How do you use your ratings?

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

I think I also want to point out that there shouldn't be an average score for all the reviewers on a given site, because as their review styles differ, so do their scores and stuff. Personally, I have been to a lot of review sites, and i have a tendancy to subscribe myself to a reviewer. Having read multiple of their reviews, I decide wether they are a person I agree with or not. Your score doesn't matter really if the person has read your review, because they understand how you felt about it. What's important about a review isn't just wether or not you liked it, but why you liked it, after all, and hose are the things people are going to agree or disagree with.

[VivisQueen]

VIVA: I'm taking in your points and I'll mull over them, but I'm going to have to chicken out at this point - term started, it's a bitch >_<, and I always end up spending an hour on these posts (oh shit, it's past midnight!). Lol.

Just to conclude on my part that:

1) I take the point about lowering my rating for 'average' in order to allow for more space for ranking. I agree with your first and second points.

2) Regarding your third point, I don't agree that having fifty 9s and fifty 10s automatically/necessarily means the anime must be ranked. This assumes that the person must have enjoyed each one to slightly different degrees. I actually have lots of anime that I cannot choose between. And if my options were between 5.5. and 10 for one hundred anime I thought were masterpieces, the bunching would be even starker. If someone doesn't rank their anime, then we can only assume that it's because they genuinely can't rank their anime and thus have no inclination to rank their anime. Must the anime be ranked by all means? What if I told you I enjoyed 50 anime at level 8. Will you then force me to use decimal points to allow for an extra level of differentiation?

It looks dodgy to have fifty anime at 8, and I can't imagine that happening even with my tastes/habits/whatever, but if it's legitimate to me, then that's tough for anyone else who must be told specifically via my ratings alone (and without reading my reviews) which of the anime they are likely to enjoy. I rank according to my tastes. If I must reset my 'average' rating to allow more balance in space at each end of the scale, then fine. However, that doesn't mean I cannot then decide all the anime I currently rank at 8 move down to 7.5. Same number of anime, they share the same rankings, just my idea of average has moved down.

It's the insistence that they must be ranked (especially if your anime count is low) that I find irrational. When I tell someone I enjoyed Beck and Lovely Complex to the same degree (despite their genres, styles, plots etc) then I really do mean it. It' not just necessarily that they got bunched together because I didn't have enough room.

So. You win on one account (and I will amend my ratings accordingly, hopefully by the end of the week), but on another account you didn't convince me to insist on a bell curve. This could be down to my vastly inferior mathematical ability (inferior = nonexistent) which means I'm just not 'getting it' but that's just something that's gonna have to be. I will concede this point, though: With more room to rank an anime, there is more chance the ranking will occur. Having created space at the top end of the scale by moving down my score for 'average', I'm finally able to fine-tune my ratings a bit better. This will look better in your eyes for now, but it doesn't mean I won't still be rating anime all at 7.5 in the future.

Does that make sense? I hope so.

[vivafruit]

Originally Posted by Vivi's Queen

VIVA: I'm taking in your points and I'll mull over them, but I'm going to have to chicken out at this point - term started, it's a bitch >_<, and I always end up spending an hour on these posts (oh shit, it's past midnight!). Lol.

Fair enough. There's no pressure to reply immediately (or ever), and the term just started for me too. O.o

If someone doesn't rank their anime, then we can only assume that it's because they genuinely can't rank their anime and thus have no inclination to rank their anime. Must the anime be ranked by all means? What if I told you I enjoyed 50 anime at level 8. Will you then force me to use decimal points to allow for an extra level of differentiation?

If you truly agree with my first point then the statement, "I enjoyed 50 anime at level 8" is meaningless. You might as well be saying, "I enjoyed 50 anime at level orange." If someone does not want to rank their anime at all then they should probably not be trying to score them in the first place. It becomes a fruitless endeavor.

2) Regarding your third point, I don't agree that having fifty 9s and fifty 10s automatically/necessarily means the anime must be ranked. This assumes that the person must have enjoyed each one to slightly different degrees.

For truly special anime I think this assumption largely holds true. This is evidenced by the fact that people can easily create a "top 5" anime list where they rank each of their favorites accordingly. Of course, differentiating enjoyment becomes more difficult as the anime become more mediocre, which is precisely why I advocate for a bell curve.

Thinking about it, I think Zakiel is correct to say that a bell curve is inappropriate if you only watched masterpieces. What it should instead look like is the top part of a bell curve with everything else chopped off. So there would be a bunching at your lowest rating and then less anime would be bunched at each successively higher rating. But there would still be a clear ranking among the top scorers.

[Sheex]

I apologize for taking so long to reply myself (and this will be brief), but I just started classes too and haven't had a chance to really type out long responses.

@Vivi:

Be clear, Sheex, the chances of a bell curve happening with people like me who are not interested in completing the anime that score low according to their tastes is that there is very little chance of a distinct bell curve happening.

