08-01-2016, 04:53 AM | #1 |
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Goodreads ratings are less than useless
I just went to Goodreads to have a look at the ratings for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Many many people have rated it before having even read it. So the rating it has is worthless. It's mostly rated by people who have rated it before reading it.
Goodreads needs to make it so you cannot rate a book unless you've either marked it as read when it's before the release date (in case you have an advanced copy) or marked it as having read it after the release date. This allowing people to rate books that they have not read is wrong. It means that the ratings on new books is garbage. Goodreads staff don't give a damn about the reliability of the ratings. |
08-01-2016, 05:06 AM | #2 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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08-01-2016, 06:18 AM | #3 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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08-01-2016, 07:32 AM | #4 |
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All the programmers have to do is make sure the book has been marked as read before allowing anyone to rate and that the book has been released and that the dates fall within the release date. That would solve most of the problem. Sure people could cheat the system, but they would have to wait until after the book was released.
Plus, to go read reviews now, you get a lot of pre-release crap instead of a real review. |
08-01-2016, 08:11 AM | #5 | |
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Just face the fact that anonymous reviews are always going to be fairly useless. Learn to rely on the reviews of people whose tastes and opinions you're familiar with and move on. |
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08-01-2016, 08:19 AM | #6 | |
PHD in Horribleness
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08-01-2016, 08:23 AM | #7 | |
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People would have to put in that they've read it in order to rate/review it. I think you'd get a lot less people wanting to do this. |
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08-01-2016, 08:27 AM | #8 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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08-01-2016, 08:35 AM | #9 | ||
Grand Sorcerer
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Yes. Because a checkbox would discourage so many of the people you hope will be discouraged. |
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08-01-2016, 08:53 AM | #10 | |
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Bottom line is - why do you care? If you don't like a particular rating, or don't find it to be useful for your purposes, ignore it. Last edited by meeera; 08-01-2016 at 08:57 AM. |
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08-01-2016, 09:03 AM | #11 |
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A much simpler approach (if you're unable to self-filter the arc-reviews from the dross) would be to NOT seek out the opinions/reviews of Average Jo(e) readers until such time as you're thinking about reading the book (which common-sense dictates will generally occur sometime after a book is available for purchase).
You can't make silk out of sow's ear, Jon. |
08-01-2016, 09:32 AM | #12 |
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It seems to me the most useful thing would be a rating for "how much would I like this book". Impossible to get exactly right, but could be approximated by finding others who have rated books the same as you in the past and combining only their ratings for the new book.
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08-01-2016, 10:30 AM | #13 |
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There could be too sets of ratings. One for those who want to say how much they are looking forward to the book and one from those that have read it.
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08-01-2016, 11:26 AM | #14 |
monkey on the fringe
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I don't pay attention to ratings for books. They have no impact on my purchases.
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08-01-2016, 11:41 AM | #15 |
Wizard
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That is not how goodreads works. Its not just like amazon reviews. Its a place where you can find other like readers and so you see their comments, their ratings, their shelving in the feed. I can't tell you how many times I have seen someone write something about a book that isn't out yet, upcoming, and that is the way I found out about it and I put it then on my upcoming shelf.
The feed is from folks you follow and friend. I don't care if they read a book, if they want to say something about it. Overall it is still so much more truthful than the amazon reviews at this point. Authors tend to concentrate getting their street teams and friends and family to review on Amazon. So you end up with 100's or rah rah reviews out the gate, but no actual reader reviews. On goodreads you control what you see. You follow folks you like their reviews and comments. Once you have a certain amount, you really never have to go down the the other reviews again. Although I still do that. I don't really have a huge issue with that kind of stuff. Just use the sort options to drill down a bit better. Its folks talking about books, any way they want to. Readers mostly. I like that they aren't trying to turn it into some overly controlled thing. Its what makes the site more real for readers. I can trust those reviews, ratings and comments more. Also, folks are allowed to use the ratings any way they want. Some use them to not get recommendations based on some books, others use it for who knows what system they have in place. Its like a huge database of books where you get to log books and casually talk about them. |
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