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Also, note that:

... it makes me feel like I'm trying to "hide" my ratings

Once you decline to accept "all ratings", the average rating will be skewed higher because you've now eliminated the rater-only, non-reviewers who would normally just leave a rating, giving you their demographic information and an overall opinion of the piece.

It would be unfair to offer comparison between items where "any" rating was accepted vs items where only reviewed ratings were accepted. It would make the "required review" items look better. As such, review required items don't publicly display their rating.

(I'd also note it's very difficult to offer the endless rating preferences everyone wants for their individual tastes, so we do lump some together; in this case, those members who DO want to hide their average ratings have this same option. Too many options makes the site very confusing.)


Members tend to make the assumption that requiring a review means they're getting additional feedback. The opposite is actually true.

Requiring a review does not force anyone who was going to give you a rating also then send a review... On the contrary, it just means you don't get the rating a "rate-only" reader would have left.

In my humble opinion, any feedback is better than no feedback, thus our default and suggested option is still to allow any feedback a reader is willing to give.


While I'm repeating myself again, it should be clearly understood:

Ratings are not intended to be looked at individually and that some misunderstand this is a shame. Per the previous post of mine noting "Item Statistics" , when one looks at their ratings overall, it can give a lot of insight that you can not get otherwise. Overall, what demographics best like your writing? Is that your target group? Maybe, maybe not. I won't repeat the whole item here, the information is in there.

We also break down member received ratings by genre giving a writer even further insight into their writing. One may feel they're best writing is in the Sci-Fi genre... but their rating breakdown may tell them their readers feel differently showing a better overall opinion of a writer's Romance/Love works. Without ratings there is no clear cut way to discern this.

Even subtle differences in ratings over dozens or hundreds of ratings can tell a great story to those
writers who choose to listen. Does an individual review with a 4.0 vs 5.0 tell you much? Certainly not. We do not claim it does. But does 100 ratings of 4.0 on your romance writing vs 100 ratings of averaging 4.5 on your mystery writing perhaps tell you your mystery writing is better? It just might. Does that matter? I guess it depends on the individual writer and their goals.




Best wishes,
~~SM

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