Just wanted to point out that we're not different in that respect; I drop a large amount of series since I simply don't have time to sift through mediocrity. In fact, the only series that I've recently watched through that's been tremendously bad was Tokimeki Memorial, and that was exclusively to get a site review up. Regardless, of those series I do watch, I still watch series that vary in degrees of "good," and I'm inclined to believe this holds true for any person who has watched a substantial amount of anime - yourself included. For example, I watched Kino no Tabi, Myself; Yourself, and School Days all back-to-back-to-back a few weeks ago, and I considered all to be solid. However, there was clear distinguishment to be made between them - Kino no Tabi was a definite first (9.0), School Days a strong second (7.8), and Myself; Yourself a decent third (7.5). In fact, a number of my recent scores have been around 7.5, as I've been catching up on many of the "highlight" series people have recommended to me that I haven't had time to watch over the past year. My scoring, while not reflecting an accurate bell curve itself, still allows for the clear distinguishment between the level of a 7.5 rated series and a 9.0, though, and that's all that I was really trying to point out with my brief arguments.

[VivisQueen]

Having had a conversation with sothis, these are now my new ratings. If anybody else has problems with them, they can sod off. I have official webmaster approval.

5.5 - bad average
6 - good average (as in minimally enjoyable)

I have also opened up my ceiling to allow for 10s. Going to adjust my ratings accordingly now.

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

Oioi, today I majorly edited my rating system, and now it operates going like this for each individual category

9, 9.2, 9.5, 9.7, 10

And the Overall is the combination of all 4 scores devided by four. That way I can get the most absolutely specific overall scores. Here's what this looks like enacted on my top shows:

ef - 10, 10, 9.5, 9.5 = 9.9
eureka - 9.2, 9.5, 10, 10 = 9.8
gurren-lagann - 10, 10, 9, 9.5 = 9.6
Baccano - 10, 9, 9, 10 = 9.5
Haruhi - 9.2, 10, 9.5, 9 = 9.3

I like my new system a lot ^_^Most recently...

Code Geass - 8.5, 9, 8, 8.5 = 8.5
Kamichu! - 9, 10, 9, 9.5 - 9.25

[Cetonis]

I feel the need to object to the notion of averaging pieces... aside from the whole deal about a series not necessarily being the sum of its parts, it's also true that certain aspects are more or less than 25% important depending on the genre, (having an interesting plot is not as important for a comedy as it is for an action-ish or mystery series, to name just one of many examples) and furthermore there are things excluded from the four basic categories (annoying ecchi, well-executed battle scenes, etc.) that aren't counted by such a system...

Of course, if you want to do your scores that way regardless that's obviously up to you. I do think there is a certain degree of benefit to looking at each piece of a series when deciding how you want to rate it. It just feels like there should be a better way than just picking four categories and grading every series by their average scores...

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

Originally Posted by Cetonis

I feel the need to object to the notion of averaging pieces... aside from the whole deal about a series not necessarily being the sum of its parts, it's also true that certain aspects are more or less than 25% important depending on the genre, (having an interesting plot is not as important for a comedy as it is for an action-ish or mystery series, to name just one of many examples) and furthermore there are things excluded from the four basic categories (annoying ecchi, well-executed battle scenes, etc.) that aren't counted by such a system...

Of course, if you want to do your scores that way regardless that's obviously up to you. I do think there is a certain degree of benefit to looking at each piece of a series when deciding how you want to rate it. It just feels like there should be a better way than just picking four categories and grading every series by their average scores...

At first, I really hated grading things in four categorires, however when it comes to series I like I tend to rate all the categories higher anyway, because obviousl they worked for me to make a great show, or else they bothered me and it will reflect o my score, because it does have an effect. So I think the four work.

[vivafruit]

I totally agree with Cetonis. Sound is just so ridiculously unimportant compared to story that giving each category equal weight is absurd.

Not to mention that it's really the overall package that makes the anime rather than the individual components. For instance, both Nodame Cantabile and Hack Sign arguably have "10" soundtracks, but there is no doubt in my mind that the soundtrack in Nodame Cantabile is much more important to the final score than it is for Hack Sign.

[ingrey]

Originally Posted by vivafruit

I totally agree with Cetonis. Sound is just so ridiculously unimportant compared to story that giving each category equal weight is absurd.

Not to mention that it's really the sum of the parts that make the anime rather than the individual components. For instance, both Nodame Cantabile and Hack Sign arguably have "10" soundtracks, but there is no doubt in my mind that the soundtrack in Nodame Cantabile is much more important to the final score than it is for Hack Sign.

I'm very much in agreement on this point. Not all of the categories should have equal weight, and sound should have much less than story and character. Music can certainly enhance a show; it does a good job at making scenes more poignant for me, but I've seen many great shows that have only marginal or adequate music, and other shows that have exceptional music but are just plain bad.

ef - 10, 10, 9.5, 9.5 = 9.9

I'm glad someone else appreciates a Tale of Memories. It's one of my favorite romance anime because it avoids so many of the usual problems others of its kind fall prey to, as well as providing interesting characters, excellent dialogue , and maintaining a very eloquent presentation throughout the series.