Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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| − | == Explanation ==
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| − | This comic deals with the idea that user-generated online star ratings are usually heavily biased towards the best possible rating (five stars).
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| − | Firstly, because we instinctively read a rating upon five stars as a note on five points, but the lowest possible rating is usually one star, and not zero as would be the lowest possible note on five points. This means, for instance, that a three star rating, which looks like a 3 / 5 note, seems a good rating, whereas it is actually the median rating, like 10 / 20 which does not seem a very good note.
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| − | 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.
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| − | 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.
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| − | See also: [[937: TornadoGuard]], another comic about star ratings.
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| − | 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.
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| − | {{Incomplete|1098: Star Ratings}}
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| − | {{Comic discussion}}
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Revision as of 11:03, 26 August 2012
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| Star Ratings |
Title text: 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 ... |
