(NB41) Content Ratings 1.0.10

I've just brought, downloaded and installed this. I initially had problems, but newbie LAC's support was first class and got it working for me (It was a mistake I'd made!)

I'm now setting it up and playing around with it before going live on my community. Very impressed with the product and the support! MANY THANKS!!

Excellent DEV and awesome person. Very well made and the DEV works with you to make things happen that you'd like to see. Every suggestion rendered was answered to and implemented the best they could be. Absolutely impressed, I would definitely suggest this to anyone. It's well worth the money!

At the time of this writing, I would not recommend the purchase of this plugin even though I gave it 4 / 5 stars and I encourage you to read through the entirety of this review before purchase.  I am currently using Content Ratings v1.0.4 on IPS v4.1.17.1.  

Normally I would have no problem supporting the work of @newbie LAC.  He puts out good stuff into the IPS Marketplace.  He's quick on his response in the IPS support forums, regularly participates on a daily basis, and is willing to fix bugs or add in features.  You can see how he has responded to me multiple times in this plugin's support topic and I regularly recommend his Marketplace files to other clients.  

PROS

• The plugin supports adding in your own customized content ratings.  This means uploading your own icons and writing your own custom descriptions.  This is great if you want to really customize the content ratings to your community with fun and unique ratings beyond the standard "like."  For example, if you have a gaming community, you can create your own unique ratings like Buzzkill, Killshot, Aim Higher, etc.  If you have a news community, you can create unique ratings like Informative, Questionable, Fake News, etc.  Add your own ratings and you've built a unique ratings system exclusively for your own community.  At the same time, he also includes a basic pack to get you started.  
• The plugin can also tie into the user's reputation.  This means that whenever a person gives a positive, neutral, or negative rating then it similarly increases, does nothing, or decreases the default IPS reputation.  This is important if you have a well-developed IPS reputation system such as member ranks, or want to display the member reputation widget on the profile.  

CONS

• The plugin does NOT support a content item's reputation.  This means is that even though it increases, does nothing, or decreases a user's reputation, it does not affect the reputation count of the associated content item.  This negatively affects all IPS communities in multiple ways, which is very unfortunate.  You can no longer have content items triggered as "popular" which affects both the Popular Now widget and the popular flag on the postbit; you cannot use custom templates that pull in reputation (eg. article widgets); and lastly, those who are are using IPS v4.1.17.1 will not be able to use one of the most innovative features of the new Leaderboard.  

In terms of the existing features and developer support, it's a very good plugin.  However, at the time of this writing, the developer hasn't noted he will build out the interaction between Content Ratings and a content item's reputation, which is why I unfortunately recommend that this plugin not be purchased until it does.  The default IPS reputation system is built out into so many different features that it's simply not worthwhile paying $35 / 6 mo for this plugin which will add fun new ratings but will be incompatible with the underlying reputation system in your IPS community. You can potentially have a community that relies upon Content Ratings, but you will need to strip out or hide all of the other default IPS reputation components, which is not something that I'm willing to do.  

Content Ratings is easily in a short list of my "wanted" plugins as I was very excited at the chance of building out my own unique and customized ratings system.  The plugin and developer are both worthy of being supported and - once again, I want to emphasize that @newbie LAC is one of the better and trusted third-party developers in the IPS Marketplace - but this plugin is a recommended "no buy" at this point in time from me.    

It's very intuitive and works very well. Keep up the great work, I love this.