End the anonymity of ratings.

[Assurbanipal_II]

Ratings are something strange and mysterious. At the moment, they come for every author, particularly for small ones without a gigantic reader base, out of nowhere like an artillery round. You neither know who, when and why, which is annoying as you can draw no helpful conclusions from them.

Did the person in question rate the story highly because A) it was actually good or B) because they are fangirling and generally give always 5 stars rating independently of quality?

Or in the case of bad ratings, does the person downvote anything per se, do they dislike the genre and your style, or are just they a hard to convince reader?

 

[MagicalDucky]

Yeah, to be honest, I think that having a non-anonymous rating system would only make things worse than what we have now. Knowing the username of someone who gave your story a bad rating probably doesn't seem like much harm, but there would definitely be a ton of let's just say "strongly worded" messages from distraught authors to the raters, and that would probably lead to a drop in rating frequency overall.

Maybe this is just me but I wouldn't bother rating anything if I had to have my name attached to, I'd be to scare of someone spamming me for my review.
Or I'd just make a throw away account so I could be honest with my review.

After all, this is right, why would you as a reader take the time to review or even rate a work fairly when you know that anything less than a 5-star rating could net you a possible grudge, and subsequent brigading by the author? I know that it feels unfair to just get anonymous, drive-by 1-star ratings because I've had the same thing done to my story (mostly over on Royal Road), but the sad truth is that the anonymity is there to keep the readers safe, not the authors. As an author, by posting your story in the first place, you've put yourself out there to be judged, and people are entitled to their opinion of your work, no matter how baseless or vain their opinion may seem. And well, if you truly think your story deserves a better rating than it's gotten so far, maybe your story is searching in the wrong audience.

On another note, even with the reviews as they are, it's interesting how different the culture here is even from Royal Road.

I know on Royal Road the same book got 3 / 5 score, but here it got 5 / 5. It kind of makes me wonder if they look for different things.

For example, Royal Road and Scribble Hub have two very different audiences from what I've seen. They definitely look for different things, and from my observations, Scribble Hub readers are more inclined towards "weeby" stuff and more light novel-esque stories, whereas Royal Road readers are more inclined towards western-style literature or serious stories with overarching plots. That's not to say that there's absolutely no overlap at all, but speaking from my experience in the Royal Road community, there is definitely a portion of the Royal Road audience (albeit a small portion) that do not like anything anime related. For example, on Royal Road, one person even told me straight up in the comments of my first chapter that they literally gave me a 0.5-star rating because they hated the anime art-style that I drew my characters in. They've since deleted that comment, but man, I can't tell you how soul-crushing it was to read that someone didn't even give my story a chance because they didn't like my artstyle, and it really took all the self-control in me to not send them one of those "strongly worded" messages and instead just accept that not everyone likes my story. I'm sure that not all of my low ratings were due to the reader not liking the anime-esque style of my story, and some people genuinely just thought my story was awful, but just imagine if I could see the names of everyone who gave me a low rating. As much as I like to spread positivity in the comments of my story, I'm not a saint, and there would be no way I would be able to resist at least pressing a few of them in private for a reason to their rating if I was given the option to. The anonymity of the rating system is, unfortunately, not a shield for the author's feelings, it's a shield for the readers' right to an opinion.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Maybe this is just me but I wouldn't bother rating anything if I had to have my name attached to, I'd be to scare of someone spamming me for my review.
Or I'd just make a throw away account so I could be honest with my review.

Says the Pikacku in words of wisdom. Anyway, just introduce a block feature if it doesn't exist already, problem solved. And why are you scared of a little bit of adversity?

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Yeah, to be honest, I think that having a non-anonymous rating system would only make things worse than what we have now. Knowing the username of someone who gave your story a bad rating probably doesn't seem like much harm, but there would definitely be a ton of let's just say "strongly worded" messages from distraught authors to the raters, and that would probably lead to a drop in rating frequency overall.



After all, this is right, why would you as a reader take the time to review or even rate a work fairly when you know that anything less than a 5-star rating could net you a possible grudge, and subsequent brigading by the author? I know that it feels unfair to just get anonymous, drive-by 1-star ratings because I've had the same thing done to my story (mostly over on Royal Road), but the sad truth is that the anonymity is there to keep the readers safe, not the authors. As an author, by posting your story in the first place, you've put yourself out there to be judged, and people are entitled to their opinion of your work, no matter how baseless or vain their opinion may seem. And well, if you truly think your story deserves a better rating than it's gotten so far, maybe your story is searching in the wrong audience.



