Editing 1098: Star Ratings
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | This comic deals with the idea that | + | This comic deals with the idea that user-generated online star ratings are usually heavily biased towards the best possible rating (five stars). |
− | + | Because we instinctively read a rating of five stars as five points, a three star rating (3/5) seems like a good rating. However, as the lowest possible rating is typically one star, and not zero stars, a 3/5 is the median, and is equivalent to 10/20 - not a great rating. | |
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+ | Furthermore, since ratings are more likely to be given by people who fall onto one of the extremes (either loved or hated the product), there is a tendency for ratings to be skewed either high or low. Fake reviews are also a factor that often push an aggregate score higher, although this is not addressed in the comic. | ||
− | + | For these reasons, [[Randall]] suggests a way to read these ratings, which is to consider the four star rating the median value ("OK"), and everything below as a "crap" rating. | |
− | + | See also: [[937: TornadoGuard]], another comic about star ratings. | |
− | + | No product is so perfect that every user will give it five stars. So the only explanation for a five star rating is that only a few users have voted, maybe only one. | |
− | + | The title text may refer to the folkloric practice of attributing a feeling of a chill to someone walking on your future grave. When Randall is back home he would like to give a bad rating on {{w|Yelp}} — a corporation that operates an "online urban guide" — and hovering his hand over the 'one star' button, he was just 'walking' over the rating on his own future grave. | |
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+ | Another possible explanation for the title text is that the headstones are from people that gave the cemetery low-star ratings and were then murdered, having their given ratings displayed in the headstones. This in turn would explain the chill Randall feels before clicking the one-star button. | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
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:4.5 stars: Excellent | :4.5 stars: Excellent | ||
:4 stars: OK | :4 stars: OK | ||
− | :3.5-1 star: Crap | + | :3.5-1 star: Crap. |
==Trivia== | ==Trivia== |