Tuesday 15 April 2008

Change to rating system...

Just thought I'd point out that I'm going to change the rating system I currently use to rate books and films. As regular readers will be aware, I used the 1 to 10 system (including decimal points) but I just started to feel this whole system was too subjective. What the hell is the difference between 8.25 and 8.5 anyway?

So from now on I'm using a more simple system. Books and films will be awarded one of the following ratings:

ddddd - Excellent
dddd - Good
ddd - Average
dd - Poor
d - Terrible

Hopefully this will make things a bit clearer.

3 comments:

Todd Newton said...

I dug through the slog of my old blog posts on Myspace to bring this to you; it's the definition of the 1-10 scale that I arbitrarily decided on a couple of years ago and your post reminded me a bit of it. This is what I use to gauge stuff.


In an effort to achieve uniformity, I am proposing a universal definition to the age-old "scale from 1 to 10." If you endorse this, please sign. If you would like to submit your own, please do so. If you do not agree, please list a coherent argument as to why not.

We live in a world where < 1 and > 10 do not exist. Also, there are no "halfsies" or "partial points." Please keep these things in mind; the world needs uniformity and some things need to be sacrificed to achieve it. I am willing to make these sacrifices.

1 - NULL, the absence of anything
2 - Horrible, no redeeming qualities whatsoever
3 - Poor
4 - Bad
5 - Mediocre
6 - Above Average
7 - Good
8 - Great
9 - Excellent, Nigh on Perfect
10 - Perfection (there is nothing better)

Sara J. said...

To an extent, it's all subjective in terms of rating, isn't it?

That's why I decided not to offer a grade or a direct rating of some sort. I figure if people can't tell from the review that I'm not being clear enough.

Though, it's nice to give a way to mark things against each other.

Good luck with the ratings in any case :)

James said...

TD - even without decimal points, I still feel the 1 to 10 scale is too subjective. For example, what's the real difference between 'great' and 'excellent'?

Sara - Thanks, I do think the new system is better. Sure, all ratings are subjective to a point and I can see why you choose not to use them. I just like to give the casual reader a quick indication of what I think of a book, so if they don't want to read the whole review then they don't have to.