Tell Others Why Do You Rate It With ____ Stars? (Rehaul On Rating And Review System?)

[OneSixSeven]

The rating system can be sometimes good and bad.

Bad because of trolls, individuals who are not fond of a certain genre and types of characters or whatever reason such as " I rate this story with 1 story because the author's story is better than mine!", " I rate this story with 1 story because the author's story is better than mine!", "I hate harem!", "I hate yaoi!", etc as long those reasons are very invalid and childish.

My proposal I believe might lessen this. It should and must be able to lock down 'crabs' / trolls who own multiple ScribbleHub accounts and bombard it with 1 star.

I believe there should be a log, a mark on the chapter, and a date with user's username on it. Whether they use disable viewing of profile in their setting or not, they'll not be able to post multiple 'reviews' on same story in same chapter because of being 'tracked' unless they edit it which has a mark of "date of edit". I might as well call it a chapter review or a better term for that in public display (with no option of hiding the review by a user who reviewed it.)

There should be a track of review too (Review History) for user panel.

It looks like something like this:

- - -


User's Review

Chapter	1
Rating	3.5 Stars
Date	March 19, 2020
Review	The first chapter is good for me. Everything and the idea is good but the problem is that the author used a cliche Fox Hunting Mobs, Clan Council and "West" Empire, commonly found in Naruto fandom on this site except the story is an original one, not original character-centric fanfiction. If only the author did not use those cliches and reused types but with original ideas, maybe I would have evaluated the story chapter itself differently.
Chapter	2
Rating	4 stars
Date	April 3, 2020
Review	It seems the author took note of what I said in my previous review. The details of the chapter itself felt like watching movie including those 'scenes'. I feel sorry for that character because of being manipulated by that guy. I know it's a fictional story but I can relate because I experienced that too in real life and it really broke my heart. I don't know what to put here anymore lol, but this chapter is full of feels. Others might think same thoughts as I. It's so feel-ish. I hope the MC will be able to recover from that. Fine job.

 

[OneSixSeven]

It does not mean that they are obliged to review. They won't be able to rate without reviewing. They can't skip 'inputting' and leave 1 star without reason and thought.


User B's Review

Chapter	2
Rating	3.5 stars
Date	April 10,2020
Review	What User said in Chapter 2 is right. There are people like that in this life. Getting betrayed, manipulated, brainwashed, personality-based extremist, they are the bane and sad things we see. People should snap out of it. I hope author can do something with it. Good job.

 

[OneSixSeven]

If there'll be inclusion of timeframe based on the set timezone ( 9:00 AM, in SG timezone), that makes it better.

More examples:

User C's Review

Chapter	3
Rating	4
Date	April 20, 2020
Review	This chapter is sort of my wait. I understand author's circumstances and situation. Still, I suggest to author that they may divide the chapters into parts next time because some of us might get caught off in a middle of a chapter due to having more words than any of the story chapters I read from others. I was lucky to finish reading the chapter before going off to work lol.

User B's Review

Chapter	3
Rating	3.5
Date	April 20,2020
Review	Do not mind what User D said for giving out 1 star suddenly in their review. Really? Laughing at author's grandparents who died recently? They are a jerk then because that matter is very important to author. I lost my grandfather too you know. Back to the story, like what User C said, I suggest splitting the story chapters into parts as in 'mini-chapters' so that there won't be others like that. To User D, if you are reading this review of mine, go seek help, you buffoon.

 

[OliviaMyriad]

Do you want review by chapters?

And how is the overall calculated. Overall chapter overall?

This might work (or not, even in theory), but in practice no one is going to rate.

 

[AliceShiki]

Locking ratings behind reviews just means almost nobody will leave ratings.

Using my own story as an example, I have 20ish ratings and 0 reviews. My current rating is about 4.5.

Which do you prefer? 0 ratings + 0 reviews, or 20 ratings + 0 reviews with an average of 4.5?

I got only one 1* rating which may or may not be from a troll. I'd much rather receive those over losing the other 19.

 

[OneSixSeven]

review by chapters?

And how is the overall calculated. Overall chapter overall?

This might work (or not, even in theory), but in practice no one is going to rate.

Chapter overall.

If possible, I would like to add another rating feature available should the story itself completely ends as a whole.

 

[Ral]

Might as well remove the ratings feature. It would be much easier to implement and would eliminate the problems you have.

 

[OneSixSeven]

Might as well remove the ratings feature. It would be much easier to implement and would eliminate the problems you have.

It's not that. Ratings, for me, are there for good reason that is to improve and make a better story than the previous one. I want to and know why they gave it that kind of rating.

 

[Ral]

It's not that. Ratings, for me, are there for good reason that is to improve and make a better story than the previous one. I want to and know why they gave it that kind of rating.

This is not what you said in your original post. You want the rating system implement your way to stop trolls.

And as AliceShiki said, an implementation like this would result to people not giving any rating at all. Most readers just don't want to give a review. If they have to review to give a rating, then they might as well not bother rating at all.

Not to mention, most ratings here doesn't have a corresponding review. Your implementation might end up removing all of those.

And your implementation is really complex with a doubtful chance that it would be successful in stoping trolls or getting feedback. Everything might just blow up leading to wasted effort. There is just too much risks here.

 

[aree]

When we are on the topic I like to add that, review option should only open after the author posted at least 10 chapters. How somebody could rate a story after reading just one chapter?

 

[Ral]

When we are on the topic I like to add that, review option should only open after the author posted at least 10 chapters. How somebody could rate a story after reading just one chapter?

