Why don't the individual stars mean anything anymore?
I actually really liked that in the top right it explained that 5 stars meant "must see" and 1 star meant "awful". PLEASE DO NOT GET RID OF THIS.
A version of this feature has been released with the latest movielens update. This shows up as a small tool-tip if you hover over the rating interface.
Interested to hear what people think of this version of this feature.
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Denis commented
Nice, thanks for the feature.
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Anonymous commented
Yes it is helpful and 5 stars is very limiting! And a “I’d never watch this” rather than “1=I hated it” option might help.
Conn🌸 -
Anonymous commented
Yes it is helpful and 5 stars is very limiting!
Conn🌸 -
Andrew commented
as others have said, I'll agree. I'm terrible at being consistent with my ratings. Especially since it could be a few months between visits. I've actually had to create my own system of rating, I have no clue if the OP's idea has been implemented but I don't see any evidence of it.
The way I have basically chosen to rate my films is that
0.5:
1.0: These are movies that offended me in some way. They were just so awful I couldn't even finish watching them. if I saw it in the theater, these are also movies that I watched to the end merely because I couldn't leave in the middle (sunk-cost fallacy, I know)
1.5:
2.0:
2.5: Don't often bother to watch movies I don't expect I'd like, so I haven't put much thought into these. but these are movies that I didn't like but managed to finish.
3.0: meh. It wasn't a bad movie, wasn't a good movie, I didn't waste my life, but I didn't gain anything either. Considering this is the equivalent of a 5 on a 10 point scale, I may one day revise my ratings and move all the 3s to 2.5s...
3.5: good, but I don't expect I'll ever watch it again.
4.0: good, and I'll probably want to see it again. Or maybe it was better than good, but not quite great.
4.5: I thought the movie was great or even whoa! but I don't think I'll ever watch it again, unless I'm really really blown away and then I'll bump it to a 5
5.0: I thought the movie was great/brilliant, etc. I was blown away, so much so that I'll probably watch it twice, three times, four times, etc.on the other side, I rarely watch movies that I don't like so I haven't put as much thought into it. But if I give a movie a half star or 1, it's because I turned the movie off before I finished it. 1.5-2.5 stars... I don't know. whatever I feel like.
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Michael commented
I think a reference would be useful. On shopping sites everything else than 5 stars seems to be bad. But for a movie rating I think 1 star should be terrible, 3 stars neutral and 5 stars outstanding.
Maybe the reference could appear when hovering over the stars for more than 1 second or on a FAQ page.
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Anonymous commented
I imported all my ratings from Jinni, where they meant something, and that was so important to me that I spent a couple hours looking up the lables in the Wayback Machine. On Jinni, they meant this:
0: Terrible
1: Awful
2: Bad
3: Poor
4: Disappointing
5: So-so
6: Okay
7: Good
8: Great
9: Amazing
10: Must SeeI think you should add back labels, but let people choose their labels. Because people think of ratings differently, and having their labels would help in interpreting their ratings.
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Jim Leff commented
Human beings are extremely poor at proportioning linear ranges for their emotional sentiments. We are much more accustomed to doing star ratings now, it’s true, but that just means everyone brings their established assumptions (eg nothing’s ever 5 stars cuz nothing’s ever perfect, or anything that bugs me makes me drop to 1 star).
The “legend” setting out clear and emotionally resonant definitions was brilliant and critical.
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Denis commented
Star explanation is very clear at myanimelist. You can copy their star legend.
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Keith D Halperin commented
So, where are we this now?
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Rado commented
I completely agree with implementation of a legend(explanation) to stars. I would even go further and propose to have some detailed explanation for each star so all users would understand what it means to award movie by 5 stars.
For instance my wife gives 5 star to all movies that she enjoyed, if it was average for her that she gives 4 stars and if it was boring 3 stars. Myself on the other hand I gave 5 stars only to maybe 5 movies out of 400, and maybe 20 movies I have rated 4.5 stars. What I mean is that everybody uses different approach in regards rating movies which is completely understandable, therefore some unification of meaning behind the stars should be implemented.
I would for instance propose following description behind stars. Its just a suggestion.
5 stars : My top ten movie (if someone would rate more than 10 movies by 5, system should ask
a person to rate some movies with less stars)
4.5 stars: My top 25, Great movie
4 stars: excellent movie, I have enjoyed while watching, I have seen it more than once. Plus can be also described as my top 50.
3.5 stars: very good movie, however I would not watch it again, My top 100.
3 stars: Average movie, I could watch till the end, but If I don’t see this movie, I would not consider it as loss.
2.5 stars: Bad movie I had troubles to seen it till end, boring for me.
2 stars: Very bad movie, I have stopped watching at some point of time.
1.5 stars: I would not even see this movie
1 star: and so on
0.5 star: and so on -
Ferret commented
I loved that...translation? I still keep it in the back of my head when rating.
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Daniel commented
I'm a big fan of how ToDoMovies weights their five stars.
1: Sucks
2: Bad
3: Good
4: Excellent
5: MasterpieceIt makes me think about how I'm rating films since I know what the stars mean, compared to here where I don't really know what the difference is between a 4.5 and a 5, or a 4 to a 4.5.
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Nadav Har'El commented
I agree with the original poster. I've been using this site for many years, and the "names" for the different amount of stars have been useful when I come back to this site after many months, and need to "calibrate" my scale of how to rate things - if I loved a movie, should I give it 4 or 5 stars? If I found the movie boring, should I give it 3 stars or 2? The words help to make such decisions consistent throughout many months and years of using movielens.
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Anonymous commented
I strongly agree with the original poster. Seems like linking stars to meaning would aid in interpersonal comparisons.
Never overestimate the knowledge of an internet surfer. For example my own ratings are biased downwards, with few movies earning more than two-and-a-half stars.
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Anonymous commented
I liked having the star guide in the corner to help clarify my thinking if I am in between ratings.
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Anonymous commented
I agree with the original poster.
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Karl commented
I really don't see the need for that sort of thing, considering star ratings will usually end up being subjective anyway. Better to keep the layout clean, and if the old benchmarks were significant to you, just go right along using them for yourself.
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Anonymous commented
i think something suggesting what each star-rating might translate to in plain language, like what Movielens has already had, but perhaps including the 1/2-star increments, is very useful & prob helps made data & recommendations more accurate & valid.
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Dee commented
I like the scale but perhaps the star ratings could be titled differently instead of "just okay", "must see" etc.
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Anonymous commented
I doesn't matter whether you leave it or take it away. People will end up doing what seems best to them either way.