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JS19 View Drop Down
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Points: 1321 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Ratings
    Posted: December 13 2010 at 03:19
Can anyone give me a hand when it comes to rating and reviewing albums. it feels like too large amount merits a 4 star rating because, I enjoy most of the albums I own, and being pushed to only rate 'masterpieces' with that precious 5 star rating, I'm not exactly spoilt for choice. This ends up with me rating two or more albums of greatly differing quality at 4 stars.

I don't particularly want to rate things a star lower, so the difference in quality can be seen, because that would reflect badly on the overall ratings of each album, and seeing as people are more drawn to higher rated albums, by rating lower, fewer people are going to pick up great, but lower than averagely reviewed albums.

As you can see I have reached a dilemma, and I wondered if anyone can help me, or tell me how they review albums to get over the limited 5 step rating process (which in reality is only 3 or 4 because the one star and two star rating as really reserved for those albums we truly hate/dislike, which in my case isn't many)

Thanks Smile


Edited by JS19 - December 13 2010 at 03:20
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zachfive View Drop Down
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Points: 770 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 13 2010 at 03:34
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Bonnek View Drop Down
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Points: 4521 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 13 2010 at 04:18
Originally posted by JS19 JS19 wrote:


... This ends up with me rating two or more albums of greatly differing quality at 4 stars.

I don't particularly want to rate things a star lower, so the difference in quality can be seen, because that would reflect badly on the overall ratings of each album
...


I understand this tendency but unfortunately it is the exact reason why the ratings on PA are useless, anything is a masterpiece these days.

My advice:
- first of all disregard the overall rating of albums,
instead look for reviewers that have a taste you can connect to and browse through their favorites

- secondly, when you rate, take 3 stars as your default for a good album and only upgrade to 4 if it's really exceptionally good.

- and third, reserve 5 stars for the top 5-10% of your albums, then it will actually mean something
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JS19 View Drop Down
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Points: 1321 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 13 2010 at 04:21
Originally posted by zachfive zachfive wrote:

Read

Thanks zacfive Smile

While this is a great thread, it doesn't really answer my question, because the conclusion seemingly reached is that only give incredibly influential masterpieces 5 stars, which, as I explained, creates a problem...

Also, albums get reviewed very soon after they have been released, and will of course, not have a legacy, or be influential to anyone, so it's almost like saying no new/recent album can ever be rated 5 stars - which leaves the previously mentioned problem of four star albums
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JS19 View Drop Down
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Points: 1321 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 13 2010 at 04:26
Originally posted by Bonnek Bonnek wrote:

Originally posted by JS19 JS19 wrote:


... This ends up with me rating two or more albums of greatly differing quality at 4 stars.

I don't particularly want to rate things a star lower, so the difference in quality can be seen, because that would reflect badly on the overall ratings of each album
...


- secondly, when you rate, take 3 stars as your default for a good album and only upgrade to 4 if it's really exceptionally good.

- and third, reserve 5 stars for the top 5-10% of your albums, then it will actually mean something


Hmmm, I would love to do this because it would clearly show the best albums, but then everyone visiting the page, immediately thinks that 3 stars is disappointing or not worth listening to, and if you're one of the only reviewers, it doesn't exactly encourage people to pick up the album, if it's relatively unknown, which, if three stars is to be taken as good, it really should.
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Bonnek View Drop Down
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Points: 4521 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 13 2010 at 04:43

^ You should not care about what people will think of a 3 star rating.
Just make sure to be consistent, and write a meaningful review, that will tell us a whole lot more. Thumbs Up
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ShW1 View Drop Down
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Points: 284 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 13 2010 at 04:56
Originally posted by Bonnek Bonnek wrote:


^ You should not care about what people will think of a 3 star rating.
Just make sure to be consistent, and write a meaningful review, that will tell us a whole lot more. Thumbs Up

Good point. Try to stick to PA description - 5 stars for 'essential, masterpeace' album, 4 stars for 'excellent addition' (if not to every prog collection, al least for your private prog collection)  and 3 stars for 'good but non essential'.
 
2 stars could be good album, or having some good stuff in less quality album, but not such an album you would recommend to anyone.
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JS19 View Drop Down
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Points: 1321 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 13 2010 at 05:17
Ok - will do Smile

Next time I write a review, i'll leave the rating 'till afterwards too, because when i read back the review I've written, it will be easier to try at least to reflect the review in my rating

Thanks 
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tamijo View Drop Down
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Points: 4287 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 13 2010 at 05:22
[
Originally posted by JS19 JS19 wrote:


- secondly, when you rate, take 3 stars as your default for a good album and only upgrade to 4 if it's really exceptionally good.
I try to use that too.
Yes - 3 stars - Good, but non-essential    - infact the same as, a very good album !   
 
I keep as the basic thinking  : about 50% of all albums at this site should end up with 3 stars,
About 20 % with 2 stars 20 % with 4 stars
About 5 % with 1 star  - 5 % with 5 stars    
I dont know if that is the intension, but thats what i do.
 
As a side note, i do dump the "not so good" albums, by any artist a bit, so even if i would give a not so good "XX" album - 4 stars compared to any random album, i tend to dump it down to a 3 star, due the the fact that its relative weak compared to the other "XX" albums, Im not sure if that is correct by PA standarts, but I find that a lot of users, would like to use ratings, also to pick the better albums from a particular artist, and as such its stupid if all albums from "XX", was rated with 4 stars+.


Edited by tamijo - December 13 2010 at 11:43
Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours
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Formentera Lady View Drop Down
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Points: 1840 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 13 2010 at 07:37
I also have a rating dilemma, and because of the answers I received, I tend to rate mostly lower than the average of an album, because I reserve the 5 stars only for my very few all time favourites. Then I give the 4 stars for 'essential', 3 stars for good, 2 stars for not essential, 1 star for superfluous (slightly different, than what is described). Tongue
Not sure if this is ok with PA policy, though.

Luckily, ratings can be changed easily. Wink
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