Discussion Should readers only be able to rate a novel if they also submit a review?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by puukkiss, Oct 28, 2021.

  1. puukkiss

    puukkiss I'm Keeping My Eye On You!

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    -------
    EDIT: After reading replies.
    I suppose I forgot about folks who want to read and rate, but don't want to repeat what someone else mentioned in a review or have too many novels to write reviews for them.
    Them, How about if There were two ratings. The general, where everyone stars are counted. Like now.
    Second, average rating from those that left reviews?

    --------
    I came from Discussion: If you don't belong to the target audience, you shouldn't rate it.
    I began writing a long replay but realized this might benefit as its own discussion. (BTW, this is my first thread, I hope I did everything right. ANd English is not my first language.)

    While there will be people with opinion, everyone should rate, they have the right to do so!
    I want to remind you, what is the point of stars and ratings?
    Are stars there to have something to click?
    Are stars there to show your likes or dislikes towards a specific Genre? Or views on specific themes?
    Or are stars there to give novelupdates.com users a guide to make informed choices while deciding what to read next?

    While I have no idea how easy or hard would be to change this forum's code or if this site administration would care about this question, I still wanted to see other people's opinions on this theme.

    The post I would have posted in the other thread, but now it is here:

    I think the only way this problem would be somewhat lower is if you can rate the novel only by writing a review.
    This way, that type of people are less likely to do it. I noticed that mostly 5-3 stars write reviews. 2 star reviews show up if there's truly a problem in the novel they need to put it down in words.
    1 star reviews? Helloooo? Where are you, why are you so rare if there are so many of you? Don't you feel rage for the novel you read since you gave it a 1 star? Did you read the novel?

    I went to select Yaoi or Shounen AI tags and put novels with most chapters since they had shown up in the feed most often.
    Rebirth of the Supreme Celestial Being
    Rating(4.0 / 5.0, 277 votes)
    5 64% (177 votes)
    4 6% (17 votes)
    3 11% (30 votes)
    2 7% (20 votes)
    1 12% (33 votes)
    Written 46 Reviews
    Of them,
    22 are 5 star reviews (1/8 of people who rate, write reviews) (If the math says there are numbers after coma I pull up or down)
    1 is a 4 star reviews (1/17 of people who rate, write reviews)
    11 are 3 star reviews (1/3 of people who rate, write reviews)
    5 are 2 star reviews (1/4 of people who rate, write reviews)
    1 is 1 star review (1/33), the review came from someone who dropped after 200 chapters ("Dropped. It was really funny in the first 100 chapters and so I continued even though the plot was dragging and was uninteresting. After 100 chapters, the plot stopped being funny and started getting so boring that I had an headache.")
    They have reading lists names best BL novels and bla bla. Therefore, they are someone who reads novels and rates novels.
    The rest of the reviews have no ratings.

    Banished to Another World
    Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 369 votes)
    5 65% (239 votes)
    4 10% (37 votes)
    3 7% (26 votes)
    2 6% (23 votes)
    1 12% (44 votes)
    Written 87 Reviews
    48 are 5 star reviews (1/5)
    11 are 4 star reviews (1/3)
    14 are 3 star reviews (1/2)
    5 are 2 star (1/5)
    3 are 1 star (1/14)
    Rest, no star

    One of the 1 star reviews: ("I've always wanted to read this novel a long time ago, but I can't read bad translation... I know it's rude but I have to say it. ...")
    One of the 1 star reviews: ("DROPPED. I got sick of the consent and human rights violations. Yuan Zhan is disgusting and has no good features besides power")
    One of the 1 star reviews: ("First, I'm not a fan of BL but the story seemed interesting enough to give it a try.") He lists the good and bad. ("The raping is fine for the story context but the constant raping vibe is annoying. Also you can't make romance that start with r*pe.")


    The Legendary Master’s Wife
    Rating(4.4 / 5.0, 1550 votes)
    5 72% (1121 votes)
    4 9% (141 votes)
    3 8% (124 votes)
    2 4% (63 votes)
    1 7% (101 votes)
    Written 322 reviews.... tooo many. In short.
    12 of them were 1 star written reviews (1/8)

    Here are few.
    1 star review: ("So this is where I stop reading this. When You XiaoMo says he wished another person had gotten r*ped instead of being saved. ")
    1 star review: ("The ML : rude, selfish, bossy,... rapist... long story short, he is a d*ck. And you don't know how accurate this statement is, because the bigger part of the man is his lower part. And because the ML is a rapist with a big d*ck, blowjobs and s*x scenes in general are awful... I am not kidding, and it's not an understatement.")
    1 star review: Long list of why dropped.
    1 star review: ("MC and ML need a year long counseling.")


