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Paul,
Here's some stats people who read and write movie reviews (most are film
students or trying to get in the business):
I asked the question, "What rating scheme to most reviewers prefer?"
Answers:
1 - 5 stars, no half-stars - 2
1 - 5 stars, with half-stars in-between -
8
0 - 4 stars, no half-stars - 0
0 - 4 stars, with half-stars in-between -
13
1 - 4 stars, no half-stars -
0
1 - 4 stars, with half-stars in-between -
4
1 - 10 stars, no half-stars -
11
1 - 10 stars, with half-stars in-between -
15
ABCDF Scale - 6
One other commented that I should have
included the "thumbs up" or "Thumbs down" scale. Also, in questioning, all
respondents who voted for the ABCDF scale said they needed "+" and "-" options
for their ratings (meaning, they needed to be able to review the movie as a "C+"
movie). In the comments, this scale seemed to get far more comments then
votes, but partially this was due to one board where I put "other" instead of
this (I forgot about it on my first board). Many of the comments followed
up saying this was the easiest to understand, as really, most people "know" what
an "A+" movie is, or a "B-" (Not great, but still watchable), etc.
The other important thing for each scale involved knowing the cut-off for good
movies. Most mentioned this in their reasoning.
You'll notice that with the exception of
the 1-10 stars with no half stars, virtually every other category that came
up high used half stars. In follow-up questions, most agreed that the
half-stars on the 10 point scale were more critical for the higher end
movies. This was also the case with a few who use percentages - they find
the 90%-100% part most critical in terms of breaking out really good movies,
primarily oscar-calibur contenders.
There were a number of interesting comments
that indicated some of the thinking using one scale or another. Here's a
few of the comments:
"Whats the focus of the site going to be SFAM? If its going to be debating the
merits of well known films I'd say a percentage, 1-10 with halfs or letter
grades with plus and minus would be a better idea. If its going to be more about
recommending less well known films to people then I'd go with something smaller
like 4 stars as with marks out of ten or percentages most stuff seems to end up
around 6-8/60-80% which isnt very helpful."
"I
think that if you give someone a smaller less exact scale they tend to use more
of it when reviewing things, giving a film 4 stars out of four with no halfs for
example is a lesser comitment to its quality than giving something 10/10...I
think that kind of system would help as it makes it easier to pick out the
better reviews and encourages more indepth reviewing as you can't be so exact in
the rating."
"I use the 1-10 system, with half points
included. I abandoned the 4 star system with half stars roughly two months
ago......it served me well at one point, but I found it to be too damn
limited."
"My first choice would be 0-4 w/ halves. My
second choice would be 0-10 w/ halves..."
"And also, everyone seems to think that there
is some absolute standard that films are being judged against, which just isn't
true. In reality, a 4 out of 5 or 19.5 out of 20 or F only really means
something if you know whatever films the reviewer has liked or admired, and how
the particular rating in question fits in with the rest of their
scheme..."
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In terms of whether knowing the
bottom end was important, almost all but one (see first comment
below) agreed that it was important to know, although there was mixed
opinions on the use of the "0". Most thought this was critical for a 5
point scale (0-4), but when you get to the 10 point scale, the uses for it
differ. Here's a few comments on this in terms of answering my follow-up,
"is a 1-4 scale significantly different than a 0-4
scale":
"A zero rating usually means that you hated the
film so much that you want to make that VERY clear. It´s only different from a 1
in that it shows your unchecked ID and rabid hell´s-a-coming anger better. I
don´t think it makes a 3 rating any different, to use your example. So, no (it's
not important to know this)."
"Yeah, I think it makes a big difference.
Making it just 1-4 would mean getting rid of the 0 and 0.5 ratings, which would
completely alter the scale I'm going by. I'm basically looking at it the same
way one would if he chose to use a scale of 1-9; my 0 star rating would be like
a 1 on that scale, and **** would be like a perfect
9."
"I use 0-4 star rating, with 1/2s. And
ABSOLUTELY yes, I think you need to know the bottom end of the scale, and it
should be 0. For me, there's a few select movies that get perfect, 4 star
ratings. On the other hand, there are a few select movies that get a perfectly
awful 0 star rating. There are movies that have barely any reason for watching
them, so they get a little bit more then 0 stars, but other movies are painful
to watch, and get the 0 star. I have been thinking about changing to a 0-10
rating. I think you need the ultimate high and the ultimate low, though, in any
scale."
"If you're going by 1-10, then in actuality you
have a range of 9 points ( SFAMNOTE-others disagreed with this and stated it was
a range of 10 points). 0-10 would have all 10 points. 10 is the perfect set of
points, because you can split them directly in two for a 5 and 5, thus having a
point of where the film fails or succeeds. So to me, 5/10 is fresh, but barely.
Anything below that is rotten. I would also round up all the elements that make
a good film, and start subtracting from the 10 point system if there are any
flaws to that film. Story, execution, acting, dialogue, fun factor, would this
appeal to the genre fans, would it appeal to anyone etc.. To me the better form
of criticism is not just saying I don't like this movie for so and so reasons,
because what is good to you maybe good to someone else. I guess empathy would be
a useful thing to have. More importantly though and of course this would be
reaching, but I think to be an efficient critic you MUST love ALL genres. Biased
opinions whether it's based on religion, morality, or particular genre, is
useless. If critics are going to be any sort of guide, or a helping hand for the
potential viewer, then we should be more constructive. If someone has an
interest in say HOSTEL even though they have never gotten into the horror genre,
then even though I would like the film I would have to let them know what the
film's demographic is targeted for."
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So in terms of having a default value, this
survey seems to indicate that half-stars are widely used and expected. If
you're not going to have them, then probably your best bet is a 1-10 star
rating.
More importantly though, in terms of
gaining acceptance for this in the plugin world (Wordpress, for example), if the
half-stars aren't an option, chances are that adoption will
suffer. While I generally am thrilled with the wordpress plugin, not
having a the 8.5 and 9.5 option definitely causes me consternation. For
instance, in my case, "Serial Experiments Lain" isn't really a 9 star anime in
line with the other ones I have there, but its certainly a step up from some of
my 8 star ones.
"Paul Bryson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]... >
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote...>> I will pose this question on a few boards though, and see what others >> think of this. As I understand it, your big concern is wondering whether >> explicitly defining the bottom number is critical (my guess is YES, most >> certainly). Secondarily, you are interested in what scale most prefer? > > Well, I am primarily trying to figure out a way to present the information > in a way that is easily parsable, and as part of that I would really like to > include a lower end. Understanding how important the lower end (both in > current usage, and desired direction) is to people is important to deciding > how critical it is. > > As per microformat protocol, the primary source is what is currently being > used, which appears to be the 1-5 inclusive scale. I would still be > interested though in what people actually want as far as scales. > > > Atamido > > > > _______________________________________________ > microformats-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss > > > |
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