Shiver
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2020
- Messages
- 37
- Points
- 48
So, I've mentioned this before in other threads, but I'd thought I'd make a thread to ask for a change in the 5-star system used on SH and add my reasoning to it.
Apologies if this has already been discussed and turned down.
Going by the number of threads about 1-star ratings and trolls I've seen appear over the six weeks since I started posting here, it has to be apparent that the 'give your 1 through 5-star rating' for a story causes a lot of frustration among authors when they see those inevitable 1-stars.
Now I know Tony can check out the ratings and will remove those that look like trolling, but that gives him more work to do and doesn't solve the underlying issue.
Youtube published the figures back in 2009 when they switched from their 5-star rating system;
The gist of it is that while a few people carefully consider their star ratings, the overwhelming majority of people use a 5 star to show they like something and 1 star to show they dislike something.
I do not think it's different here.
So I propose a like-dislike binary system.
That would make it clear what the reader thinks of the novel, and every account's opinion carries the same weight.
So no more single one-stars tanking the novel's rating and demotivating the author and/or giving Tony more work.
Now I understand the worth of a visual five-star rating in choosing which novels you want to look at -not to mention whatever math magic the site uses it for to figure things out with-, but switching to a like-dislike binary system doesn't have to change that.
A simple percentage-based system of the number of likes/dislikes compared to the total amount of votes would give an excellent place to base the star rating on.
A 100% of accounts liking the novel would give a 5-star visual. 1 in 10 liking it would give a 0,5 star visual, etc.
That's it, cheers.
Apologies if this has already been discussed and turned down.
Going by the number of threads about 1-star ratings and trolls I've seen appear over the six weeks since I started posting here, it has to be apparent that the 'give your 1 through 5-star rating' for a story causes a lot of frustration among authors when they see those inevitable 1-stars.
Now I know Tony can check out the ratings and will remove those that look like trolling, but that gives him more work to do and doesn't solve the underlying issue.
Youtube published the figures back in 2009 when they switched from their 5-star rating system;
The gist of it is that while a few people carefully consider their star ratings, the overwhelming majority of people use a 5 star to show they like something and 1 star to show they dislike something.
I do not think it's different here.
So I propose a like-dislike binary system.
That would make it clear what the reader thinks of the novel, and every account's opinion carries the same weight.
So no more single one-stars tanking the novel's rating and demotivating the author and/or giving Tony more work.
Now I understand the worth of a visual five-star rating in choosing which novels you want to look at -not to mention whatever math magic the site uses it for to figure things out with-, but switching to a like-dislike binary system doesn't have to change that.
A simple percentage-based system of the number of likes/dislikes compared to the total amount of votes would give an excellent place to base the star rating on.
A 100% of accounts liking the novel would give a 5-star visual. 1 in 10 liking it would give a 0,5 star visual, etc.
That's it, cheers.