    Now Yuri Genre with most chapters
    The Villains Need to Save the World?
    Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 255 votes)
    5 59% (150 votes)
    4 8% (21 votes)
    3 9% (24 votes)
    2 8% (21 votes)
    1 15% (39 votes)
    Written 28 Reviews
    10 of them are 5 stars (1/15)
    0 of them are 4 stars
    7 of them are 3 stars (1/3)
    6 of them are 3 stars (1/3)
    1 of them are 1 star (1/39)

    One 1 star review: ("If sexual assault and implied r*pe isn't your thing, I'd suggest you give this a pass")

    Harem genre with most chapters
    Martial God Asura
    Rating(3.3 / 5.0, 2002 votes)
    5 38% (754 votes)
    4 14% (277 votes)
    3 13% (251 votes)
    2 12% (244 votes)
    1 24% (476 votes)

    Written 271 Reviews
    46 of them are 5 (1/16)
    34 of them are 4 (1/8)
    33 of them are 3 (1/8)
    49 of them are 2 (1/5)
    68 of them are 1 (1/7 - this is best so far. You can feel the rage.)

    And if you're wondering why I'm torturing myself by doing this counting... My ADHD was intrigued and decided that this would be fun. :D ANd yes, I was supposed to do something else.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2021
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  2. Nakakure

    Nakakure Zadiris Empress Faction. NNN member Nr.1.

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    i never rate Wuxia, Yaoi, and Yuri because i rarely like them, Wuxia is fresh for first reading experience after that is "meh" for me.
     
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  3. sweed

    sweed l.o.v.e.m.u.f.f.i.n.

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    Advice: Look for 3 star rating reviews, they usually give more insights to pro and con arguments. :cookie:
     
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  4. simak

    simak Well-Known Member

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    More like OCD than ADHD. :p
    And to the terminally pendantic, yes, I know that OCD has been reclassified as one of those spectra.
     
  5. puukkiss

    puukkiss I'm Keeping My Eye On You!

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    Yes, plus, my go-to strategy is reading the longest 5-star review and longest lowest star review. This way I can see the good and the bad, and decide is this for me or not.
    BUT, sometimes I don't open a novel to see because it has a low rating. (often from 1 star dumps)
    I remember finding a novel in a site without stars, I read it and liked it, came to see here, what other people think about it, and was surprised to see it had only 3.5 or lower? (don't remember, but the rating was poor)
     
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  6. CardOne4All

    CardOne4All Well-Known Member

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    No, I don’t think so so since in most cases reviews are useless or just a copy of another.
     
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  7. Shio

    Shio Moderator Staff Member

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    As a user: there's no way I am going to write a review for all novel that I have read.
     
  8. GrimVeilRule

    GrimVeilRule Dux Bellorum

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    I rarely write a review because most of the time other reviews say what I would better and I'm lazy even on novels I gave 5 stars.
     
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  9. Kurotsubaki

    Kurotsubaki Reincarnation of the Seven Deadly Sins

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    I only rate and review novels that i like
     
  10. Jojo775

    Jojo775 Honorary Algae Knight

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    Sometimes you don't have anything smart or new to add so just rate, not review. There will always be trolls who downvote for no good reason like hating the genre or giving up too early or thinking the MC is a wuss just because he is a normal person and not a pyschopath...

    Then there are people with very low standards that think everything is subarashi, not just in novels, they rate everything 5 stars and you can't trust a single thing they say in reviews(some of them even know how to use fancy words that make you think they know what they're talking abou but really all they do is sput BS).

    For example I'm in a FB movie group and someone posted a movie, instead of a synopsis they just wrote "best movie ever!", in the comments everyone agreed that the movie was just OK, far far from the best movie ever.
     
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  11. Kirikaize

    Kirikaize Well-Known Member

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    Can't say, my reviews to rating ratio is quite low. But the thing is I'll always read the synopsis and what tags there are before trying a few chapters, if it has a ton of chapters I'll check the reviews. I only rate for stories that I like. I think there are some people who dislike certain genres but still rate it. It's whether you're rating based on your preference or aversion, or whether the story is good or not.
    Constructive feedback is quite hard. I can decide if I like something or not but if you try having me explain to you why I like it I might just say "cuz I do".
    It might be a better option instead of having everyone write reviews, we have an option for taboo tags where if you try to rate a novel with a tag you hate it doesn't count or something like that.
     
