WM's Movie Rating System

[X.]

It's a new year, and the recent development of Fizz dropping the age-old number rating system and going more towards the more intuitive and word-based system, could be the best opportunity to formally organize WM's rating system.

The trick to doing it is doing it *fast*: don't spend too much time agonizing or over-analyzing or over-researching it. The process will become tedious and joyless.

Let's post our thoughts on what WM ratings should be -- if things could really well, we could try incorporating this system outside just the forum, and into the main website and our social media network. (I still don't like the idea of *any rating* because it diminishes the main content/critical analysis the author so lovingly wrote before it, but as Shariq said, it is a "necessary evil".)

To get the ball rolling:

Poor
Average
Good
Recommended
Highly Recommended

(Simple and universal system. For the record, I personal abhor any star or number system.)

[fizz]

I completely endorse it. It would in fact make things much easier as well. You wouldn't have to think about what to rate a film - write and tag a recommendation at the end.

[X.]

I just added number scales (in brackets) next to the rating.

The actual number scales will *not* be published, and honestly mean nothing to me, but they clarify the mathematical margins for the system.

[X.]

P.S. I wanted to keep it based on just 5 words, but if there is a need to absolutely clarify the "zero" rating, we could do this rating: Stinker.

In such a case, the ratings would be:

Stinker!
Poor
Average
Good
Recommended
Highly Recommended

[fizz]

I wouldn't mind if the ratings overlapped. Sometimes a film is highly recommended, but may, in the mind of a reviewer just be a 4. Putting a number next to it means - it has been classified into a mathematical range. The magic of these words is that you can be ambiguous about what the numerical rating should be (as long as its not rated as Average or Poor, when your review seems to read as positive or vice versa). This is what makes it appealing to me. Again, I'm not stuck on what words we use, or even standard terms necessarily (though that helps), just something that takes us away from the discrete nature of the numbering system. What you have described works perfectly in that sense.

[X.]

Fizz, that was my gut instinct! I am so glad you picked up on this.

I am stripping the numbers altogether, because then we begin to doubt our instinctual rationale for according a film a rating!

By the way, Fizz, do we even *need* to have Stinker in there? Doesn't Poor provide a broad enough margin?

Or perhaps Stinker separates the real stinkers!

[fizz]

Stinkers are needed for films starring Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil, Ultraviolet etc).

[ayaa1977]

I think it is a cool idea. By the way, and not to throw a wrench in your system, but a film can be highly recommended and bad in the same time, like a film that is "so bad it's good" or a train-wreck that should be seen. But those can be rated outside the system if needed.

[shariqq]

Yup - works for me. Those six recommendation-levels (including Stinker!) are more wholesome and descriptive than numbers.

[X.]

Done!

The Official Rating System of WM is hereby in effect, dated 3 Jan 2012:

Stinker!
Poor
Average
Good
Recommended
Highly Recommended

[madali]

I'm not very comfortable abandoning my system though! I have over 1200+ film reviews (and thats just the films) on my mada.li site, and it all uses a out of 5 system.

[fizz]

You don't have to convert, and I don't think there is any compulsion to use the newer rating either. If you find it easier to stick to numerical rating, I think that's fine. It is a proposal less for the reader and more for the reviewer.

[shariqq]

Or... you could use both, or none (though I hope it is not none).

The good bit with this is, that we can add these recommendations-based ratings to the reviews on our main site; and use them as tags too - to search for, say, all movies that are Stinkers!

[shariqq]

**This and a few posts below have been moved here from a movie thread, since the discussion is more relevant here***

Honestly, because I can't differentiate much between "Good" and "Recommended". It is both.

[ayaa1977]

Honestly, because I can't differentiate much between "Good" and "Recommended". It is both.

I know what you mean, I am gonna review a film later, and I can't decide whether to rate it Good or Recommended. It used to be easier with numbers because you can cheat with the halves.