the vote since the last time I check which is yesterday its about 78% but now it's somewhere 55% it's crazy how things turn like that I think the moderators or dev needs to do something before this thing spills out of control

Also a suggestion: We should also have a history of who likes or dislike the plugin and give feedback to what's wrong with it just to monitor players.

[yusuf8a684]

I am also experiencing it for a long time. Seeing there are above 90 rating plugins out there with almost same downloads and then seeing your working, all details and images given plugin have below 90 or 80 feels soo bad, removes the joy spirits of me.

I literally write every detail in plugin description + all images in thumbnails I gave my extra work. Everything works but still...

Now just noticed a beginner plugin maker, even tho being a beginner he made great first plugins, got below 50 and it really made me question this

[yusuf8a684]

Those plugins were around 95 and slowly get to 80-85 overtime, all of sudden and no comments at all. And just saw that my copenhill dropped to 66 today what a surprise I guess... It was at least around 85-90 if I remember correctly but not 66!

And now just look at this, very nice beginner plugins unlike others but well they got worse ratings than the worse we see

[The26]

I am also experiencing it for a long time. Seeing there are above 90 rating plugins out there with almost same downloads and then seeing your working, all details and images given plugin have below 90 or 80 feels soo bad, removes the joy spirits of me.

I literally write every detail in plugin description + all images in thumbnails I gave my extra work. Everything works but still...

Now just noticed a beginner plugin maker, even tho being a beginner he made great first plugins, got below 50 and it really made me question this

That is something I really agree with. Such dislike bombing (and without no apparent reason, no comments...) can really hurt people, especially new plugin creators. While looking through some plugins which are victims of the said dislike bombing, I saw some people catching onto the fact that plugins are getting unfairly disliked. I really hope that the situation gets sorted out and the culprit gets punished hard...

[Naufhal]

Me Also Same. But Why My Plugin Is very Bad? I Said This Good. Or Maybe Its probably Hacker?

[Naufhal]

Its screenshot of my downloaded plugin. But why dislike to 10%? Please Help Admin For Ban A Bot Account

[The26]

Screenshot_20220504-205246_TheoTown.jpg

Its screenshot of my downloaded plugin. But why dislike to 10%? Please Help Admin For Ban A Bot Account

To be fair, I kind of understand the hate on some of your plugins (no offense). However, what I completely don't understand is why that road plugin of yours is so downvoted. It's quite a useful plugin which does not deserve the hate.

Edit: forgot to mention that you downvoted your road without median line

[Naufhal]

Screenshot_20220504-205246_TheoTown.jpg

Its screenshot of my downloaded plugin. But why dislike to 10%? Please Help Admin For Ban A Bot Account

To be fair, I kind of understand the hate on some of your plugins (no offense). However, what I completely don't understand is why that road plugin of yours is so downvoted. It's quite a useful plugin which does not deserve the hate.

Edit: forgot to mention that you downvoted your road without median line

Because not supporting anything. Like bridge. Tunnel. Diagonal. Taffic light. Other. So it downvote. Function are for road Very Cheap!

[Shiruku]

As a beginner plugin maker, I was not expecting much of my plugins. However, the feedback I got within the Discord server was positive. At first, the plugins were well received and there were compliments within the comment section. How the rating was dropped right after a night certainly caused a headache for me as the plugins were nicely accepted by the community. I thought it was the night frame code lines but turns out it was not the case. Like every other new plugin creators, we certainly want to attract new people to use our plugins. It is unfortunate for me and many other creators who excel in such activity to be neglected because of those "ghost ratings". I would appreciate to have the moderators tackle the situation in the best way possible.

[kyoshimine1]

I recently went into the Plugin Store and yes, there are a couple of plugins with a lot of down votes (some of them are not bad at all).

I also looked at my plugins, the rating went down but only by 1% at most. The funny thing is that my plugin Water Well went down quite a bit considering that a little while ago it had about 88-90% positive votes and now it has 68%. I know it's not the best plugin I made and the design it has probably isn't the best, but it's strange that its percentage is casually decreasing when all this is happening.

