The Fundamental Difference Between A 5 Star And A 1 Star Reviews

[Yorth]

The idea that people who leave random 5 stars are as bad as those who just drop 1 star has been getting popular for a while now. That's not without good reason. They're both unconstructive reviews that are done mostly as a kneejerk reaction rather than an actual intellectual analysis. They both give a very biased opinion on the piece of writing and they both lessen the credibility of the overall reviews/rating.

However, it is most stupid to think that they have the same effect or that they stand in the same field. Giving 1 star is a fundamentally destructive action. It belittles the writer's work and makes potential readers, who would have otherwise enjoyed the story, perhaps not ever give it a chance. On the other hand, giving 5 stars leaves the author in a good mood and motivate him to write even more. This is fundamentally a good thing. Yes, it may give potential readers the wrong impression on the story (which is why I don't condone unthoughtful reviews in both forms), but its overall effect is positive.

 

[binarysoap]

Star Ratings

xkcd.com

This comic also explains why 5 star review is very different than a 1 star review
Namely, people basically expect anything lower than 4 to be trash, since most people give 5 star ratings out like candy, so people already have expected it.

 

[Mejiro]

yup - 5-stars = 'I like this', 4 stars = 'it was OK', anything else is 'it was bad to some degree'. An 'average' score of 2.5 means 'actually pretty crap'. Something that doesn't have an average of 4 or more stars is pretty badly thought of.

 

[Phantomheart]

5 - great
4. Something pretty good
4- decent
3 and under - TRASH
Gotta love ratings

 

[hawlol]

Disagree. 1 star ratings are consequential to the habit of giving 5 stars to anything you mildly enjoy.
It has come to the point where 5 stars means yes, 1 star means no and the grade is the average of people that enjoy it. When I see a 4 star average, it means about 80% of audience approval, but that's about it.

The ratings system is fundamentaly broken as it is now because of the 5 for anything-not-terrible custom. That's even worse if it's something from a good translator like wuxiaworld where ppl think giving the novel a bad grade is an insult to the translators, when it isn't. Or webnovel, which everyone hates, with good reason, and will tank the rating without even reading the novel. Meaning, the ratings can also be highly biased by the author/translator fandom.

That's why reviews exist. When in doubt, search for a good one.

 

[AliceShiki]

Disagree. 1 star ratings are consequential to the habit of giving 5 stars to anything you mildly enjoy.
It has come to the point where 5 stars means yes, 1 star means no and the grade is the average of people that enjoy it. When I see a 4 star average, it means about 80% of audience approval, but that's about it.

The ratings system is fundamentaly broken as it is now because of the 5 for anything-not-terrible custom. That's even worse if it's something from a good translator like wuxiaworld where ppl think giving the novel a bad grade is an insult to the translators, when it isn't. Or webnovel, which everyone hates, with good reason, and will tank the rating without even reading the novel. Meaning, the ratings can also be highly biased by the author/translator fandom.

That's why reviews exist. When in doubt, search for a good one.

I dunno, like... When I see a 5* rating in my story, I get pretty happy and feel like someone really enjoys what I do.

When I see a 1* rating on the other hand, I'm like... "What!? Why!? Why do you hate my novel so much!? Why didn't you leave a review to let me understand it!? >.<"

So... I feel they have a pretty big difference, at least that's how I feel on a personal level.

 

[PrincessFelicie]

Giving anything under a 5 star rating immediately makes the story's chances of becoming popular worse off. Essentially, any rating system always devolves to this: give the maximum note if you recommend it, don't say anything if you don't. Very few stories deserve to have their chances dashed.

 

[hawlol]

I dunno, like... When I see a 5* rating in my story, I get pretty happy and feel like someone really enjoys what I do.

When I see a 1* rating on the other hand, I'm like... "What!? Why!? Why do you hate my novel so much!? Why didn't you leave a review to let me understand it!? >.<"

So... I feel they have a pretty big difference, at least that's how I feel on a personal level.

Yes, but I was talking at the macro level part of things, of what it means to the system that makes trending lists and how readers interpret a rating when searching novels.
I admit a one must feel bad for the author, even though the reader probably did so to counter the excessive fives, not to offend. That's why I'd rather have a simple like-dislike system instead of ratings, which I think is what it already kind of is, but authors like yourself and the OP still get offended by ones because ratings are in place.
Don't be offended. Most ones are to counter the distortion caused by excessive fives. See them as mere dislikes, not as 'your novel is pure trash'.