  12. JinVodka

    JinVodka 「Back to Work Back to Suffering _(-ω-`_)⌒)_」

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    It easier to write a 1 star review by the power anger lol _(。⊿°」∠).
    My 1 star review is more detail and have more emotion, from all the disappointed and time wasted.

    The fun of angry 1 star review is you might receive email from the translator. And if your anger is reasonable then they can't defend lol.

    Usually give 5 stars to novel I enjoy but don't really review. Since I can only day generic things like "It good, fun to read"
     
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  13. Vilidious

    Vilidious Well-Known Member

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    In my opinion, the rating system is mostly to separate completely unreadable ones from the potentially readable ones.

    Having looked at some of the reviews, it feels like people aren't in general very stingy with their stars... or they are modified to "offset" other people's reviews that some people disagree with, which in itself is a rather irritating thing... everyone should have an equal say on what they like or don't like.

    So I don't think you can really trust them too far.

    Then, if people had to review every novel they have read a bit about, they'd likely just put like "ok" - 4 stars everywhere, or "I don't like being forced to write reviews" - 1 star, or sarcastic ones like "unexpectedly author could type his name" - 5 stars.

    As long as the system is voluntary, at least the reviews have a higher chance of addressing the novel itself or are written by people who want to actually give feedback on it.

    So yeah, I think that it's extremely optimistic to think that people move according to any well-meaning ideals... after all, we are specialists in messing up every good thing and making everyone's lives miserable.
     
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  14. Bad Storm

    Bad Storm no thought, head empty

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    If leaving a review is necessary to rate a novel, we'll be saturated with low effort reviews. I wouldn't want that considering there are many people who analyzes the story better than I do. After all, I'm mostly casual with what I read.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2021
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  15. runsing

    runsing status : bleeding, health -10/s Novel Updates Staff

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    agreed. why would i spent so much time and effort for a novel i don't like/drop. what i'll often do is i'll remove it from my reading list and rate it so that i don't accidentally re-add it down the line.

    while ratings and reviews are useful, they aren't persuasive enough to stop nor encourage me. afterall, i'm the type that decides a if novel/manga/manhua is worth a try by its cover/drawings.
     
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  16. puukkiss

    puukkiss I'm Keeping My Eye On You!

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    I suppose I forgot about folks who want to read and rate, but don't want to repeat what someone else mentioned in a review or have too many novels to write reviews for them.
    Them, How about if There were two ratings. The general, where everyone stars are counted. Like now.
    Second, average rating from those that left reviews?
     
  17. Bachingchung

    Bachingchung Well-Known Member

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    I'm not ashamed to say that I give low ratings to the Black Belly novels I read during my early CN LN days. If the authors' whole point is to make me cough blood, then yes they accomplished that flawlessly. But if they think they could garner a high rating from that, then they're wrong. Too bad there's no medicine for regret.

    Another reason for a low rating from me is wasted potential. Like introducing a Fantasy world, with fresh power system and interesting world building, then everything would be poured down the drain because it would be the same fvcking Church is Bad, Aristocrats are bad, 100+ chapters war arcs and *insert MC's inner turmoils about his morality from his previous peaceful modern world*. I don't hate formulaic plots, but if the best part of the novel is the 1st arc/volume, then everything after that feels just like a filler.

    I rate more based on how these novels make me feel first, then the technical part second. I'm not really that strict on the latter since I don't dabble much on that profession and just read as a hobby. Also lots of part could be lost in translation, so I just simplify it whether a novel could entertain me or not.

    P.S. regarding your question, it's a no for me. You'll sometimes encounter a novel that isn't even worthy to be dignified with a response.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2021
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  18. 0000000

    0000000 I B SMILING!

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    I only rate when I am bored and I often leave a review after rating because I think I need to explain my rating. Though for awhile I have stopped reviewing or even remarking, because I often read without absorbing and I dunno what's good about the story, just that it amuses me.

    For instance, Omnipresent God of War is boring at the latest chapter. Is it a fun ride at the front? Yes, is it now a drag? Yes. I would still give a 4* for the fun times.

    The Original Vampire is basically just a wanking fest for Colin at this point as well.
     
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  19. Baldingere

    Baldingere Roseau pensant

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    I write reviews only for novels where there are not enough reviews. I rate more often.
    When I pick up a novel, I always check reviews so rating doesn't lead me astray.
     
  20. Arkantos

    Arkantos Well-Known Member

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    No. What makes the opinions of people who the stuff is written for more valid than those for which the text was not written for? I enjoyed a lot of wuxia that others would consider trash but that doesnt mean they are wrong.
     
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