I’m going to start posting some reviews on my blog! Mostly movies, TV, music, etc. While I don’t have some crazy rating system, it is slightly unconventional, so I thought I should document it. It boils down to the fact that I think we should perceive 50% as “average”, while most people associate averageness with a 70-75% percent score. Maybe this is because of the American letter grading system, who knows.
My point is, let’s say you go to a restaurant, and the food, service, and ambience are very forgettable, but not terrible. You order something, it comes, and you eat most of it because you are hungry. Would you ever come back? Very, very unlikely. But you had a decent time. Most, I believe, would rate this outing a 7/10. Nothing crazy, but not terrible. I would rate this exact experience a 5/10.
Centering rating systems on 7 makes half the numbers on the scale useless. People rate things as 1-5: terrible, 6: disappointing, 7: alright, 8: good, 9: very good, 10: excellent.
I like using a base 10 rating system as well, but also if you use decimals it doesn’t really matter. I rate as: 1: the worst thing I have ever experienced in the category, 2: very bad, 3: bad, 4: disappointing, 5: alright, 6: decent, slightly positive, 7: good, 8: great, 9: excellent, 10: best in its segment.
Maybe that made sense, maybe that sounded like gibberish, but I think it’s important to clarify. I may rate something a 5/10, but that doesn’t mean I disliked it even though one’s intuition may suggest I did.
I do think though, that if I did document myself rating 1,000 restaurants, the mean rating would be closer to a 6-7. This is not a flaw in my rating system, but rather by design. The restaurant industry is cutthroat, where most business don’t last longer than a few years. Hence, if a joint is open for a while, chances are they produces experiences better than a 5/10. Natural selection will destroy many if not most 1-5 restaurants, movies, games, etc, so the mean ratings do tend to be a bit higher.
That ends this blurb! See you soon for a review of… something.