If you’re a Professional Member of Voice123.com, you probably have an opinion about the rating system they’ve had in place since SmartCast was launched just over a year ago. Most people I’ve heard from hated the system. Personally, I didn’t care all that much about it one way or another, because I saw it as having only a minor impact on my voiceover career.
But, I noticed this morning that there’s been a significant change in this system, and one I must say I rather like a lot. When I noticed this change, I popped over to the Voice123 blog to see if I could find some information, and sure enough, there’s something near the end of this entry, written by Omar Duque, Product Development Manager. Here’s the relevant bit …
…the rating system is being overhauled. It will not even be called that anymore. The original intent of it was to show how close one talent came to booking a job, but somewhere in between here and the ‘stars’, the true intention of it was lost in translation. The new version will be geared towards the original request of letting you know how you compared with talents who auditioned along side you, and will assist you more in knowing how close you came to getting hired.
As I said, I like this change, primarily because it gives me a much better handle on how the few auditions I do submit have been received by the clients. I’m interested in your thoughts, if you care of share them. Comments are open.
I really like it. I’m a newbie in the vo biz, and I find the feedback extremely valuable. Gotten a couple of jobs and some top ratings on voices123, but nothing from voices.com, so until you are hired at voices.com, you don’t know what works. Nothing like making the same mistakes over and over.
Mike,
Thank you for your comment. I had a very similar experience when I first signed up for Voice123.com and Voices.com a few years ago. I’d booked several jobs through auditions at Voice123.com before I booked my first job through an audition at Voices.com. I like both services and I continue to book work through both.
Be well,
Bob
Hi Bob,
I too was rather pleased with this change. The only problem at this time as I see it (since it’s so new more may crop up) is that when your audition is deleted it still comes up as “opened” and you’re given a ranking of zero. Now maybe that’s good if that is the indication that your audition was deleted but it may also indicate that they chose not to rate the demo for whatever reason.
I still would like a delineation between “Opened”– listened to and “Deleted”. It makes no sense to me, with all the other details included about the ranking/rating of auditions that this is not addressed.
It’s funny though. Through all the complaints filed to V123 regarding this rating system their response has been rather terse and unbending almost to the point of being caustic to the talents. I never in a million years would’ve guessed they were taking all those comments and suggestions into consideration to improve the system. Correspondence from V123 to their talents make it seem as though they don’t care how we feel or consider our suggestions for improvement. All along they were listening and implemented positive changes. I wonder why they choose to send out such a negative cold vibe toward their talents when deep down they really do seem to not only listen but to also take action. I guess they really do care.
Dina,
Thank you for adding to the conversation. I agree, especially with your point about distinguishing between opened and deleted.
Be well,
Bob