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spamjwood t1_j6o0pd7 wrote

Reply to comment by iamwhoiwasnow in Why is 5 stars the go to rating? by iamwhoiwasnow

Most of the rating systems don't allow anything other than whole numbers. You only get the .25 or .5 because of the averages. These are really meaningless. People don't really differentiate that way. With ratings people are just looking for the am I going to hate it, think it's OK, or love it shortcut.

To make it easier for you, think about it this way...What's the difference to you when you see a 4 or a 4.5? It's likely not a significant impact on your decision making. However, if 10,000 reviews said it's a 4.5 verses 10 reviews say it's a 4.5 you're probably more likely to give it a shot. The different isn't the score itself but the weight of the number of reviews at that score. To get there you could have a large number of 5s along with a large number of 3s or a large number of 4s. It doesn't really matter. The only thing that matters is the aggregate.

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iamwhoiwasnow OP t1_j6o16qo wrote

Makes a lot of sense. I was asking on a personal level because bi personally don't look at reviews and ratings. I like to only read recommendations and go in not books blindly (aside from authors I already enjoy). I feel like if I read 5 books .5 will make a huge difference if they were all meh but some were better than others so you're meh.5

Just my opinion on my own rating.

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spamjwood t1_j6o1m7t wrote

No worries. I think you'd actually find more value from just finding a few people that have similar tastes to your own and then using their "I hated it", "It was OK," or "I loved it" standard. Everything's subjective so one man's treasure is another man's trash.

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