 

[FriendlyDragon]

Giving anything under a 5 star rating immediately makes the story's chances of becoming popular worse off. Essentially, any rating system always devolves to this: give the maximum note if you recommend it, don't say anything if you don't. Very few stories deserve to have their chances dashed.

Honestly, I always thought that this was the unspoken rule. Rate 4 or higher if you like it, but stay quiet if you don't. If it's really bad, then reviews are there so that the person can explain why they didn't like it. It's beneficial to the author as well as future readers since why one person thinks something is bad doesn't apply to everyone. So with a review, people can judge for themselves. Just putting a rating and taking the average will cause people to just think BAD and then not give the story a try.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Then I must be a major asshole for the times I did. I rarely give 1*, it is to me 2* being bad, 3* being okay to read, 4* being good with minor plotholes to be fixed and 5* being I love it.

Hell, if I feel like it I will even jot down some amateur reviews on how the story goes, grammar (I should not be the judge, but if you are worse than me, good luck), the flow of story, some characters existing.

 

[GDLiZy]

5 is "I love it."
1 is "I hate it."

Anything between is somewhat more accurate than the two above because nothing is perfect. I don't use rating as the requirement but the long-ass review that rated lower than 4.

 

[TLCsDestiny]

Ratings are twisted for both the readers and writers. 5 stars are obviously what everyone wants yet, realistically, 5 star ratings really shouldn't happen all that often, unless the story is to EVERY ONES liking! (Which is why it is unrealistic)
Everyone is different! Not everyone is reading the book!
If everyone read the book then a rating for it may be worth doing but in my opinion, ratings are personal, individual and shouldn't be something that should stand out.
As a reader, I am one to look at ratings and to be honest, I think I've missed potential good reads because of it!
If the book only had a synopsis and some tags to show genre's and what not, I probably would have given more chances to some books!
It sucks because the people who read a book might be the total opposite to me and gave a one rating, when I could give it a 4 or maybe 5.
We, as humans, are great at dividing things. White and black people, rich and poor, powerful and not. This is just another way to divide writers, divide books...
I don't say get rid of it, perhaps instead have the ratings show once a day or have a button that you can press to show the ratings...Just to give the book a chance to be interested in first.
When I give a rating, this is what I feel. I feel that it's personal and does not apply to many. I guess, in my opinion, ratings are really just someone's thoughts of the novel...It shouldn't be a 'reason' to read it or not!

 

[Jemini]

This is a part of the reason why if I ever wind up giving a rating other than 5 star, I make sure it is in the form of a fairly lengthy review.

Also, I rarely give 5 star reviews. Still, I give 5 stars a LOT more frequently than 1 stars. The only time I ever give a 1 star is if it's not just a case of the story being bad, the writer has to also show a bad attitude toward the readers in order for me to give 1 star. It's reserved for the ones who respond to constructive criticism by being offended, showing me that they have no intention to improve upon their already bad work.

 

[Neviance]

Authors post their work for free. They work hard on something they get little in return for, except for recognition. It just seems cruel to 1 star it, at least without explanation anyway.

 

[Sinpathy]

Humans are born egoistical creatures, so we crave for approval. Especially more so for writers or anyone who's involved with creative work, where praise is subjective.

The fact that there is even room for debate on what a writer would rather have as ratings, further validate this point.

So what am I trying to say here?

Scribblehub, like any other amateur novelist websites, panders to a niche group of readers. Ones that would rather go through an online medium than look for completed, proven works that you could find in your local library. Heck, if you put your mind to it, you could probably find more than half of the bestsellers for free on some shady distribution website.

Or Novelupdates. Frankly, I think that's where most of the readers came from. The type of easily-satisfied readers that you get on this platform.

So for a reader, or writer to visit SH in the first place, their lower than average expectations are proportionately in line with their attempts at making an effort to look for an actual good book.

That said though, low expectations aren't necessarily a bad thing. Like a few others have mentioned above, it spurs a writer on for improvement through validation.

All in all, you can't call a rating system "broken", just because of the kind of audience that exists on the platform. Since you've decided to post on Scribblehub than, say somewhere more critical like RoyalroadL, then it's clear that you should be prepared for a certain 'bias' to exist.

The variance of 1 stars and 5 stars, how they affect a story, or how they're distributed, ultimately comes down to how "lenient" a platform is.

And Scribblehub IS lenient towards its stories.

Whether you hate the fact that 5 stars are given so flippantly or not, or that 1 stars should be a mark of "constructive criticism", we are all part of the same audience on this platform that creates such a trend.

