How do you guys rate stories you read?

CapitaoCaverna

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Sorry if there's already a thread about this, but I'm interested in the subject and there may be new opinions.

How do you rate a story you read?

I used to judge every aspect of a story, 5 stars was something I considered perfect, or so close to perfect it didn't mater and I only gave one 5 star.

One star was absolute crap in every aspect, from grammar to Plot, it was something a monkey could have written.

Two was bellow average, three was above average and four was something very good.




For a little over a year now I have changed the way I rate.

Most of the sites I use don't have a more professional way to review things, meaning it's full of trolls giving a 1 and people who liked it, even if objectively it's very bad, and rated it a five.

My own way of rating wasn't helping people chose what to read and was actually damaging stories I'd really recommend because I didn't give it a five star.

Bow I rate like this:

One star is still something I consider unreadable, not subjectively but objectively.

Anything I'd recommend as good enough gets a five star, to incentive the author, conter the trolls and indicate it's incredibly good.

Most things I enjoyed but dropped because of something get a four, to indicate it's good but I had to drop because of something I though was critical, I also leave a written review explaining why I took a star off.

Anything I drop just because it isn't to my taste doesn't get rated.

How do you guys do it?
 

georgelee5786

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I ask if I enjoyed it. If I did, then I like it. If I didn't, it can kiss my ass.
 

Renaxan

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I put 5 star on story I do enjoy reading, if it doesn't, I will just simply left it alone or drop.
 

EternalSunset0

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Sorry if there's already a thread about this, but I'm interested in the subject and there may be new opinions.

How do you rate a story you read?

I used to judge every aspect of a story, 5 stars was something I considered perfect, or so close to perfect it didn't mater and I only gave one 5 star.

One star was absolute crap in every aspect, from grammar to Plot, it was something a monkey could have written.

Two was bellow average, three was above average and four was something very good.




For a little over a year now I have changed the way I rate.

Most of the sites I use don't have a more professional way to review things, meaning it's full of trolls giving a 1 and people who liked it, even if objectively it's very bad, and rated it a five.

My own way of rating wasn't helping people chose what to read and was actually damaging stories I'd really recommend because I didn't give it a five star.

Bow I rate like this:

One star is still something I consider unreadable, not subjectively but objectively.

Anything I'd recommend as good enough gets a five star, to incentive the author, conter the trolls and indicate it's incredibly good.

Most things I enjoyed but dropped because of something get a four, to indicate it's good but I had to drop because of something I though was critical, I also leave a written review explaining why I took a star off.

Anything I drop just because it isn't to my taste doesn't get rated.

How do you guys do it?

Personally, I rarely give 5s, but I often give 4s. If something has really jarring issues in my book, like heavy grammar errors or hard-to-read formatting but story's not completely unreadable, I probably give it a 3. Anything worse, I just don't rate and leave quietly.
 

J_Chemist

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Tend not to rate/review unless requested. I did have a thread up at one point but I'm lazy and if the story doesn't grab me, I don't really like to force myself to read. Thus, I don't rate or review if I don't pass Chapter One. It's very cheap and lazy as a reader to base your thoughts on a tiny fraction of a work.

If I do decide to rate/review, I make sure to go in-depth from 0.5 to 5 stars. 0.5 is where I believe a story should be shredded and never seen. 5 stars denote something that truly moved me and/or that I willingly continued to read just because I loved it. A 5-star novel is also something that I would read multiple times. I'm not chintzy or stubborn to say 5 stars is perfect- nothing is perfect and I'll nitpick even the best novels for errors. Everything in between is balanced to fill the space.
 

Cipiteca396

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5 is the default for me.
4 is either poor grasp of language or a poor plot, but not both.
3 is both.
2 is well written garbage. Not enjoyable mind you, just good grammar and spelling.
1 is badly written garbage or K5Rakitan's stuff.
For 2's and 1's, I usually don't read the story, and if I don't read a story, I don't rate it.

That's for ratings though. They aren't that important except maybe for increasing the stories popularity. If I actually reviewed something, I would probably use a 10/10 rating system instead, or focus on individual parts. Like, 5 star writing, 3 star plotting, 1 star world building.
:blob_frown:
 

BigBadBoi

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pretty much the same except for the fact that if it's garbage enough then I'll put it in my incinerator reading list, drop a 1 star and delete it from said reading list because garbage like it doesn't deserve to be remembered.
 

