https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Pinkrabbit23 2026-04-22T07:42:52Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.30.0 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1098:_Star_Ratings&diff=97639 2015-07-13T18:03:47Z

<p>Pinkrabbit23: </p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1098<br /> | date = August 22, 2012<br /> | title = Star Ratings<br /> | image = star ratings.png<br /> | 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...<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> This comic deals with the idea that user-generated online star ratings are usually heavily biased towards the best possible rating (five stars).<br /> <br /> Firstly, because we instinctively read a rating of five stars as five points, but the lowest possible rating is actually one star and not zero as would be the lowest possible score with a five-point scale. This means that a three star rating, which looks like a 3/5, seems a good rating, whereas it is actually the median rating, like 10/20 which does not seem a very good score.<br /> <br /> Secondly, because the online ratings are given by users who, firstly, browse web pages about the rated products; and there is a general tendency that the users who browse online content about a product are more likely users who in the first place were interested by said product (and for instance have searched for it). So the product ratings are given by a part of the population that on average enjoy the concerned products more than the rest of the population, therefore ratings are on average higher than what the full range (from one to five stars) could express.<br /> <br /> For these reasons, [[Randall]] suggests a way to read these ratings, which is to consider the four star rating the median value (&quot;OK&quot;), and everything below as a &quot;crap&quot; rating.<br /> <br /> See also: [[937: TornadoGuard]], another comic about star ratings.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 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 operates an &quot;online urban guide&quot; — and hovering his hand over the 'one star' button, he was just 'walking' over the rating on his own future grave.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :Understanding online star ratings:<br /> <br /> :5 stars: [Has only one review]<br /> :4.5 stars: Excellent<br /> :4 stars: OK<br /> :3.5-1 star: Crap.<br /> <br /> ==Trivia==<br /> *The image at the end of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/69/ What-If 69] references this comic in the title text.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Charts]]</div>

Pinkrabbit23 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1098:_Star_Ratings&diff=97637 2015-07-13T18:01:06Z

<p>Pinkrabbit23: Alternative title-text interpretation</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1098<br /> | date = August 22, 2012<br /> | title = Star Ratings<br /> | image = star ratings.png<br /> | 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...<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> This comic deals with the idea that user-generated online star ratings are usually heavily biased towards the best possible rating (five stars).<br /> <br /> Firstly, because we instinctively read a rating of five stars as five points, but the lowest possible rating is actually one star and not zero as would be the lowest possible score with a five-point scale. This means that a three star rating, which looks like a 3/5, seems a good rating, whereas it is actually the median rating, like 10/20 which does not seem a very good score.<br /> <br /> Secondly, because the online ratings are given by users who, firstly, browse web pages about the rated products; and there is a general tendency that the users who browse online content about a product are more likely users who in the first place were interested by said product (and for instance have searched for it). So the product ratings are given by a part of the population that on average enjoy the concerned products more than the rest of the population, therefore ratings are on average higher than what the full range (from one to five stars) could express.<br /> <br /> For these reasons, [[Randall]] suggests a way to read these ratings, which is to consider the four star rating the median value (&quot;OK&quot;), and everything below as a &quot;crap&quot; rating.<br /> <br /> See also: [[937: TornadoGuard]], another comic about star ratings.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 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 operates an &quot;online urban guide&quot; — and hovering his hand over the 'one star' button, he was just 'walking' over the rating on his own future grave.<br /> <br /> Another possible explanation for the title text is that the headstones are from people that gave the cemetery low-star ratings and were murdered, then having their given ratings displayed in the headstones. This in turn would explain the chill Randall feels before clicking the one-star button.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :Understanding online star ratings:<br /> <br /> :5 stars: [Has only one review]<br /> :4.5 stars: Excellent<br /> :4 stars: OK<br /> :3.5-1 star: Crap.<br /> <br /> ==Trivia==<br /> *The image at the end of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/69/ What-If 69] references this comic in the title text.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Charts]]</div>

Pinkrabbit23