Way to reduce # of 5 star ratings

Well I will probably be alone in this topic but here goes.

There is a lack of balance in some reviewers rankings. Not necessarily the collabs, who generally do a good job of keeping a balance. But there are many instances where reviewers will just give 5 stars to everything they rate, having 12 5-star rated albums and having rated no other albums, which really makes their ratings null and void in my opinion, as their is obviously no difference in their opinion between any albums.

Theirs no weight to a rating if you think everything is extremely superb. Maybe the site could incorporate some kind of balancing system, say to where only 50% of your ratings can be for 5 stars. That'd be a huge step in balancing things in my opinion.

All of these reviews are valued, as they help improve the site, but some judgements of where to draw the line should be made. Surely not everything can be essential to progressive music in one's mind.

I know this would be nearly impossible to account for, but it was just a thought, as I've almost come to see the current ranking system virtually useless due to the extreme amount of 5's that are given for everything. (yes, i know rankings don't matter)

most definitely Australian, me i have about 10% of mine as 5 stars and I'm hoping to keep it around that way. I think it helps cause it serves to actually give value and purpose to your ratings, rather than having everything you've reviewed/listened to be a perfect album, which obviously is not the case, barring that an individual has some sense of preference

I agree with you OG, and I think it was a good move to bring up this topic for discussion in its own thread. The true masterpieces of Prog are few in comparison to the vast amount of albums on this site, and hence the five star ratings should be relatively few aswell.

A way to avoid the problem would be to limit the ability to review albums to members with a Prog Reviewer or other collaborator/admin rank, as they often are the most knowledgeable (an opinion I've reached by comparing collaborator reviews to guest reviews). I can see the problems with this system, but I think it would work better. Personally, I'm willing to sacrifice my reviews and my ability to review albums to get some order and sense in the ratings.

Trickster F. wrote: People don't think "everything is awesome", it's just many of us, myself included, prefer to rate albums they actually really like (and if you remember that people also prefer to listen to the music they enjoy, it becomes even clearer).

Yep. I've probably rated 30% a five star here. That does not mean I think 30% of the albums in the Archives are masterpieces. I could spend a day and give about 500-600 albums a three star, but I guess I won't bother. Besides, it would be easier to give lower ratings if halfs was possible.

OpethGuitarist wrote: Theirs no weight to a rating if you think everything is extremely superb. Maybe the site could incorporate some kind of balancing system, say to where only 50% of your ratings can be for 5 stars. That'd be a huge step in balancing things in my opinion.

The problem is that there are huge differences in the selection of albums of each reviewer ... some choose to only review their favorite albums, some review randomly selected albums, some review their masterpieces + the albums which they think extremely suck (to warn others) ...

I think that Mike has highlighted the problem.  If many people only choose to rate the albums that they like or are interested in then there will be a bias towards good ratings.

I can't see it working though.

People are biased with tastes, so someone who dislikes a certain style of prog, will have a biased view when it comes to ranking.

Maybe we can ask people to rank and review some of those albums that have little, to no reviews at all?  There are many bands in the archives that don't have a single review.  They should take priority over big bands.

    What if you only want to review the albums you like the most? I agree with the other statements about not owning bad albums. I don't purchase on a whim like I used to. There is enough information now to get an idea of something before you buy it. This site alone can guide you the right way.

This is why I am actually more suspicious of one star ratings. There was the issue of the person who gave every Beatles album one star. Do you really think he gave each album a thorough evaluation?
    

Edited by bhikkhu - October 23 2006 at 08:52

it's ok guys, I perfectly understand your point of view

just some thoughts i had wandering around in my head


Edited by OpethGuitarist - October 23 2006 at 12:49

Easy Livin wrote: I agree with those who have already pointed out that most reviewers will focus on the albums they love first, so reviewers with only a few reviews will proabbly have an overall higher average of their ratings than those who have reviewed many.