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Rant about those five little stars...

Yami Ryu

Well-Known Member
I hate the stupid.

You know what I mean. The people that instead of replying to your fic, because you burned them with a crit, or threw reason and reality at their insanity, or even lame attempts at writing; and you know the people I mean. Thinking a paragraph is a chapter.

But what really irks me, is not the flames they could give. I mean flames would get them banned, and my fic bump. Win/Win.

It's when they rate my stuff badly. Got it the first year I came here. The second year, and guess what. This year too. I was hoping it wouldn't happen again, but it seems the lametards think it's smart to down the stars on my fic --;

Even though I have like 20 people to ask to help me keep it at the four stars it deserves. But it still sucks that the rate system is being abused (yet again) like the user rate system was. And I hate the fact I had to use my vote to get the fourth star back, or even that I have to ask my friends to rate my fic when they shouldn't have too.


So has something like this ever happened to you?
 

Dragonfree

Just me
That is very annoying. I really don't have anything against getting a one-star rating in itself, but I do have something against it if it's given completely without an explanation. Feel free to give me all the one-star ratings you think I deserve as long as you show the minimum respect to review the fic and tell me why, okay? --;
 

Yami Ryu

Well-Known Member
Zerodius, you evidently do not understand. I do not flame newbies. Newbies actually listen. It's the N00bs; you know the ones that don't listen to anyone, not even the mods. And even then I don't flame them.

I burn them, there is a difference. Flame means to cause fights without reason. When I burn them I use the rules and etc. But now I have learned I can't even do that anymore as it seems
<Shadow_Nokutasu> (7:04:37 pm) «+Serebii» minimodding is now against the rules
<Shadow_Nokutasu> (7:04:38 pm) «+Serebii» so stop

Meaning now that's no longer a reason to rate my fics badly. And Zerodius, this was not a place to come a ***** about my reviewing abilities, or a place to say maybe you deserve it because evidently you don't understand. Maybe people like having stars, as it makes them feel a bit better about writing. How would you feel if I like, made your five star thing go down to 2? I didn't like having to use my rate to get my fic up back to the four I think it deserves, I don't mind not having five, but I hate having less then four because it's like the idiots proclaim I write worse then them.

Would you like that for all your threads? Because I've had that happen to non fanfic threads. So seriously, please stay on topic.

Outside of that; it is nice to know I am not alone .-.
 

Nylf

Well-Known Member
I know I got that once. I can't remember if this is why, or if they are even connected, but someone whose name I have forgotten, rated my Emerald Lands fic and then, rather blantantly, advertised his website in huge letters. That simply annoyed me, so I asked him to not rate my fic without reading it, and not to advertise something that isn't even to do with fanfiction so blatantly. And I didn't even call him an insult.

Then, when I started a fic I have put on hiatus as I was overworking myself, Metal Virus, he was the second replier, he critiscised badly, put a lot of crits on usage of things I didn't use, eg he said I used dialogue wrong, when it was the prologue from the MC's POV, so no dialogue was used, and then rated it one star, when Psychic herself, who had a lot of just critiscism said it was about three and a half stars. Whatever happened to the forgotten rater, not Psychic, I don't know, though I remember FTMP reported his activity in Emerald Lands.
 
O

Ouallada

Guest
I am guessing that no one likes to be rated low, and if I were you I would not worry so much about it. Perceived quality is more important than attributed quality, even if the latter is biased but yet more material.

That said, therein lies the importance of PR, and underlines the fact that popularity DOES rule here. I may have hammered you the last time,but in fairness I will say that no one deserves this, and that there are worse fics out there that I will have to weed out later.

Also, you may suffer from a blatant lack of respect, so to speak, when dealing with opposing views. A flowery show of censored words will endear you to nobody. Being tough and straight-talking is one thing, being blatantly coarse and disrespectful is another. Thus, I can fully imagine another rating your fic lowly to spite you, and while I despise such people, sometimes you must wonder if part of the blame is squarely on your shoulders.
 
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IceKing

Sexorific!
To be honest, I wouldn't let that star rating get to you too much. If you KNOW and your non moronic readers KNOW that your fic is better (or worse) than the actual star ratings than that's all that matters. Don't let the morons ever get in the way of your writing because that's what they want to do :)
 

Tale

Well-Known Member
Oh yeah, its happened to me LOADS of times, nearly all my fics have had that happen, and thats a lot I can tell you...

...

Ok, I have no fics posted, so I wouldn't know ;-; but still, if people rate your fic one star out of pure maliciousness and without a justified reason to do so, the that is just plain wrong and annoying and stupid.
I understand where you're coming from completely. If I were to recieve a bad review then get one star, I'd understand and feel that the reader was entitled to their views. But if its out of revenge, its pathetic.
 