Thank you for reading my game theory (I was bored).

 

[AliceShiki]

Then I must be a major asshole for the times I did. I rarely give 1*, it is to me 2* being bad, 3* being okay to read, 4* being good with minor plotholes to be fixed and 5* being I love it.

Hell, if I feel like it I will even jot down some amateur reviews on how the story goes, grammar (I should not be the judge, but if you are worse than me, good luck), the flow of story, some characters existing.

I don't think you should feel like an asshole, I mean... That's the same system I use, it's what makes sense to me! xD

Humans are born egoistical creatures, so we crave for approval. Especially more so for writers or anyone who's involved with creative work, where praise is subjective.

The fact that there is even room for debate on what a writer would rather have as ratings, further validate this point.

So what am I trying to say here?

Scribblehub, like any other amateur novelist websites, panders to a niche group of readers. Ones that would rather go through an online medium than look for completed, proven works that you could find in your local library. Heck, if you put your mind to it, you could probably find more than half of the bestsellers for free on some shady distribution website.

Or Novelupdates. Frankly, I think that's where most of the readers came from. The type of easily-satisfied readers that you get on this platform.

So for a reader, or writer to visit SH in the first place, their lower than average expectations are proportionately in line with their attempts at making an effort to look for an actual good book.

That said though, low expectations aren't necessarily a bad thing. Like a few others have mentioned above, it spurs a writer on for improvement through validation.

All in all, you can't call a rating system "broken", just because of the kind of audience that exists on the platform. Since you've decided to post on Scribblehub than, say somewhere more critical like RoyalroadL, then it's clear that you should be prepared for a certain 'bias' to exist.

The variance of 1 stars and 5 stars, how they affect a story, or how they're distributed, ultimately comes down to how "lenient" a platform is.

And Scribblehub IS lenient towards its stories.

Whether you hate the fact that 5 stars are given so flippantly or not, or that 1 stars should be a mark of "constructive criticism", we are all part of the same audience on this platform that creates such a trend.

Thank you for reading my game theory (I was bored).

I think you're generalizing the readerbase a bit too much? Like... Libraries in my country are basically nonexistent (and the few that do exist have very small collections, and it generally doesn't involve YA fiction) and bookstores are a bit too expensive for my taste, so like... Reading Webnovels for me is a way of reading novels for free basically.

It also helps that I can browse through the multiple novels available from the comfort of my home instead of needing to travel to the bookstore.

And then there are the genres and types of novels I like to read, like... If I wanna read an Otome Game Reincarnation, I have to go to NU, I won't ever find a novel like that in a bookstore. In a similar vein, Scribbly has stories that touch themes you often don't find in published novels.

So uhn... Saying the readers have low expectations because they are reading Webnovels don't make much sense to me, there are many much more relevant reasons to look for Webnovels as opposed to published novels IMO.

PS: Many people would rather not support piracy, so they don't search for a shady website to read published novels for free... >.>

 

[BenJepheneT]

no relation but loving something is the opposite of hating something. if you managed to make something that makes someone hate your work so passionately that they're willing to leave a 1* review even in a humanitarian era like this, you've probably done something good

 

[SillyIslandBum]

I like the way webnovel.com does this actually. Where leaving a rating means leaving a review, but I understand very few people want to write reviews. I can understand someone giving a 5 to motivate an author to keep writing, after all, most webnovels are dropped. But I don’t understand the reasoning behind leaving a 1 unless you really think the story is that bad. Dropping 1’s on stories because you think other people rate too high is pretty ridiculous.

I do think the like/dislike instead of the 1-5 rating that @hawlol brought up is a good idea. People can still abuse it, but I think they’d be less likely to.

 

[Kldran]

I generally do not consider 1* ratings to be actual ratings. A 2*? Sure, someone thought it was awful. A 1*? Probably just someone on a crusade against everything with a certain tag or genre (Both my GL stories have 1* ratings and they are the only ones with them).

 

[Cold_Sun]

I'm one of those people who would drop a five-star rating quite easily.
But just to play devil's advocate here... I think there is a good purpose that the blind one-star reviews serve as well. Not just as a counter to people like me, but even otherwise.
While it is true that authors writing webfictions generally write only as a hobby, but webfiction readers are also quite picky. In that regard, I think one-star reviews can serve as a quick reminders as to which genre is well received in the platform and which isn't.

TPDR (too pointless don't read)
Also don't @ me