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I like Amazon's 5 star rating system because it also tells you how many people gave the product which rating. There's a big difference if 20 people gave a produ

by nimbix 17y ago

I like Amazon's 5 star rating system because it also tells you how many people gave the product which rating. There's a big difference if 20 people gave a product 3 stars or if 10 gave it 5 stars and 10 gave it 1 star. Amazon's system makes this difference visible, but most others don't.

Genghis_Cohen 17y ago
In fact, the best books often have all 1s or 5s. Boring books have all 3s. The variance may be more interesting than the average
zain 17y ago
Is everyone looking at a different Yelp than I am? I see the same ratings distribution as Amazon on Yelp, as well as a "trend" graph that tells you how the ratings changed over time. Here's a screenshot: http://img.skitch.com/20090504-n2jsr44y1py38pbd5wgcqs5uyn.png http://img.skitch.com/20090504-n2jsr44y1py38pbd5wgcqs5uyn.pn...
- nimbix 17y ago
  The article made me think that they use a one-dimensional star count (could be because of that image), so my reply was formed around that idea. I have to admit I never checked what kind of rating Yelp actually uses.
- pmjoyce 17y ago
  I still think this lacks any degree of real clarity, although I admit that it looks like it does. At best I might use the trend graphs as an starting point from which to interrogate the qualitative data (comments). One major problem is the need to click through to the detail page to see these charts, this doesn't lend itself to easy decision making on the fly. However, the real issue is that even when you do click through, it doesn't show probably another important metric by which to judge: volume of votes over time. If you were to add that into the equation and suddenly the user has 3 charts per venue to interrogate to establish the reliability of the initial score out of 5. I think that's a reasonably big ask for someone who just wants to know where's to get a decent Kung Pao chicken around here.

by nimbix 17y ago

Genghis_Cohen 17y ago

In fact, the best books often have all 1s or 5s. Boring books have all 3s. The variance may be more interesting than the average

zain 17y ago

Is everyone looking at a different Yelp than I am? I see the same ratings distribution as Amazon on Yelp, as well as a "trend" graph that tells you how the ratings changed over time. Here's a screenshot: http://img.skitch.com/20090504-n2jsr44y1py38pbd5wgcqs5uyn.png http://img.skitch.com/20090504-n2jsr44y1py38pbd5wgcqs5uyn.pn...

nimbix 17y ago
The article made me think that they use a one-dimensional star count (could be because of that image), so my reply was formed around that idea. I have to admit I never checked what kind of rating Yelp actually uses.
pmjoyce 17y ago
I still think this lacks any degree of real clarity, although I admit that it looks like it does. At best I might use the trend graphs as an starting point from which to interrogate the qualitative data (comments). One major problem is the need to click through to the detail page to see these charts, this doesn't lend itself to easy decision making on the fly. However, the real issue is that even when you do click through, it doesn't show probably another important metric by which to judge: volume of votes over time. If you were to add that into the equation and suddenly the user has 3 charts per venue to interrogate to establish the reliability of the initial score out of 5. I think that's a reasonably big ask for someone who just wants to know where's to get a decent Kung Pao chicken around here.