I wonder how you would fix that. I guess a few measures you could take is, try to force people to at least load the story before rating it, make them rate it on several scales, and use machine learning to weight the results. I'm not sure how well that would work even then, but it'd be worth a try.

I think most rating systems tend to be a bit borked that way. Having the rate option only appear at the bottom of chapters might help a bit, though that would only work on sites like fimfiction that host the stories themselves.

I pretty much only gave out 2-4 star ratings. It would have to be really high-quality, feels-inducing, and unforgettable for me to give it a 5. Conversely, it would have to be the most horrid crap that I have ever subjected my eyes to that I somehow still manage to finish at least halfway for me to give out a 1.

I suck at star ratings, i love everything, or at least try to. it's gotta be REAL bad for me to hate it.

@Kyler: This is pretty much how I try to rate things. It's actually a little hard for me to do because I tend to not be that critical of fiction, but I feel like too many people give out 5s to everything they like even a little, which basically makes them worthless. Maybe there should be a cap on them. Like you can only give five stars to so many fics per month.

edited 20th Aug '12 9:03:59 PM by Crowfall

I honestly don't read enough fanfic for it to be a problem for me. My tastes are too narrow.

I think it's better to just forget ratings, let people read a story (or not) and come to their own conclusions.

Regarding the whole "Ignoring the star rating because it's a M/M shipping fic" thing: If that's not a Double standard, I don't know what is.

edited 20th Aug '12 9:07:12 PM by marston

I just think that there needs to be more reviews and feedback. For as creative as the fandom is, I almost never see critique unless it is specifically sought out. You'd at least expect a tumblr or two dedicated to reviewing featured fics, wouldn't you?

I actually had a funny idea the other day that I don't have the artistic talent to pull off. Basically, it would be like one of those Ask Blogs, except that the pony in question would review fanfiction in-character. It would be a huge undertaking, though, so I doubt that anything could ever come of it. I might actually consider trying it if I could team up with an artist.

edited 20th Aug '12 9:09:19 PM by PerpetualLurker

I saw one, but it hasn't updated in like two months.

If enough people rated enough things, it would be interesting to offer a personalized rating baesd on the people whose ratings agree most closely with yours in general.

@marston: What are you talking about? Lesbians and gay dudes are totally different things!

Yeah, it is a double standard, but I think it's just a minority of assholes. Most people don't bother rating a fic, so the few jerks that downvote because of that stand out more.

@story: That's basically what Netflix does, and it would be cool to see it implemented more places. Probably pretty difficult to pull off though.

edited 20th Aug '12 9:13:46 PM by Crowfall

Applejack at home.

ATG prompt 19: Draw a pony cooking. There was no way I wasn't doing this.

Who knew macaroni could be so dangerous?

I bet Google and Facebook do it too. I think the big problem is that you need a critical mass of ratings before it becomes effective.

That's what happens when you try to substitute ingredients.

Also, I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

"Hey Scoots, do you have any butter?"

"No, but I do have this uranium."

"Eh, just as good."

Night!

Are you kidding? Mushrooms and clouds are perfectly fine ingredients!

They do get cutie marks in causing nuclear holocausts, so it ain't so bad.

I will never understand the whole ponies wearing socks thing.

@Blissey: I have no idea why, but it's just somehow... erotic.

But in deference to your tastes, have this humanized picture of AJ and Cherry Jubilee instead.

edited 20th Aug '12 9:34:05 PM by Wryte

It all started from an adoreable picture of Luna in socks, which was in turn inspired by socks that look like they fit on hooves.

It started out as cute, then someone thought it looked sexy as hell, and that's really all it took.

The funny part is that there was a really old G3 picture of Scootaloo in a giant sock. THEY KNEW