We need small limits on the rating system for the sake of new stories

[InfantryTerminator]

New stories and authors are often hurt by unfair ratings that either extremely lower their score or inflate it. Negative ones are often left by trolls or readers that give one star because they didn't like the premise, while camaraderie ratings (from those that came just to give a five star) inflates the score and it's a bad way to balance out the bad ones.

I know that stopping both is impossible, but there should be something in place that helps out new stories without taking a tool on the readers. So here is my idea:

Rating should grayed out or hidden (in the search, not story page) until the story gets 10-20 votes. This won't hurt readers as they will know that the story is new and rating might not reflect the quality, while new stories will be given a more fair start.

Increasing minimum amount of read chapters to rate should be enabled only stories with less than 25-50 votes, three chapters at best. It's not much, but it will prevent toxicity from lazy people without hurting readers. I know that many people want that limit at five and more, but it will only hurt readers while the trolls and camaraderie will simply skip through chapters.

 

[EternalSunset0]

Look at this clown... Proper chance? Proper Review? Rating with stars after reading? You openly admit to skip chapters, your view is subjective af, and you don't even give a 1-star.
Yes, I'm a petty fuck.
View attachment 9852

I just want to chime in that at least OP did reach chapter 75 (I think, didn't bother checking how the table of contents or chapters names were written as) and at least did not give a star rating that will drag the score down even more.

Although I didn't like the tone of the review, frankly speaking. It seemed quite ranty. Instead of a more complete review, it's like OP just ran down stuff he hated. But I'm not about to tell people what to do, and that story's not my business anyway.

 

[bigbear51]

Great, now we're truly reached the point where we're unironically reviewing a reviewer. And I really don't see a problem if they did give it a 1 or 2 star rating. Isn't that part of why people want to abolish the rating system? To force supposedly lazy readers to write down a review. If it's really a problem that they give it a bad rating. When they explicitly state why they dislike or hate a story, and even especially apparently go as far as 75 chapters into said story, then people really are just crying over getting a low rating, not because they didn't get proper critique.

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

Great, now we're truly reached the point where we're unironically reviewing a reviewer. And I really don't see a problem if they did give it a 1 or 2 star rating. Isn't that part of why people want to abolish the rating system? To force supposedly lazy readers to write down a review. If it's really a problem that they give it a bad rating. When they explicitly state why they dislike or hate a story, and even especially apparently go as far as 75 chapters into said story, then people really are just crying over getting a low rating, not because they didn't get proper critique.

OP carries a banner while spitting on it. That's my point. OP's ideas crumble when given the slightest scrutiny.

 

[Ddraig]

The only half decent idea I read in this thread is to auto-mark new novels with a "new" icon for a week or so.
And even then I am not sure if it should be implemented without considering the consequences of that change (people might starting avoiding either new or older series for example, slower series will be left to rot perhaps?)

 

[Reyezwriting]

I'm having PTSD reading this

 

[greyblob]

The only half decent idea I read in this thread is to auto-mark new novels with a "new" icon for a week or so.
And even then I am not sure if it should be implemented without considering the consequences of that change (people might starting avoiding either new or older series for example, slower series will be left to rot perhaps?)

Any stories below a certain number of words (10k for example) shouldn't be eligible for a rating. At least then there would be something to rate. Though, I don't think it really matters in the end.

 

[SailusGebel]

Any stories below a certain number of words (10k for example) shouldn't be eligible for a rating. At least then there would be something to rate. Though, I don't think it really matters in the end.

Oneshots peacefully dying without any ratings.

 

[greyblob]

As

Oneshots peacefully dying without any ratings.

As they should.

 

[SailusGebel]

As

As they should.

Anyway, you can abuse the word threshold by simply updating in bulk. Assuming, that it will be stated in the rules. If not, we will have an influx of people here on the forum. They will pester us why their stories can't be rated. I'm not smart enough, so I can't tell all the downsides. But, there will be smarter people, and they will try to abuse the algorithms, restrictions, etc. As I said before, there is nothing you can do to improve the rating system. By fixing problem A, you bring up problem B. Why even bother changing it?

 

[Ddraig]

As

As they should.

They tend to be better than 99% of the longer garbage

 

[SailusGebel]

They tend to be better than 99% of the longer garbage

That's the whole reason they should die.

 

[greyblob]

Anyway, you can abuse the word threshold by simply updating in bulk. Assuming, that it will be stated in the rules. If not, we will have an influx of people here on the forum. They will pester us why their stories can't be rated. I'm not smart enough, so I can't tell all the downsides. But, there will be smarter people, and they will try to abuse the algorithms, restrictions, etc. As I said before, there is nothing you can do to improve the rating system. By fixing problem A, you bring up problem B. Why even bother changing it?

Abusing the system in this case doesn't make much sense. It's there as a buffer; if someone doesn't want it, it's fine. Honestly, I think the current system is fine. It balances out eventually.

They tend to be better than 99% of the longer garbage

I've never read a single oneshot actually.

 

[SailusGebel]

Abusing the system in this case doesn't make much sense. It's there as a buffer; if someone doesn't want it, it's fine. Honestly, I think the current system is fine. It balances out eventually.

Buffer is useless. You can't rate a story until it's X thousand words long. Well, people will do huge mass releases. Potentially they will clog up the latest updates with their chapters.

 

[greyblob]

Well, people will do huge mass releases. Potentially they will clog up the latest updates with their chapters.

What's wrong with that?

 

[SailusGebel]

What's wrong with that?

I don't know. Perhaps it will affect the trending?

 

[greyblob]

I don't know. Perhaps it will affect the trending?

Now you're just reaching.

 

[SailusGebel]

Now you're just reaching.

Yes, I am, as I don't know what exactly will be affected by your proposition. Well, I do know that mass releases will steal the views of those novels that have been here for slightly longer. I'm not talking about novels that have been here for months, but those that stopped being new, but not as old yet.

 

[greyblob]

Yes, I am, as I don't know what exactly will be affected by your proposition. Well, I do know that mass releases will steal the views of those novels that have been here for slightly longer. I'm not talking about novels that have been here for months, but those that stopped being new, but not as old yet.

Mass releases don't steal anything. And you're seriously overestimating most authors; they're lazy fucks. Either way, I don't think this solution would be as impactful as you make it out to be.

 

[SailusGebel]

Mass releases don't steal anything. And you're seriously overestimating most authors; they're lazy fucks. Either way, I don't think this solution would be as impactful as you make it out to be.

I'm not saying that it's impactful btw. As I said, I don't know what are the downsides. But even with all of that, I highly doubt such a thing will be implemented. It's probably low on the priority list.

 

[LostLibrarian]

Yeah, and it will become harder to understand the quality of the story. It's literally the problem we have right now. "Negative ones are often left by trolls or readers that give one star because they didn't like the premise, while camaraderie ratings (from those that came just to give a five star) inflates the score and it's a bad way to balance out the bad ones." But you want to simply replace five-star ratings and one-star ratings with likes and dislikes. And while you do it, you want to throw away the 2,3,4 star ratings.

I mean votings aren't about the quality of the story but whether a reader liked it or not. An overwhelming amount of ratings is five stars from people who enjoyed the story. It doesn't say anything about the actual quality of the novel itself. It says, something liked it and want to support it, so there go the five stars.

Yeah, there are a few people giving 2, 3, or 4 stars but they are the minority. Changing the stars to "up-down" would at least be honest about what the ratings actually mean. And yeah, authors will always complain about bad ratings because they feel unfair. But at least you take the "quality" point out of the discussion...


That said, I wouldn't change it either because there will always be a reason to complain.
So I would rather see 100 other features, instead.