For example, Royal Road and Scribble Hub have two very different audiences from what I've seen. They definitely look for different things, and from my observations, Scribble Hub readers are more inclined towards "weeby" stuff and more light novel-esque stories, whereas Royal Road readers are more inclined towards western-style literature or serious stories with overarching plots. That's not to say that there's absolutely no overlap at all, but speaking from my experience in the Royal Road community, there is definitely a portion of the Royal Road audience (albeit a small portion) that do not like anything anime related. For example, on Royal Road, one person even told me straight up in the comments of my first chapter that they literally gave me a 0.5-star rating because they hated the anime art-style that I drew my characters in. They've since deleted that comment, but man, I can't tell you how soul-crushing it was to read that someone didn't even give my story a chance because they didn't like my artstyle, and it really took all the self-control in me to not send them one of those "strongly worded" messages and instead just accept that not everyone likes my story. I'm sure that not all of my low ratings were due to the reader not liking the anime-esque style of my story, and some people genuinely just thought my story was awful, but just imagine if I could see the names of everyone who gave me a low rating. As much as I like to spread positivity in the comments of my story, I'm not a saint, and there would be no way I would be able to resist at least pressing a few of them in private for a reason to their rating if I was given the option to. The anonymity of the rating system is, unfortunately, not a shield for the author's feelings, it's a shield for the readers' right to an opinion.

A right for opinion is not a right for anonymity and certainly not a right for being heard, aside from the fact that we are here on the internet and I doubt that secret police will visit you in a few hours. Want I want is an equality of arms between both sides, which is severely lacking at the moment in favour of the reviewers for no reason. Equally must be treated equally, unequally must be treated unequally.

 

[Zoey]

Says the Pikacku in words of wisdom. Anyway, just introduce a block feature if it doesn't exist already, problem solved. And why are you scared of a little bit of adversity?

I wish I could say I have thick skin but I don't and I value my emotional health.
I guess the question is whether you want a large amount of anonymous reviews or a small amount of public reviews.

 

[MagicalDucky]

A right for opinion is not a right for anonymity and certainly not a right for being heard, aside from the fact that we are here on the internet and I doubt that secret police will visit you in a few hours. Want I want is an equality of arms between both sides, which is severely lacking at the moment in favour of the reviewers for no reason. Equally must be treated equally, unequally must be treated unequally.

I agree with you that we should have a more equal system as it is definitely skewed in the reviewer's favor, but, unfortunately, I don't think there is a plausible system that could realistically be set up at the moment to be equal, or if there is, I can't think of one right now. Apologies if I came off as a little stubborn in my previous message, but honestly, I think that while removing anonimity would be a decent bandaid fix, it would be detrimental down the line for the Scribble Hub community since readers (especially new ones) would be deterred from leaving reviews by the risk of drama, and the very concept of this website revolves around its community being active.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

I agree with you that we should have a more equal system as it is definitely skewed in the reviewer's favor, but, unfortunately, I don't think there is a plausible system that could realistically be set up at the moment to be equal, or if there is, I can't think of one right now. Apologies if I came off as a little stubborn in my previous message, but honestly, I think that while removing anonimity would be a decent bandaid fix, it would be detrimental down the line for the Scribble Hub community since readers (especially new ones) would be deterred from leaving reviews by the risk of drama, and the very concept of this website revolves around its community being active.

Oh, no, I don't care about the reviews. They can be as anonymous as they want. I am talking here about the ratings. And as I said, just introduce a mute and ban block for private messages if you want to limit drama. After all, I think that we are here mature and civilized people.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

I wish I could say I have thick skin but I don't and I value my emotional health.
I guess the question is whether you want a large amount of anonymous reviews or a small amount of public reviews.

To be honest, I am more worried by the fact that you are scared by the idea of leaving non anonymous ratings with an internet account. I can't see why that should be such a large deterrent.

 

[MagicalDucky]

Oh, no, I don't care about the reviews. They can be as anonymous as they want. I am talking here about the ratings. And as I said, just introduce a mute and ban block for private messages if you want to limit drama. After all, I think that we are here mature and civilized people.

Whoops, my bad. I meant to say "rater's" instead of "reviewer's" . Anyway, I would like to think that we're all mature people too, but ultimately, I guess the choice is up to the owner to decide whether or not to get rid of anonimity.

 

[Zoey]

To be honest, I am more worried by the fact that you are scared by the idea of leaving non anonymous ratings with an internet account. I can't see why that should be such a large deterrent.

At first I was just here to give my two cent but I now feel that I'm adding nothing to this conversation. So I'll just leave 'cause I'm not helping.

Edit: also you're being a dick, and not even a civil dick just an outright dick.
Edit 2: I just wanted to vent that at you. No hard feelings.
Edit 3: Ok that was a lie there were many hard feelings.
Edit 4: This thread is turning into a shit fest.
Edit 5: lets hope the broken record doesn't continue.
Edit 6: I wonder if anyone will notice all these edits.
Edit 7: I should probably delete these edits so I don't upset Assurbanipal_II.
Edit 8: Someone noticed...
Edit 9: and it wasn't sempai.
Edit 10: I'm no longer angry at Assurbanipal but he sure has some strong opinions. That's not a bad thing mind you.
Edit 11: Hello lurkers.

