4 ms·

I'm surprised more of these comments aren't focused on how glaringly flawed the 5-star democratic rating system has become. I felt like the rise of Uber made it

I'm surprised more of these comments aren't focused on how glaringly flawed the 5-star democratic rating system has become. I felt like the rise of Uber made it abundantly clear that anything less than a 5.0 means you were not satisfied with the service and don't think the business should continue.

drstewart 6y ago
And then people act surprised Netflix moved to a thumbs up/down model for this very reason
jedimastert 6y ago
As always relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/937/ https://xkcd.com/937/
3np 6y ago
This drives me nuts. Im operating under the assumption of a linear distribution. 4/5 still means in the 80th percentile. It’s better than average. 3/5 is “not amazing, not bad, what I would expect, an utterly normal experience”. In some platforms I am happy with everything, leaving a 4, getting the follow up question “what went wrong?” Nothing went wrong, they still exceeded expectations but I reserve my 5s for those “once in a year, best in class” experiences. I refuse to shift my MO to “less than 4 means something was bad”.
- fairity 6y ago
  Why not adjust your ratings to fit the prevailing perception? Presumably the reason you're leaving reviews is not for yourself, but to help others, be it the business or future customers. To that end, it seems an adjustment is in order.
  - 3np 6y ago
    If the platform clearly communicates "this is what different rankings mean in our system" before I submit the input sure, but that is yet to happen.
  - modo_mario 6y ago
    How is the prevailing perception helpful to anyone ? The scale he uses makes sense and honestly due to the boatloads of useless (or fake) reviews i'm much more likely to take anything below 5 seriously or look at em quicker because it's there that I expect people that properly point out how it was good but what could be better at like a 4 (perfection is rare) and how the service or product failed them at like a 1 or 2. (Tho I take into account that there's always shitheads and karens)
- strogonoff 6y ago
  Each “linear” rating you give may significantly affect someone else’s business, but is in fact more revealing about yourself and your expectations—and is based on a scale that can be really different from mine or other customers’. I gave up on a linear system of rating long time ago. While seemingly technically correct, it never made total sense in real world—and makes less and less of it as customer bases become more diverse. There are countless individual preferences, weighed arbitrarily by each person. For example, with accommodation, some want casual friendly attitude, others want staff to stay strictly formal, etc. What is minute to me can be a huge deal to you. Rating systems can’t capture reviewer’s background in such a fine detail and control for it in rating calculations. Meanwhile, business owner’s ability to manage prospective guests’ expectations in advance is usually very limited (first, to manage them you must anticipate them, which requires non-trivial experience; second, it’s generally impossible to deny service to someone you suspect might not like your approach without getting a negative review anyway). This applies to dining and other service and to a degree product businesses. My rating system now is 99% binary. (A) If I am on balance positive and want to support continued existence of a business, I give the service or the product a 5-star review (where I explain why I’m favorable and can note drawbacks that could be subjective or fall outside of business operator’s control). (B) If not, I post no feedback, but I may convey it in person. (C) Only if I’m unhappy about aspects that are definitely under business operator’s control, communication with the operator fails, and I want to warn other customers about important but non-obvious factors they should really know about, am I going to post a negative review. Except for fraud, I try to wait for a while first, because upon reflection those factors can still seem subjective. Conversing with small business operators contributed to my decision. On the other hand, when reading reviews, I am comparing the number of reviews to competitors (adjusted for business lifetime, too many or too few is a red flag), see what specifically is complained about in reviews (I want to see complaints about things that don’t matter to me much, perhaps from people with heightened expectations; no complaints at all is a red flag, but so are complaints about real basics if they seem genuine and not made out of spite), and monitor for any signs of artificial positive feedback or listing swaps (immediate red flags).
- doix 6y ago
  I agree with you, but I can't in good conscience leave anything less than 5 stars for people working in the gig economy. As long as an Uber driver gets me to where I'm going and isn't driving recklessly I'll give them a 5 even though most of them should be a 3 (going by a linear system). There's no way I could mess with someone's livelihood like that.
  - 3np 6y ago
    Oh, that’s a different story. And some food delivery apps ask you for a review of the driver but not the restaurant? Seems backwards. There’s not much room for exceptional above “arrived inviolated in a realistic time considering traffic” so living up to that is 5 stars.
asdff 6y ago
We live in a world where we are encouraged to tip the delivery driver before the food even arrives.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

drstewart 6y ago

And then people act surprised Netflix moved to a thumbs up/down model for this very reason

jedimastert 6y ago

As always relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/937/ https://xkcd.com/937/

