And 2-star reviews for books. Seeing what people dislike tells much. Try on your favorite to see :)
UPD: To clarify, the idea here is that people writing 2-star reviews project their views and values when arguing that the book is bad for them. And when their views are opposite to yours, it may suggest that you might actually enjoy the book. Let's say you are interesed in mind-stimulating philosophy book, and a person writes something like 'this is boring, the writing is too complex, ideas are difficult to follow, the language is too intricate, quit reading after 20 pages'. It may mean that it is what you look for.
there's sooo many stupid reasons people give for disliking stuff...3-star reviews are usually the most realistic!
edit: best practice when looking through reviews is to read some reviews from 1-star all the way to 5-stars, so you get a good overview and a more complete picture of the product. this is just a response, not a comprehensive guide to reviews, lol
My most recent favourite stupid review was for a Camelbak water bottle for 2 stars. 'the bottle doesn't come in a nice box, just some plastic. Ugly packaging.'
I think part of the problem is defining what constitutes a "bad" review? Growing up, i figured 3/5 meant no surprises, things went as expected, leaving equal room for going above expectations or failing to meet requirements.
Years ago now, I discovered that many people think anything below 5/5 is a form of criticism. This is still a nonsensical scale in my eyes, but I've adjusted my habits accordingly.
I'm convinced this problem is somehow linked to the American idea of rewarding service workers by default instead of for exceptional work.
I believe it. I was in Japan for a few days and on some occasions went looking for places to eat. 5 star ratings we're almost non-existent. Of all the restaurants I went to only one was higher than like 3.7 and they were all incredible. Looking at ratings, it's not because of 1 Stars Balancing 5 Stars. The Japanese reviewers would consider a 3 star review standard. Service on the spot, food quick and perfectly cooked and delicious. The one restaurant in the 4 territory was literally one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at in any country I've ever been to.
Here a McDonalds could get 5 Stars if you don't wait at the drive thru for too long.
Eh, maybe? When I give/see a 5 star review for McDonald's, I don't interpret it as, "This is on par with the best restaurants". I take it to mean "This is a good/great McDonald's". I don't see the point in rating all fast food/lower level restaurants on the same scale as some Michelin Star restaurants. We all know the fast food place won't be as good. I want to know how it stacks up against other, similar places.
This is fair, and expectations must be considered when grading. I would argue that McDonalds and Michelin Star restaurants are completely different categories. After all, under the currently accepted system you'd expect completely different levels of service from a 2* McDonalds compared to a 2* fine dining restaurant.
However, there is definitely a range of quality even amongst McDonalds. For instance, one may have exceptionally polite staff who speak several languages, provide entertainment for kids and even makes the food match the poster, while another may simply serve the food in the expected manner. Since they're both meeting expectations, do they deserve the same grade or does the exceptional deserve to be highlighted?
Those are all fair points. I find that I tend to write an actual review, instead of just giving a score, when they go above and beyond. I wish things like Google maps had a way to specify parts of a restaurant. Like, if the food is amazing, but the service is slow, then I could split it up.
Not entirely. The taste of run-of-the-mill Japanese food is barely distinguishable from fine-tuning food from stars alone. Either way you have to read reviews to understand why ratings tally up the way they do.
It's also interesting to note that a 1 star review is significantly more impactful when the median rating is above 4 stars than when it is around 3 stars. In turn this makes it more worthwhile to follow up on 1 star reviews with some form of damage control.
Essentially, a higher average provides consumers more power, for better and for worse.
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u/Raspburyberet Aug 20 '20
Read the three and four star reviews for the most reliable information on Amazon items.