 

[LWFlouisa]

For example, Royal Road and Scribble Hub have two very different audiences from what I've seen. They definitely look for different things, and from my observations, Scribble Hub readers are more inclined towards "weeby" stuff and more light novel-esque stories, whereas Royal Road readers are more inclined towards western-style literature or serious stories with overarching plots. That's not to say that there's absolutely no overlap at all, but speaking from my experience in the Royal Road community, there is definitely a portion of the Royal Road audience (albeit a small portion) that do not like anything anime related. For example, on Royal Road, one person even told me straight up in the comments of my first chapter that they literally gave me a 0.5-star rating because they hated the anime art-style that I drew my characters in. They've since deleted that comment, but man, I can't tell you how soul-crushing it was to read that someone didn't even give my story a chance because they didn't like my artstyle, and it really took all the self-control in me to not send them one of those "strongly worded" messages and instead just accept that not everyone likes my story. I'm sure that not all of my low ratings were due to the reader not liking the anime-esque style of my story, and some people genuinely just thought my story was awful, but just imagine if I could see the names of everyone who gave me a low rating. As much as I like to spread positivity in the comments of my story, I'm not a saint, and there would be no way I would be able to resist at least pressing a few of them in private for a reason to their rating if I was given the option to. The anonymity of the rating system is, unfortunately, not a shield for the author's feelings, it's a shield for the readers' right to an opinion.

Wow, that explains a bit actually. I've pretty much always been more influenced by anime / manga.

Granted not the kind of anime you might normally think of: more Battle Angel Alita, Saikano, Serial Experiments Lain, Chobits, and stuff like that.

I've been ... iffy about Fruits Basket for many years. I like a different kind of slice of life.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Whoops, my bad. I meant to say "rater's" instead of "reviewer's" . Anyway, I would like to think that we're all mature people too, but ultimately, I guess the choice is up to the owner to decide whether or not to get rid of anonimity.

Well, therefore I made this suggestion thread. But as it seems now it won't be picked up in the future ... So, ...

 

[binarysoap]

To be honest, I am more worried by the fact that you are scared by the idea of leaving non anonymous ratings with an internet account. I can't see why that should be such a large deterrent.

I'm actually wondering why you would think it would NOT be a deterrent.

Unless you plan on making throwaway accounts just so you can leave an honest rating, anything less than a 5 star can be construed as insulting, bigoted, or intolerant. And if you are also an author? Are we going to have 1-star rating wars now?

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

I'm actually wondering why you would think it would NOT be a deterrent.

Unless you plan on making throwaway accounts just so you can leave an honest rating, anything less than a 5 star can be construed as insulting, bigoted, or intolerant. And if you are also an author? Are we going to have 1-star rating wars now?

Oh, really? You are just constructing senseless strawmen. You can do 1 star rating wars already if you want.

"5 star can be construed as insulting, bigoted, or intolerant."

Are the raters on this site so spineless that they will shiver in fear just from that? I think we can expect a modicum of courage from our raters and not treat them paternalistically like children.

 

[binarysoap]

You can do 1 star rating wars already if you want.

If you don't know where the enemy is, how can you strike?

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

If you don't know where the enemy is, how can you strike?

Doesnt that make it even better. Stealthy attacking you with smurf accounts. Otherwise, you can leave the classical declaration of war in then comment section.

 

[binarysoap]

Doesnt that make it even better. Stealthy attacking you with smurf accounts. Otherwise, you can leave the classical declaration of war in then comment section.

My point was that I'm just trying to leave an honest rating and not to cause chaos/start a "war". Leaving it anonymous means I can do that without all this inane stuff.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

My point was that I'm just trying to leave an honest rating and not to cause chaos/start a "war". Leaving it anonymous means I can do that without all this inane stuff.

Lol, if you cause a war with a rating then everything is already lost. When you are so worried that such a scenario will happen what does that say then about the condition of Scribblehub? We won't give them this tool because everyone is an evil troll and apocalypse will break out the next day? Be realistic instead of painting the devil on the wall.

 

[binarysoap]

Are the raters on this site so spineless that will shiver in fear just from that? I think we can expect a modicum of courage from our raters and not treat them paternalistically like children.

The words you used is overly negative, but yes, raters (at least I would) would be deterred. Also, thanks for branding a lot of people like me "spineless" people without "a modicum of courage."

 

[binarysoap]

Lol, if you cause a war with a rating then everything is already lost. When you are so worried that such a scenario will happen what does that say then about the condition of Scribblehub? We won't give them this tool because everyone is an evil troll and apocalypse will break out the next day? Be realistic instead of painting the devil on the wall.

War was in quotes for a reason. I was just using what you typed. Also, you're exaggerating my point, be realistic.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

The words you used is overly negative, but yes, raters (at least I would) would be deterred. Also, thanks for branding a lot of people like me "spineless" people without "a modicum of courage."

Yes, and I will stand by my words. I can understand that you fear harassment, but how likely is that statistically? And what is wrong about letting the world know what you think? Why do you even bother to rate then if nobody should know it?