3np 6y ago

This drives me nuts. Im operating under the assumption of a linear distribution. 4/5 still means in the 80th percentile. It’s better than average. 3/5 is “not amazing, not bad, what I would expect, an utterly normal experience”. In some platforms I am happy with everything, leaving a 4, getting the follow up question “what went wrong?” Nothing went wrong, they still exceeded expectations but I reserve my 5s for those “once in a year, best in class” experiences. I refuse to shift my MO to “less than 4 means something was bad”.

fairity 6y ago
Why not adjust your ratings to fit the prevailing perception? Presumably the reason you're leaving reviews is not for yourself, but to help others, be it the business or future customers. To that end, it seems an adjustment is in order.
- 3np 6y ago
  If the platform clearly communicates "this is what different rankings mean in our system" before I submit the input sure, but that is yet to happen.
- modo_mario 6y ago
  How is the prevailing perception helpful to anyone ? The scale he uses makes sense and honestly due to the boatloads of useless (or fake) reviews i'm much more likely to take anything below 5 seriously or look at em quicker because it's there that I expect people that properly point out how it was good but what could be better at like a 4 (perfection is rare) and how the service or product failed them at like a 1 or 2. (Tho I take into account that there's always shitheads and karens)
strogonoff 6y ago
Each “linear” rating you give may significantly affect someone else’s business, but is in fact more revealing about yourself and your expectations—and is based on a scale that can be really different from mine or other customers’. I gave up on a linear system of rating long time ago. While seemingly technically correct, it never made total sense in real world—and makes less and less of it as customer bases become more diverse. There are countless individual preferences, weighed arbitrarily by each person. For example, with accommodation, some want casual friendly attitude, others want staff to stay strictly formal, etc. What is minute to me can be a huge deal to you. Rating systems can’t capture reviewer’s background in such a fine detail and control for it in rating calculations. Meanwhile, business owner’s ability to manage prospective guests’ expectations in advance is usually very limited (first, to manage them you must anticipate them, which requires non-trivial experience; second, it’s generally impossible to deny service to someone you suspect might not like your approach without getting a negative review anyway). This applies to dining and other service and to a degree product businesses. My rating system now is 99% binary. (A) If I am on balance positive and want to support continued existence of a business, I give the service or the product a 5-star review (where I explain why I’m favorable and can note drawbacks that could be subjective or fall outside of business operator’s control). (B) If not, I post no feedback, but I may convey it in person. (C) Only if I’m unhappy about aspects that are definitely under business operator’s control, communication with the operator fails, and I want to warn other customers about important but non-obvious factors they should really know about, am I going to post a negative review. Except for fraud, I try to wait for a while first, because upon reflection those factors can still seem subjective. Conversing with small business operators contributed to my decision. On the other hand, when reading reviews, I am comparing the number of reviews to competitors (adjusted for business lifetime, too many or too few is a red flag), see what specifically is complained about in reviews (I want to see complaints about things that don’t matter to me much, perhaps from people with heightened expectations; no complaints at all is a red flag, but so are complaints about real basics if they seem genuine and not made out of spite), and monitor for any signs of artificial positive feedback or listing swaps (immediate red flags).
doix 6y ago
I agree with you, but I can't in good conscience leave anything less than 5 stars for people working in the gig economy. As long as an Uber driver gets me to where I'm going and isn't driving recklessly I'll give them a 5 even though most of them should be a 3 (going by a linear system). There's no way I could mess with someone's livelihood like that.
- 3np 6y ago
  Oh, that’s a different story. And some food delivery apps ask you for a review of the driver but not the restaurant? Seems backwards. There’s not much room for exceptional above “arrived inviolated in a realistic time considering traffic” so living up to that is 5 stars.

asdff 6y ago

We live in a world where we are encouraged to tip the delivery driver before the food even arrives.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]