I've never given a 5 star on SH, and only twice on RR and one of those stories hasn't even been updated in 3 years. At most, I give 4 stars but my most common is 3's and 2's. 1's from me are about as rare as 5's.
Most often of all though is that I don't give any ratings since the rating system is for the most part dead. Everyone is gung-ho to drop a 5 if they liked it for any reason at all and a 1 for even the most trivial of complaints. I can say RR is a fairly large offender in this though SH isn't far behind. Or just simply because they dislike the author for whatever reason not directly related to the story itself. SH is the biggest offender of this particular thing in my experiences and others I know.
Still, the two stories I gave a 5. I can't accurately put into words what it was that grabbed me. It wasn't grammar since my favorite online author is Misty South, chinese guy. It's painfully obvious that English isn't his first language and yet he's just so much better than any other CN author I've ever come across. It wasn't action or being fast-paced since I tend to enjoy slow-burns more often because constant fast paced action gets repetitive and in the long run, loses its impact and because I just happen to have a decent attention span. Something that is very rare in online readers/authors. All I can say is those 2 stories had me up at 6:30 AM still reading despite the fact I had to start getting ready for work at 9:00 A.M. and I moaned and groaned even as I came to that realization...and kept reading anyway.