This seems fine but . . .

The main issue would be that there would be lack of feedback, and if it takes the author so much time to reach the tenth chapter (like weeks or so), then that would mean the story could not avail also those stuff that is strongly related to the ratings like the Trending section or filtering/ranking/sorting. The story essentially is deprived from some tools the site provides.

Another problem is that, people might not view it positively. I mean, what would you think of a story that didn't receive any ratings? To me it would appear that people didn't find the story interesting that they didn't even bother to rate it.

Also, the early ratings tends to be five-star ratings given by people to encourage the authors. Your way essentially means people unable to do something for the story (aside from commenting) for the next ten chapters. So, no five stars or encouraging reviews.

And the Latest Release ribbon on the front page would have its ratings empty, which would just look odd.

If you are willing despite these and other stuff, then . . . maybe?

And also, sometimes the first chapters are just horrible. I mean, we have very limited time and resources here. If the story can't present anything worthy for the first chapter or first few chapters, then why should we expect anything after? Should we, like, keep tract of this uninteresting story for days or weeks?

These are serial fiction. What is published here is what is available. It is not like a traditionally published book where you get the whole story if you buy one or a guarantee that it would be continued if part of a series. In that case, reading only a small fraction of the book isn't a very complete reflection of what is there. Not so with serial fiction. If there is only five chapters so far, then there is only five chapters and no more. The other chapters might not even exist and you aren't guaranteed that the story would continue after that. If have to wait for there to substantial amount of chapters before you can rate, then you might end up waiting forever.

The first chapter(s) of serial fiction is incredibly important for no other reason that, unlike traditional books, you don't have the whole thing. So, for the new stories, there is really nothing more than just a couple of chapters.

 

[aree]

This seems fine but . . .

The main issue would be that there would be lack of feedback, and if it takes the author so much time to reach the tenth chapter (like weeks or so), then that would mean the story could not avail also those stuff that is strongly related to the ratings like the Trending section or filtering/ranking/sorting. The story essentially is deprived from some tools the site provides.

Another problem is that, people might not view it positively. I mean, what would you think of a story that didn't receive any ratings? To me it would appear that people didn't find the story interesting that they didn't even bother to rate it.

Also, the early ratings tends to be five-star ratings given by people to encourage the authors. Your way essentially means people unable to do something for the story (aside from commenting) for the next ten chapters. So, no five stars or encouraging reviews.

And the Latest Release ribbon on the front page would have its ratings emptystars, which would just look odd.

If you are willing despite these and other stuff, then . . . maybe?

And also, sometimes the first chapters are just horrible. I mean, we have very limited time and resources here. If the story can't present anything worthy for the first chapter or first few chapters, then why should we expect anything after?

I understand. You are right.

But other than a few god-level authors, those drugged stories generally takes a nosedive after just after 20 chapters. And the authors will give up on the story or repeat the same formula again and again. So the result will be the same.

People want great world-building and character development in the first few chapters but will bombard the other saying it is an info-dump.

That is not the main topic here. Rating should be there from the start but the review should open after some chapters. That is my opinion.

Thank you.

 

[Ral]

I understand. You are right.

But other than a few god-level authors, those drugged stories generally takes a nosedive after just after 20 chapters. And the authors will give up on the story or repeat the same formula again and again. So the result will be the same.

People want great world-building and character development in the first few chapters but will bombard the other saying it is an info-dump.

Well, people who would rate it high would likely continue reading it. And if they saw the drop in quality, then they likely would adjust their ratings or rate it after reading that far.

That is not the main topic here. Rating should be there from the start but the review should open after some chapters. That is my opinion.

Thank you.

Uhm. You did say this:

How somebody could rate a story after reading just one chapter?

It might just be a slip of the fingers.

 

[aree]

Well, people who would rate it high would likely continue reading it. And if they saw the drop in quality, then they likely would adjust their ratings or rate it after reading that far.

We don't do that. We just don't read the story and forget about it. It is same for criticism too.

 

[OneSixSeven]

Well, people who would rate it high would likely continue reading it. And if they saw the drop in quality, then they likely would adjust their ratings or rate it after reading that far.


Uhm. You did say this:



It might just be a slip of the fingers.

I am not gonna buy that excuse even if it's true.

 

[Ral]

We don't do that. We just don't read the story and forget about it. It is same for criticism too.

Well, at least it gives a great first impression. And you would still end up having fun before the quality dips. Most would consider that worth the read.

 

[aree]

Well, at least it gives a great first impression. And you would still end up having fun before the quality dips. Most would consider that worth the read.

true that.

 

[AliceShiki]

When we are on the topic I like to add that, review option should only open after the author posted at least 10 chapters. How somebody could rate a story after reading just one chapter?

So... One Shots and Short Stories can't get reviews now?

Also, if the author releases like... 1 chapter/month, I'd need to basically wait a year to write a review?

No thanks.

 

[BenJepheneT]

I hate this but Royal Road's review system is a step up from our's. It doesn't solve the troll issue but at least it gives people a platform to provide reasons for their ratings.

 

[aree]

So... One Shots and Short Stories can't get reviews now?

One-shots and short stories will get comments. That will be easier to differentiate than a single review for 9 different one-shots.

Also, if the author releases like... 1 chapter/month, I'd need to basically wait a year to write a review?

For those authors who publish once a month, I don't think review hold much value to them. (Sorry if I offended someone.) They won't be needing much encouragement.

P.S. then it can be done depending on the words published. But it will complicate things. so it will be better to go with chapters.