....is that anyone can give them.


I am thinking the reviewers decide the rating first. And then later people who want to vote can vote, and their opinion affects the rating, but lesser so. That way you still have the community's participation and the ratings will be more well-balanced.

Well I think that it is a good suggestion Myst and that way everyone will be sure to get the rating that their piece deserves.

~Torana

Yes, I think would be a good idea, if the technical side of things is not prohibitive.

On the novel section no-one uses the ratings really...The red folders and a high number of comments tend to be more significant in establishing trends.

This is true, but the turnover in poetry is so much faster. The stars would give a more instantaneous indication of quality - or rather they should.

Well I think that it is a good suggestion Myst and that way everyone will be sure to get the rating that their piece deserves.

sorry to disagree, but that would depend on the experience and abilities of the 'reviewers'... who are they and what qualifies them to review others' work?

if they're only other aspiring writers, it's highly doubtful that 'deserves' would be the appropriate word, other than accidentally... no offense intended, but it would be akin to the blind leading the blind, for non-professionals to be rating other non-professionals' work and unfair, at best, for the results to be presented as gospel...

btw, i speak from my experience as a long time professional editor and writing mentor, who deals with beginners' work on a daily basis...

that said, if the stars are awarded by viewers' poll votes only, then it's just a popularity contest and not a valid reflection of ability/quality... in which case, there should be a caveat added to the explanation of the stars' rating levels, to let all know that the stars don't symbolize anything more than readers' opinions and are not awarded by a panel of qualified judges...

just my 2p...

love and hugs, maia

No, I cannot get on board something like that. You'd be reviewing around the clock, and , not to mention, you'd have rights that, well, wouldn't be fair to to everyone else.

The problem with the star ratings (specifically in the poetry section) is that there appears to be a surfeit of them now.

I was under the impression there were to be used for merit, where one star is would still be good and more than that great to excellent.

It now appears that the star ratings are being used to rate a poem one to five, one being not good.

Is there now no option for most poems to remain unstarred and only those of merit receive stars?

Otherwise the recepients of only one star are going to feel hard done by.

It might be a good idea to have some sort of guideline for the rating of threads, in that case. Something to tell people either that 1 star is good and 1+ is very good/excellent/etc, or that 1 is poor/whatever, and 5 is good. Just something like a stickied thread to tell people what it means.

True because I think there is some confusion at the moment as one star is currently not all that positive when it should be awarded for a piece of some merit.

Agreed.

Perhaps those with crappy poems could make them better if they recieve one star and then maybe they'll recieve more stars.

We all write crappy stuff from time to time. Maybe when we read something in the writing sections we should rate it what we think of it.