Editing 1098: Star Ratings

{{comic
| number    = 1098
| date      = August 22, 2012
| title     = Star Ratings
| image     = star ratings.png
| titletext = I got lost and wandered into the world's creepiest cemetery, where the headstones just had names and star ratings. Freaked me out. When I got home I tried to leave the cemetery a bad review on Yelp, but as my hand hovered over the 'one star' button I felt this distant chill...
}}

==Explanation==
This comic deals with the idea that users when viewing online star ratings are usually heavily biased towards the best possible rating (five stars). As there are nine possible scores in the rating system in the comic (1 star, 1.5 stars, 2 stars...4.5 stars, and finally 5 stars), a rating of 3 out of 5 stars is supposed to represent "average" or "mediocre". Thus, anything above 3 stars is supposed to be "good" and anything below 3 stars is "bad". However, most people consider a four star rating to be "OK", and everything below as "crap". 

On one hand there is some justification for this, as ratings are more likely to be given by people who fall onto one of the extremes (either loved or hated the product) and thus 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 this reason, no product is so perfect that every user will give it five stars - as soon as one person gives it less than five, the overall review score would drop. 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.

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.

See also: [[937: TornadoGuard]], another comic about star ratings.

==Transcript==
:Understanding online star ratings:

:5 stars: [Has only one review]
:4.5 stars: Excellent
:4 stars: OK
:3.5-1 star: Crap.

==Trivia==
*The image at the end of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/69/ What-If 69] references this comic in the title text.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-This comic deals with the idea that users when viewing online star ratings are usually heavily biased towards the best possible rating (five stars). As there are nine possible scores in the rating system in the comic (1 star, 1.5 stars, 2 stars...4.5 stars, and finally 5 stars), a rating of 3 out of 5 stars is supposed to represent "average" or "mediocre". Thus, anything above 3-and-a-half stars is supposed to be "good" and anything below 3-and-a-half stars is "bad". However, most people consider a four-star rating to be "OK", and everything below as "crap".
+This comic deals with the idea that users when viewing online star ratings are usually heavily biased towards the best possible rating (five stars). As there are nine possible scores in the rating system in the comic (1 star, 1.5 stars, 2 stars...4.5 stars, and finally 5 stars), a rating of 3 out of 5 stars is supposed to represent "average" or "mediocre". Thus, anything above 3 stars is supposed to be "good" and anything below 3 stars is "bad". However, most people consider a four star rating to be "OK", and everything below as "crap".
-{| class="wikitable"
+On one hand there is some justification for this, as ratings are more likely to be given by people who fall onto one of the extremes (either loved or hated the product) and thus 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 this reason, no product is so perfect that every user will give it five stars - as soon as one person gives it less than five, the overall review score would drop. So the only explanation for a five star rating is that only a few users have voted, maybe only one.
-|-
-! Star Rating!! Randall's Conclusion || Explanation
-|-
-| 5 Stars || [Has Only One Review] || No product is so perfect that every user will give it five stars - as soon as one person gives it less than five, the overall review score will drop. Fake reviews are also factors that often push an aggregate score higher, although this is not addressed in the comic. For this reason, the only explanation for a five-star rating is that only a few users have voted, maybe only one.
-|-
-| 4.5 Stars || Excellent || When a business has many customers it's impossible to please all of them (or they did please them all and some are posting bad reviews as a cruel prank). However, 4.5 stars means almost everyone finds the business pleasant.
-|-
-| 4 Stars || OK || If it has 4 stars this means that a significant portion of the customers are having a bad experience at the store
-|-
-| 3.5 Stars - 0 Stars || Crap || 3.5 stars and below means a large percentage of people have a bad experience at the shop.
-|}
+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.
-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.
+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.
-Another possible explanation for the title text is that the headstones are from people who gave the cemetery star ratings and were then murdered, having their given ratings displayed in the headstones. This would explain the chill Randall feels before clicking the one-star button.
-Finally, the "world's creepiest cemetery, where the headstones just had names and star ratings" could simply be Randall not understanding he was in a Jewish cemetery where headstones have {{w|Star of David}}s on them. Note that these would exclusively be {{w|hexagram}}s, rather than the more usual five-pointed/ten-edged variety of concave {{w|star polygon}} used in actual rating systems.
 See also: [[937: TornadoGuard]], another comic about star ratings.
@@ Line 38: / Line 24: @@
 :4.5 stars: Excellent
 :4 stars: OK
-:3.5-1 star: Crap
+:3.5-1 star: Crap.
 ==Trivia==