How not to sort by average rating (2009)
evanmiller.org
How not to sort by average rating (2009)
1–10 of 27 posts
Re: How not to sort by average rating (2009)
#2Related:
How not to sort by average rating (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29200103 - Nov 2021 (82 comments)
How Not to Sort by Average Rating (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15131611 - Aug 2017 (156 comments)
How Not to Sort by Average Rating (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9855784 - July 2015 (59 comments)
How Not To Sort By Average Rating - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3792627 - April 2012 (153 comments)
How Not To Sort By Average Rating - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1218951 - March 2010 (31 comments)
How Not To Sort By Average Rating - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=478632 - Feb 2009 (56 comments)
Re: How not to sort by average rating (2009)
#3Related: How not to sort by average rating (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29200103 - Nov 2021 (82 comments) How Not to Sort by Average Rating (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15131611 - Aug 2017 (156 comments) How Not to Sort by Average Rating (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9855784 - July 2015 (59 comments) How Not To Sort By Average Rating - https://news.ycombinator.com/ite…
With this many prior discussions here, I guess the only question to ask is: Are any major sites using this method, or at least providing a way to combine sort with a filter items with under X ratings.
If anything, it seems like the likes of Amazon are making it harder to sort and filter, using dark patterns to direct you to their preferred products.
Re: How not to sort by average rating (2009)
#4Related: How not to sort by average rating (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29200103 - Nov 2021 (82 comments) How Not to Sort by Average Rating (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15131611 - Aug 2017 (156 comments) How Not to Sort by Average Rating (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9855784 - July 2015 (59 comments) How Not To Sort By Average Rating - https://news.ycombinator.com/ite…
With this many prior discussions here, I guess the only question to ask is: Are any major sites using this method, or at least providing a way to combine sort with a filter items with under X ratings. If anything, it seems like the likes of Amazon are making it harder to sort and filter, using dark patterns to direct you to their preferred products.
Amazon's product search is largely useless, at least in the UK, now. It typically returns many items that don't include your search term, are outside the price range you specified and are not sorted in the order you asked for. The top half the list being "sponsored" items is just the enshittified cherry on the turd cake.
Re: How not to sort by average rating (2009)
#5> Many people who find something mediocre will not bother to rate it at all; the act of viewing or purchasing something and declining to rate it contains useful information about that item’s quality.
Not really sure, some people have different base likelihoods of rating something. I will rate apps when I see the app rating popup because it's simple and I know how important that app rating is. But the majority of people will just instinctively close it.
Re: How not to sort by average rating (2009)
#6I'd also include some temporal aspect in many cases, a review on Amazon from the day it arrives is far less likely to include useful information than one from several weeks/months later. This would also filter out a lot of the reviews that seem to review the wrong thing (i.e. reviews that are about the seller rather than the item).
Maybe even start including an incentive to re-review items several months on?
Re: How not to sort by average rating (2009)
#7> Many people who find something mediocre will not bother to rate it at all; the act of viewing or purchasing something and declining to rate it contains useful information about that item’s quality. Not really sure, some people have different base likelihoods of rating something. I will rate apps when I see the app rating popup because it's simple and I know how important that app rating is. But the majority of peop…
>app rating popup
If I see an app rating popup, I will rate the app 1 stars for annoying me with popups.
I'm sick of rating things. I can't write an email to a company, without getting a follow-up email to rate my interaction with them. Same for telephone calls. Every time I charge my car on a public charger, the app will ask me to rate my charging experience. If I order a pizza, I get asked to rate it. Just... fuck off. I'll rate/review things if I feel strongly enough either way about it, but just stop pestering me about it.
Remember to please rate this comment!
Re: How not to sort by average rating (2009)
#8I actually had this problem recently and I just sorted by absolute numbers of positive ratings and it worked pretty well. (You could only rate thumbs up/thumbs down). Nice to see a more mathy solution tho
Re: How not to sort by average rating (2009)
#9> Many people who find something mediocre will not bother to rate it at all; the act of viewing or purchasing something and declining to rate it contains useful information about that item’s quality. Not really sure, some people have different base likelihoods of rating something. I will rate apps when I see the app rating popup because it's simple and I know how important that app rating is. But the majority of peop…
>app rating popup If I see an app rating popup, I will rate the app 1 stars for annoying me with popups. I'm sick of rating things. I can't write an email to a company, without getting a follow-up email to rate my interaction with them. Same for telephone calls. Every time I charge my car on a public charger, the app will ask me to rate my charging experience. If I order a pizza, I get asked to rate it. Just... fuck…
I like how you landed on the original thought.
> declining to rate it contains useful information about that item’s quality.
Re: How not to sort by average rating (2009)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
>app rating popup If I see an app rating popup, I will rate the app 1 stars for annoying me with popups. I'm sick of rating things. I can't write an email to a company, without getting a follow-up email to rate my interaction with them. Same for telephone calls. Every time I charge my car on a public charger, the app will ask me to rate my charging experience. If I order a pizza, I get asked to rate it. Just... fuck…
I like how you landed on the original thought. > declining to rate it contains useful information about that item’s quality.
In some cases, yea probably. But many things I'm asked to rate, the baseline expectation is that the product or service just works like it's supposed to. For the EV charger, my car is either charged or it isn't. If it is, you have delivered your service as advertised. If it isn't, sure I can indicate your charger is broken or on fire or whatever, but you probably already know because of telemetry. If I'm at a restaurant, sure my opinion can be more nuanced.
The incessant rating prompts just come off as... needy and insecure I guess. And annoying.