Rating abuse??

Not entirely sure where to put this, but I noticed that within the past day or so, a ton of albums from the past few years (I've noticed it 2017-2020) that were ranked pretty highly on the PA charts have had a sharp decline in their overall average rating, while most of them only have very few, if any, new ratings. For example, a couple days ago, the album Remedies by Soup had 116 ratings and a 4.12 overall average rating value. Looking now, there's only one additional rating (from me), but even before I adding my rating tonight, it had sunk to 3.97. At first I figure it was just either new reviews or people changing their ratings, but there have been no new reviews on this album, and I've noticed this pattern across enough albums that I figure I should mention it. It also seems to sometimes be targeted at specific artists: for example, I've seen it on multiple different albums by Bjørn Riis, The D Project, and Homunculus Res, to name just a few. I've linked all the ones I have noticed below, but it's entirely possible that there are some which I have missed or haven't noticed:

Edited by tempest_77 - October 17 2020 at 22:10

I noticed this, with no additional ratings From Silence to Somewhere (even counting Kempokids recent 3 star review), Road of Bones, Hand Cannot Erase quietly dropped down 5-10 spots on the list and had several points knocked off seemingly overnight.

Edited by someone_else - October 19 2020 at 03:47

Any update on what happened here? I've noticed a handful of inexplicable rating drops on recent releases.

Off the top of my head The Road of Bones, From Silence to Somewhere and Hand. Cannot. Erase. dropped 5-10 places over night with no significant rating changes. Besides the previously linked entries above, In Cauda Venenum also randomly dropped several points, looking on the wayback machine the new Pendragon had a score of 4.26 12 days ago with 272 ratings, now today it's down to 4.19 with 284 ratings. None of these have had added ratings which is why its suspicious and unlikely for ratings to do it. From Silence to Somewhere had a 3 star review a week or so ago but that only dropped it down to 25, but any ratings since then have been 5 stars and it's stilled moved down 5 more spots randomly.

Edited by dougmcauliffe - October 25 2020 at 05:55

I don't think it's rating abuse, but more of some kind of error or glitch?

Well the problem is the number of ratings never changed on most of these albums, that or they changed by such a small amount, maybe 1-3 ratings that couldn't ever lead to score drops that significant 

I've been watching the insidious climb of all things Kalugin and Modern-Rock Ensemble over the past three or four months. It's kind of humorous, kind of scary in a tampering-with-the-U.S.-democratic-elections kind of way. 

BrufordFreak wrote: I've been watching the insidious climb of all things Kalugin and Modern-Rock Ensemble over the past three or four months. It's kind of humorous, kind of scary in a tampering-with-the-U.S.-democratic-elections kind of way.  For example, just look at the latest three ratings (at the bottom of the list) on the 2019 Modern-Rock Ensemble album from "FUTURE_PASSED (Future Passed)," ATOMIC_RELIC (Atomic Relic)," and "KINGCRIMSONKING (King Crimson)" (all accounts established in 2020, none revealing real names, all claiming to be US accounts):  all five star ratings. Yet, if you go to their individual accounts, everything looks kosher until you look at the ratings for all of the other albums in competition with Night Dreams & Wishes at the top of the '19 and '20 charts: Tirill, one star; Opeth, one star; Pendragon, one star; Battlestations, one star; The Ocean, one star; Lazuli, on star; Motorpsycho, one star; and five stars for Kalugin/Karfagen and Night Dreams across the board.  Aside from favoring the climb I've been watching of Night Dreams, and the way it is favoring all of Antony Kalugin's albums, I'm half expecting it to pave the way for an onslaught for #1 for a new, 2020 Vladimir Goraschenko (Modern-Rock Ensemble) release. It's actually been quite entertaining, quite cleverly done, with the final result that, until some collabs get involved by posting more realistic reviews, I imagine within a week or two the Modern-Rock Ensemble album will be #1 on the 2019 chart with Kalugin's Dragons right behind, and Kalugin's Marshmallow Moondust and Birds of Passage overtaking everything but maybe Wobbler on the 2020 chart (until, of course, the M-R E release that I predict). It'll be interesting to watch! I do not mean to begrudge Antony and Vladimir their success and accolades (they have produced some great music!), but are these albums really Top 100 All-Time Prog albums?

Edited by dougmcauliffe - October 29 2020 at 15:56

A Crimson Mellotron wrote: Cristi wrote: dougmcauliffe wrote: I don't think it's rating abuse, but more of some kind of error or glitch? albums often drop in rating the more ratings they get, that's all.  Pretty much the most accurate description of the issue. Every review/rating impacts the overall... what abuse are we talking about? And another thing (which is even more intriguing): Why does any of this matter?

Edited by dougmcauliffe - October 29 2020 at 15:57