[Stepanhie]

finally resolved
Good ending:

[Naufhal]

finally resolved
Good ending:
Screenshot_20220505_213544.jpg

Bro The Image Is So Funny!

[The26]

The issue is resolved! Thanks to people who looked into this issue, shared their stories and also the people who removed those spam downvotes

[KingShoot]

finally!

[The26]

Slight update:
Here's a screenshot posted by Kai on Discord (I censored out some names and possibly private information).

I sometimes don't understand people. Why make a huge fuss when you leave a community? How much attention do you need? I have high doubts that it's hard to just stop playing the game without causing so much drama... Well, at least the problem's solved.
Also, what the hell, Patrick, you're so ruthless!

[yusuf8a684]

Who is he tho? I don't even know that guy being in the community. Looks soo random, from deeps of the community

Light me up if you know him, please

[yusuf8a684]

Oh, c'mon... Why my copenhill plugin still getting downvotes tho? Like what's wrong with it. It was 90 and slowly getting lower and lower. It is a bot or not, i don't care, just makes me disappoint from it. What's soo different about it than other ones? Even dropped the price of it to minimum.

There is the same case for my other plugins too. Always below 90 and around 80-85, mostly new ones

The most hitting part for me is dislikes without reasons, I hate about it, at least comment about what's the issue. Don't scare yourself to share your opinions with me, just use a proper attitude. I like criticism

[yusuf8a684]

... and none can fix this now.

Definitely, some bunch of pixels needs night animations. I would love to have glowing blood please... Anyways

How come this plugin got more up votes than my average plugin ratings? What am I doing wrong? There isn't even a single message about what I am doing wrong on them. There is always at least 10 people down voting them out of 80 or soo votes yet this plugin's ratings going up and up. It's not just this plugin about this case. This is just an example. Even tho it's bots or not this is not going to change anything

I am giving my days and more meaningful things than time to my plugins just to have a feeling of some people are atleast using my plugins in their city and especially liking it, if not at least giving constructive criticism about them. Even seeing 1 city screenshot with my plugin in it makes me soo happy about it

I wish I had screenshots of my plugins on store before but I can promise out of 18-19 plugins on 1 or 3 hardly passed 90s...

Plugin store and discord may have killed the forum but not only that, they made the community a lot more worse.
The quantity is over quality and I kinda feel like they are trying to feed the players with plugin yet this makes quality plugin makers to not satisfy from TheoTown anymore.
What's the point of "most plugin publisher, most downloaded plugins, most popular authors of months" then? Those are just to full fill some spirits in people now. The reason of me having fun from TheoTown was the joy of seeing people using them but definitely not seeing ...bullshit like this. Thanks for killing forum and creating an unsociable community.

If you are new to TheoTown, just play your game. It's community is literally rock boned
Sorry Lobby but that's what it is, community was the key of your game's long life but I see none now, or none to have joy from it

In conclusion, I don't think I will make plugins thinking for others but only if I want to have fun. Might publish here but who cares. It was my hobby and only one soo.
Hopefully community gets better and we can actually have fun out of "a working in game plugin distribution?" I don't know but getting better is probably harder than getting worse

[cesareborgia94]

That is why I stay in forum and post here instead, it may be slow but at least is not as mischievous and evil as Discord. Also it is better to post plugins here, sure not many will see it but it is for the community and not the users, it is the forum where the creativity begins and flourish as I remember back then and then Discord just suddenly takes all that plugin making enthusiasm away. That's where my plugin creativity slowly diminished. Currently on Theotown Steam version, and seeing all the plugins on the forum just reignites the plugin making nostalgia back then. The community is and always centered here at this forum, not at some Discord discord promoting application. I shun that place (sorry) but its for my own happiness. If I ever made any plugin, should it happen, I would post here instead of the store (which is always a crazy diamond making scheme). Just pay for the Theotown PC version and enjoy making plugins like you want too, just let them crazy phone users waste their diamonds on plugins when you can download one in forum for free. Note: this is just my opinion, and lel I'm probably not making any plugins soon, just need to find a good computer application to make textures kek...