beast_regards
Dumb-Ass Medal Holder
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2022
- Messages
- 1,489
- Points
- 153
The 5-star rating system is the dishonest and manipulative marketing tool masquerading as the method of gathering the customer feedback, designed to create the perceived (and often false) impression of the added value for the money spent.
A customer aiming for the lower price is easily swayed by the impression that the more expensive product is somehow better only because it has been rated higher, but the ratings are rarely the accurate and objective measurement of quality, often manipulated by the sales and marketing departments to maximise the profits.
While this system has its place on commercial sites (after all, you couldn’t do marketing without marketing tools)...
… the 5-star rating system has no place on the hobbyist sites (which Scribble Hub seemingly is)…
The hobbyist writers are amateurs, usually without any education or training on both writing and marketing, and even if they did, they are robbed of all tools the marketing departments use to manipulate the ratings. They couldn’t delete reviews, or make their own, and are rarely even interested in doing so.
The hobbyist writers aren’t interested in selling the product.
They invest their free time they could have spent elsewhere to provide the free entertainment for others and are often only interested in presenting the novel in front of people who would enjoy it. Note “enjoy it”, the drive is usually for approval from like minded individuals, it is not about money or wondering the best marketing strategies.
In fact, the 5-star rating scale works directly against the hobbyist.
Not only they don’t care about marketing, they don't know about marketing, and they don’t have any tools to perform it properly even if they did …
… it also makes their experience on the Internet much, much worse.
Because of the anonymous nature of the Internet, the majority of the reactions are going to be negative, and the rating systems only worse the situation for people who seek positive affirmation for the work they did in their spare time without any financial reward in sight.
No longer they only have to deal with the usual hate messages, i.e. you post on the Internet, you risk the reply, now the negative and hostile actors have more tools to attack you, and destroy your experience with basic math.
One dislike and one like isn’t the mixed reaction anymore.
It isn’t … oh well one guy disliked work, but one liked it …
It is now 3-star, and while it theoretically shows “average” or “middle ground” it is not how the rating works.
Keep in mind, the whole rating system is to create an impression of added value, it is not the scale:
All people are subconsciously drawn to the highest values, that’s why the system was even invented, and ultimately, any rating other than the five is considered bad because of that. The readers always, always choose higher values subconsciously.
It is never used, or thought, in terms of scale, even if it pretends it is one.
This mixed with the hostile (critical) nature of the Internet, people who want to do harm will always choose the lowest value in order to cause the greatest damage possible.
Additionally, even without the inherent maliciousness, the system never comes with the explanation of what individual values even mean, allowing the people to interpret them as they like.
Person who says “Oh, 3 is average” is rarely reading stories that are rated below 4.5. It is counterintuitive, confusing, and demotivating for amateur writers who looked for “friends” or “fun” (or something along the lines). Only thing the amateur writer does is to watch the numbers drop, or to leave, never writing again.
The readers also aren’t any better off, as once again, no one knows what those numbers mean!
In the end, the rating system, seemingly being the scale of what the “most would like”, becomes the tool that only frustrates and demotivates the amateur writers which aren’t interested in the marketing strategies, and could have done something different with their time than providing you with the free entertainment.
Instead, the “like & dislike” is a much better term for the hobbyist to understand…
If you get 5 dislikes, you would be angry, but if you have 5 likes too, you have five people who encourage you to continue without even speaking up, and you want to continue for the positive five, not the negative one.
But with 3-star, you are probably doomed that the people manipulated by the marketing strategy will never read your story, because 3 is lower than five and people struggle (or won’t be bothered) to analyze the mathematical average entry values.
Since there have recently been attempts to change the site, what are your opinion on the stars scale?
(whether it is 1-10 the Royal Road uses, or the true 1-5 here on the Scribble Hub)
A customer aiming for the lower price is easily swayed by the impression that the more expensive product is somehow better only because it has been rated higher, but the ratings are rarely the accurate and objective measurement of quality, often manipulated by the sales and marketing departments to maximise the profits.
While this system has its place on commercial sites (after all, you couldn’t do marketing without marketing tools)...
… the 5-star rating system has no place on the hobbyist sites (which Scribble Hub seemingly is)…
The hobbyist writers are amateurs, usually without any education or training on both writing and marketing, and even if they did, they are robbed of all tools the marketing departments use to manipulate the ratings. They couldn’t delete reviews, or make their own, and are rarely even interested in doing so.
The hobbyist writers aren’t interested in selling the product.
They invest their free time they could have spent elsewhere to provide the free entertainment for others and are often only interested in presenting the novel in front of people who would enjoy it. Note “enjoy it”, the drive is usually for approval from like minded individuals, it is not about money or wondering the best marketing strategies.
In fact, the 5-star rating scale works directly against the hobbyist.
Not only they don’t care about marketing, they don't know about marketing, and they don’t have any tools to perform it properly even if they did …
… it also makes their experience on the Internet much, much worse.
Because of the anonymous nature of the Internet, the majority of the reactions are going to be negative, and the rating systems only worse the situation for people who seek positive affirmation for the work they did in their spare time without any financial reward in sight.
No longer they only have to deal with the usual hate messages, i.e. you post on the Internet, you risk the reply, now the negative and hostile actors have more tools to attack you, and destroy your experience with basic math.
One dislike and one like isn’t the mixed reaction anymore.
It isn’t … oh well one guy disliked work, but one liked it …
It is now 3-star, and while it theoretically shows “average” or “middle ground” it is not how the rating works.
Keep in mind, the whole rating system is to create an impression of added value, it is not the scale:
All people are subconsciously drawn to the highest values, that’s why the system was even invented, and ultimately, any rating other than the five is considered bad because of that. The readers always, always choose higher values subconsciously.
It is never used, or thought, in terms of scale, even if it pretends it is one.
This mixed with the hostile (critical) nature of the Internet, people who want to do harm will always choose the lowest value in order to cause the greatest damage possible.
Additionally, even without the inherent maliciousness, the system never comes with the explanation of what individual values even mean, allowing the people to interpret them as they like.
Person who says “Oh, 3 is average” is rarely reading stories that are rated below 4.5. It is counterintuitive, confusing, and demotivating for amateur writers who looked for “friends” or “fun” (or something along the lines). Only thing the amateur writer does is to watch the numbers drop, or to leave, never writing again.
The readers also aren’t any better off, as once again, no one knows what those numbers mean!
In the end, the rating system, seemingly being the scale of what the “most would like”, becomes the tool that only frustrates and demotivates the amateur writers which aren’t interested in the marketing strategies, and could have done something different with their time than providing you with the free entertainment.
Instead, the “like & dislike” is a much better term for the hobbyist to understand…
If you get 5 dislikes, you would be angry, but if you have 5 likes too, you have five people who encourage you to continue without even speaking up, and you want to continue for the positive five, not the negative one.
But with 3-star, you are probably doomed that the people manipulated by the marketing strategy will never read your story, because 3 is lower than five and people struggle (or won’t be bothered) to analyze the mathematical average entry values.
Since there have recently been attempts to change the site, what are your opinion on the stars scale?
(whether it is 1-10 the Royal Road uses, or the true 1-5 here on the Scribble Hub)