MachopGirl

<== Wanna Hug Him?
This not only applies to fanfics, but to fanart as well. I always get at least five stars whenever I posted my artwork in the Fan Art forums.

I have nothing against them, but it's just that some people just gave me no reason why I deserved them. It's just as bad as the now obsolete reputation system that many people abused.
 

Bu†cH

Braaiiiiiinss......
That happened to my first fanfic and my sprite shop.

If only there's a way to know who gave which numbers of stars.
 

Kiyohime

Well-Known Member
Back when I was new, I made a very similiar thread ranting about the stars. XD

It drives me bugshit to see people abusing the star system out of favoritism or malice, and I haven't really experienced that, though sometimes my thread mysteriously swings between four stars and five stars with no explaination. Doesn't bother me, but I do wonder about it sometimes. If someone's reducing a rating, it's reasonable to give a explaination for it so the author can improve.

And I'm sorry people are abusing the system on your fanfic. >< I don't think your posts seem to be out of line, since new authors need the criticism, but if no one tells them the rules, who will? Dragonfree and Zephyr Flare can only do so much, and the rule-breaking stories just keep coming and coming. I suppose the system is the fallout from that. XP It isn't pretty.
 

Yami Ryu

Well-Known Member
Scrap: Yeah I know, but I I have gotten yelled at for what I do so D: but atleast others haven't been yelled at and can continue to help people get better. But my fic's gotten back to four stars, thankfully, with the help of other people.

Could make it, to prevent malice users, that you can only rate a thread when you review it, making it a sort of; I know it was you that maliced my fic! But that won't happen, though it'd be cool.

Quallada: It doesn't matter if part of the blame falls on how I review, this isn't about how I review, it's about the fact they'd do this even if I didn't be blunt with them. Hell, one person downed a rating for an RP thread, two fanfics and an old art thread I did because I rejected him from an RP because he was a bit too late to join. I'm trying to point out the fact that the stars get abused no matter what you do it seems. And besides I tried being nice and etc in the past, it still got me flamed/badly rated so wtf should I bother to be polite? (this happened around the time the first user ratings were around .. or second .. whenever) The point is, if it'd been a flame, it could be done away with, but to rate a fic badly, well, the only way to balance that out is to rate it 5 stars by several people, and only now has the rate finally evened to what I'd really been hoping for, a 4 rate. You don't seem to get it, I don't mind if someone tries to flame me, I mean I can handle it. But when someone basically insults something I actually put a whole cart load of effort into making, thinking up, and plotting out carefully. Well, it irks me. And it shouldn't be slid off partway to me as fault for what I do, because it still doesn't make it right.

It'd be the same as when I was punished for defending myself against bullies .-.

Machop Girl: >> << >> er, I've been guilty of that ... I'm not a good art rater verbally, and whenever I post in art I either come off as an idiot, or make people think I hate it. I probably rated one of your threads five stars in the past, but it's because I am in awe of your talent >>' and yeah /offtopic and yeah, But yeah, I can see how it'd be abused by the opposit of the negative raters, as half of them rate even the stuff not all 'okay now that is awesome' five stars. It seems the rate system is becoming the user rate system all over again.
 

Dilasc

Boip!
Imo, stars are like they are. They shine some light on your story for some time, but they are unstable, and without reason, they will expend their radiance and energy.

That above probably made no sense, but it was sure as hell fun to write such an analogy. Yes, I'm strange like that, deal with it!

ANYWAY... I feel that star ratings are useless, really. Unless you're trying to give a n00b the lockout, which is always gratifying, words speak louder than a shiny symbol. Suffice to say, stars look pretty. If someone sees lots of stars, they'll read your fic, and go star searching themselves son enough, and you can soon take all those shiny stars an make your own constellation to follow the greatness of your work.

One thing that would really help is to have it seen the person who gave the star rating. Let's face it, if I receiving star ratings from people not reading my work, I'm going to stay a pole's length away from that person... and I'll poke them with that pole too, because its annoying and fun! Even if they gave me a rating of five shiny solars, I will still be cautious of them if they do not reply to the story. As such, I find them helpful in that regard.

Now, there's a bad side to this as well. If you're given a lonestar ranger... erm, I mean rating! RATING! Anyway, with a singular star, and someone does not review, some writers, especially noobs, may find it fun to hound the lonestar runaway until that star goes boom in their face, and it may lead to spam in your stories, lonestar sabotage, and... well, n00bishness. As such, said noobs are able to be removed easier because they are n00bs.

Uh, that's all I gotta say for now. Just felt like expressing my thoughts.
 

Negrek

Lost but Seeking
Well, I'm too stupid to know how to view the star rating breakdown on my thread, so I have no idea whether it's happened to me or not.

