Young Writers Society

Does anyone else loathe to see works rated from 1-10, or is this just a me thing?

Like 1 it was terrible and 10 it was great... what is the purpose of this?

No....no way at all.

I've seen other members actually give a story a rating. Like, 5/10.

I just don't like it. *shudders*

Nah.
Reminds me too much of movie reviews.
And we will all agree, literary works are a cut above and should be treated as such?
If the points are awarded with a reason, like someone marking a test at school, I can handle that. But the plain old 1-10 isn't much help at all.
After all, we are here to help each other, not to merely state how much we like or dislike each other's work.

Agreed.

After all, we post to get a nicely written out explanation/praise of why our readers like/dislike it, and how we can improve.
We don't really want a 'number' for our works. Every wrter deserves more than that.
Besides, I'm anti-math. No numbers for me.

I think that if giving something a rating helps the author in any way - which it should, being a numeral indication of interest/etc - then it has it's purpose.

So, no. I disagree.

*Hearts* Le Penguin.

Wait...has this been implemented? Because I didn't notice. Which tells you how much I'm around...

Anyway, I agree that it's a bad idea. I used to be on Writing.com, and you had to give a 1-5 rating with your review. I hated doing it because it doesn't really add much to what I have to say. Plus sometimes I got low ratings with no explanation (because you could rate without a review). So possibly if it's optional, and you can't just rate without reviewing, then it could be okay, but it's not necessary.

No it's not being implemented that I am aware of, I have just noticed it around a few times. I can't even explain why it bothers me it just... does.

I think awarding a gold star if you enjoyed it a lot is a better idea, yes. Since some people are really harsh, a 6/10 might be fantastic, but for others it would be pretty average. I've never rated a work 1-10, and I don't intend to.

*shrug*

~Evi

I like the gold star, cause it lets people know that you liked the story, even if there was really only one thing about the story that you liked. I also, strangely enough, feel that a 1-10 rating puts too much pressure on the reviewer and that it also feels fake. Like, do you ever really, truly give your full opinion on any survey? Plus, most of the time people honestly don't care about the rating that they're giving and then when you do give a perfect 10, too many 10s start to feel false.

Plus, this is an awesome site where people give really good critiques and doesn't that say more about liking a story than a 9 or a 10? I mean, the people cared enough for the story to give their time for a critique (ignoring the fact that I'm too swamped to crit anything right now). Plus, critiques are more helpful than a number.

And I have no idea why I had so much to say on that... I really must get to bed.

My problem with it is that it's not a substitute for proper feedback and reviews. "Ratings" are vague and don't tell anyone anything of value. I'd rather see an excruciating line-by-line critique than a couple vague lines and "7/10!" on it.

Ratings are a measure of someone's random opinion; reviews are constructive and give specifics. You can't build anything on an opinion, just fact.

Teague
x

I've done the deed x] I don't see the problem--there are only so many times you can read 'Fantastic - gold star!'. Rating gives the reader a good idea of the reader's opinions.
The only thing is it's subjective. But then, so is everything. Personally I see 6/10 is a fine rating. 9/10 would mean a masterpiece, and I'm sure people will agree none of us are at that level.

Some people give a 8/10 when they think the work was okay, and some other people give 8/10 only when they really, truly adored the work.

There is so much to one piece of work, plain rating isn't a very good review.

Definitely not. I dislike rating worls on a 1-10 scale, since ratings like this depend on the opinion of the reviewer. Besides, what does a 9/10 say about your skills? It says that somebody liked your work very much, but it doesn't say whether you need to improve on dialogue or characterization or [i]anything[i]. The gold star rating is fine, especially wheb there's a review attached, but numbers seem pointless to me.