OP1000

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I don't rate stories that often but when I do, I rate them from 3-5. I will give the story a rating of 3 if I find it to be an average story, 4 if I find the story is good and 5 if I find the story to really resonate with me. I don't bother to give a story a lower rating because I will drop a story if I don't like it.
 

doravg

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Sorry if there's already a thread about this, but I'm interested in the subject and there may be new opinions.

How do you rate a story you read?

I used to judge every aspect of a story, 5 stars was something I considered perfect, or so close to perfect it didn't mater and I only gave one 5 star.

One star was absolute crap in every aspect, from grammar to Plot, it was something a monkey could have written.

Two was bellow average, three was above average and four was something very good.




For a little over a year now I have changed the way I rate.

Most of the sites I use don't have a more professional way to review things, meaning it's full of trolls giving a 1 and people who liked it, even if objectively it's very bad, and rated it a five.

My own way of rating wasn't helping people chose what to read and was actually damaging stories I'd really recommend because I didn't give it a five star.

Bow I rate like this:

One star is still something I consider unreadable, not subjectively but objectively.

Anything I'd recommend as good enough gets a five star, to incentive the author, conter the trolls and indicate it's incredibly good.

Most things I enjoyed but dropped because of something get a four, to indicate it's good but I had to drop because of something I though was critical, I also leave a written review explaining why I took a star off.

Anything I drop just because it isn't to my taste doesn't get rated.

How do you guys do it?
Either five stars or nothing.
 

BenJepheneT

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I have 3 criteria when judging a story: purpose, enjoyment, and technicality. There are probably better words to describe the categories but these are the closest I can think of.

Purpose encompasses what the story wants to achieve. I find it utmost to identify what the author wants their story to accomplish, else I'll fall into the trap of judging a story by what it isn't. The way I do it is by reading between the lines and finding the throughline between all the chapters, making the safest assumption of what it sets out to be. I usually don't trust synopses, as they're more to attract the readers in a webnovel setting than actually tempering expectations. Sometimes, when I find a story to do another thing or the opposite better than what it presents, I'll still give it a positive impression. I hate 'death of the author' as it's used more as an excuse for poor reading comprehension than actually adopting different perspectives, but when there's value to gain from it, why not? Author intention is king, but it's not omnipotent. When I read, I'm Che Guevara. Anytime I feel like I can do better than you, I'll turn your literary kingdom into a dairy farm.

Enjoyment is exactly as it sounds, and it's purely subjective. It contends with Purpose in a lot of scenarios. If I didn't like your story but admire what you've done anyway, I'll give it glowing stars, and vice versa. I'm oversimplifying this, as there's a lot of nuance and specifics behind how I juggle the two, but it's the basic gist of it. I mean, if I'm consuming media, I want to have fun, or at least gain something from it; preferably both, but either work.

Technicality isn't just grammar, but your formatting and dialogue too. This aspect is more supplementary than it is crucial. I'm of the opinion that having good grammar comes second to having good content. Of course, if you write like an MTL wuxia novel, you're not gonna fly far, but I can handle a few misused adjectives or some mispelling. Dialogue, however, is a pet peeve of mine. I understand that dialogue flow is subjective for everyone, but I don't care. Nothing tanks my reading experience more than seeing a medieval knight use the word "bro", or the conversation being nothing but Joss Whedon back-n'-forth banter.

As for stars, I'm a pretty picky. My average would usually be a 3/5 or a 3.5/5. A 4-4.5/5 out of me would be a 6/5 for someone else. I would never give a 5/5, unless the novel physically crawled out of my monitor and sucked me off. If it goes anywhere lower than 2/5, your stuff is basically unredeemable in my eyes.
 

sam9501

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Sorry if there's already a thread about this, but I'm interested in the subject and there may be new opinions.

How do you rate a story you read?

I used to judge every aspect of a story, 5 stars was something I considered perfect, or so close to perfect it didn't mater and I only gave one 5 star.

One star was absolute crap in every aspect, from grammar to Plot, it was something a monkey could have written.

Two was bellow average, three was above average and four was something very good.




For a little over a year now I have changed the way I rate.

Most of the sites I use don't have a more professional way to review things, meaning it's full of trolls giving a 1 and people who liked it, even if objectively it's very bad, and rated it a five.

My own way of rating wasn't helping people chose what to read and was actually damaging stories I'd really recommend because I didn't give it a five star.

Bow I rate like this:

One star is still something I consider unreadable, not subjectively but objectively.

Anything I'd recommend as good enough gets a five star, to incentive the author, conter the trolls and indicate it's incredibly good.

Most things I enjoyed but dropped because of something get a four, to indicate it's good but I had to drop because of something I though was critical, I also leave a written review explaining why I took a star off.