However, I don't respect the star system much at all, anyway, so really I could care less if someone gets all steamed and rates my 'fic at one because I ticked them off, then so what? It might hurt my rating a little in the eyes of others, sure, but I would hope people would look beyond that (and the crappy title... must come up with new title for next revision...) and at the 'fic itself.

Personally, I think that we would be better off removing the star rating entirely. Most people don't care about it, really, and those that do can be misled by its fickleness. Perhaps it would stop some people from judging 'fics by their starts.
 

Wes

Iblis Wings
Yep. Back then on my first fic. Granted back then I stunk in writing but was still okay. I followed the rules, made the chapters average long, and well made some mistakes and granted is they want to give one star then okay. Sure I can ignore it but when you put your work into something you know is definately isn't one star material then it's real annoying. But reall? Some fics do deserve high stars, some low, and some like...well average. And some fics just don't.

Sure stars are nice to see next to your story but if the story is good...well why judge a fic by it's stars unless you read it or something right? Nontheless those are my two cents as well.
 
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Breezy

Well-Known Member
Eh, stars are stars. *insert analogy by Dilasc here* They shouldn't affect the quality of the fic not unless your one of 'em **** people that moan and refuse to write if you don't have at least a 3 star rating.

Besides, people read stories now n' days because of the author, not how many pretty golden stars you have next to your title. :rolleyes:

Has this happened to me? Prolly. Just I have too many votes for one fic for it to make a significant difference if someone rates it 1 star.

There is someone going around voting down fics for no reason though. I noticed it one day when ever fic on the first page had 1 star.
 
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Ouallada

Guest
It doesn't matter if part of the blame falls on how I review, this isn't about how I review, it's about the fact they'd do this even if I didn't be blunt with them. Hell, one person downed a rating for an RP thread, two fanfics and an old art thread I did because I rejected him from an RP because he was a bit too late to join. I'm trying to point out the fact that the stars get abused no matter what you do it seems. And besides I tried being nice and etc in the past, it still got me flamed/badly rated so wtf should I bother to be polite? (this happened around the time the first user ratings were around .. or second .. whenever) The point is, if it'd been a flame, it could be done away with, but to rate a fic badly, well, the only way to balance that out is to rate it 5 stars by several people, and only now has the rate finally evened to what I'd really been hoping for, a 4 rate. You don't seem to get it, I don't mind if someone tries to flame me, I mean I can handle it. But when someone basically insults something I actually put a whole cart load of effort into making, thinking up, and plotting out carefully. Well, it irks me. And it shouldn't be slid off partway to me as fault for what I do, because it still doesn't make it right.

It'd be the same as when I was punished for defending myself against bullies .-.

I agree, but where you are wrong is when you assume that there will be no spillover effect from what you say to others, you are just being naive. PR counts in whatever we do, and what you say to an author in his/her thread is unlikely to stay confined there, whether you like it or not. When you go so far as to swear and curse at other people, please have the decency to accept the fact that these people are going to get angry. Lose/lose situation, as opposed to your win/win analogy. You are not at fault for being rated low, but your are partly at fault for being a stimulus to said action.

As for your analogy, I would hardly call those new authors bullies. It would be more of people using underhand means to get back at you, which is rather prevalent in everyday life as well. Anyway, you rating your own fic just to average out the rating is merely the opposite of people deliberately rating your fic lowly, just to let you know, Let your own readers decide for themselves.
 

The_Mighty_Medicham

It's electric!
At least you guys get stars. It gets me when people give a rating but without really a reason. My club, for one, has a three-star rating and I have no idea who gave it and why. I also think its dumb when others give ratings to the joke fics that you know are going to be closed from word one. Now I know I'm not the greatest author ever but I'm not bad, and would feel better if the views and posts in my fic were a little more even (14 replies to 396 views isn't the greatest, makes me feel bad no one replies.)
 

indigestible_wad

Well-Known Member
I never pay attention to stars. Every once in a while, I glance at them, but really, I never really mind them. I see stars as a way for novices to look at threads. A real rating is the review made by the poster, not by some click on a screen.

What youv'e got to understand is that these people who downgrade you are too scared to do it in person. They see it as a way to get you behind your back. People who do that are cowardly and patheic. Jealosy, anger, annoyance, they are all emotions that n00bs fall on too heavily. THey try to get even. What you have to do is hold your head up high and say "they're resorting to ways below me to try and I'm not going to fall for it." Don't let them win.

No serious reviewer is going to spend to much time looking at the stars anyways. They're just a waste of time.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
The_Mighty_Medicham said:
I also think its dumb when others give ratings to the joke fics that you know are going to be closed from word one.
That would be because of my sig. *points* I check every one-star rated fic for rulebreaking.
 
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