Anything I drop just because it isn't to my taste doesn't get rated.

How do you guys do it?
I only rate once I have gotten far enough into the story to feel like most of the story has been established; or if its so incredibly bad that I just simply cant read it anymore.

In which case I’ll give it a 1 star and be done with it. I don’t think I’ve ever given a story a 2 star (Its either bad, average, good, or great). I give a 3 star to something average that I don't want to read anymore. A 4 star is given when its something good, but not “book” quality or if its just missing something. And a 5 star is given when I really enjoy it and think that it could probably be made into a book or series or something.
 

Sabruness

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i dont really rate, except if i really really really enjoy a story in which case i'll chuck a 4 or 5. apart from that, i dont rate or give reviews. i just comment on chapters.
 

Le_ther

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Sorry if there's already a thread about this, but I'm interested in the subject and there may be new opinions.

How do you rate a story you read?

I used to judge every aspect of a story, 5 stars was something I considered perfect, or so close to perfect it didn't mater and I only gave one 5 star.

One star was absolute crap in every aspect, from grammar to Plot, it was something a monkey could have written.

Two was bellow average, three was above average and four was something very good.




For a little over a year now I have changed the way I rate.

Most of the sites I use don't have a more professional way to review things, meaning it's full of trolls giving a 1 and people who liked it, even if objectively it's very bad, and rated it a five.

My own way of rating wasn't helping people chose what to read and was actually damaging stories I'd really recommend because I didn't give it a five star.

Bow I rate like this:

One star is still something I consider unreadable, not subjectively but objectively.

Anything I'd recommend as good enough gets a five star, to incentive the author, conter the trolls and indicate it's incredibly good.

Most things I enjoyed but dropped because of something get a four, to indicate it's good but I had to drop because of something I though was critical, I also leave a written review explaining why I took a star off.

Anything I drop just because it isn't to my taste doesn't get rated.

How do you guys do it?
Interms of 1-5 then:



1: what the fuck did I read?("shit is raw"- Gordon ramsey)
2: good but very lacking and flawed
3: average story average characters
4: very good but has some flaws that ruined the experience
5: perfection
 

Yati

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5: I enjoyed it, and recommend it to my friends and on the discords I frequent
4: I enjoyed it, and would recommend it if someone asks about it but would not do it proactively
3: It was okay. would not really recommend it to my friends
2: It was bad, and if people ask me about it, I will say that it was bad. I most likely dropped the story.
1: Dropped it. I would actively recommend people to not read the story and point out the flaws to them and hope they will listen and avoid the story.
 

LilRora

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For me it would be something like:
1-star: awful storyline and characters, or simply unreadable.
2-star: glaring mistakes and nonsensical parts that make it hard to read, or bad characters and plot.
3-star: multiple noticeable mistakes and unclear parts, in grammar, plot, and characters that make it hard to read smoothly.
4-star: good story, some things that could have been done better, but that don't affect readability.
5-star: very readable story with little to no errors; mostly flawless pacing and plot.
+- 1 star cause preferences and other things.
 

Jemini

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1 star: I was actively put off by something in the story that I found in some way repugnant. This is usually along the lines of glorifying abusive relationships or the writer using rape as a plot device (such as to justify the hero killing the rapist villain, and for no other reason than to motivate such an action.) I also might give a 1 star if I find the story to be inconsistent in it's world building, such as this one I read that said it's impossible to increase your MP in this world. Then, a character DOES increase his MP by 1, and another character has a "so what? It's only 1, don't get excited over that," seeming to completely disregard the significance of this in the established world-building.

2 stars: I just found the story bad in some way. I didn't enjoy it, but it didn't go so far as for me to find the story offensive.

3 stars: I didn't find the story particularly appealing, but there was really nothing bad about it. It was just kinda meh. 3 stars is considered "average," so if I consider it to be of average quality then this is the rating it gets.

4 stars: I found the story to be entertaining and enjoyable, but it didn't do anything really spectacular. I tend to default toward 4 star ratings, mostly because a 5 star rating needs to be given for something really special.

5 stars: I not only enjoyed the series, it also impressed me by doing something very significant in terms of it's literary quality. Examples would be very impressive, intricate, and original worldbuilding that is always consistent, a good mix of comedy and serious portions of the story, a well planed-out plot, solid and believable characters and character motivations, and other literarily oriented touch-stones that show the series' quality. It has to do at least one of these very well and the others have to also be adequate for me to give something a 5-star rating.
 
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