Regarding the recent site issues (502s) and Bayesian averages and ratings histogram

Status
Not open for further replies.
Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2018
Messages
269
I really like the site approach to developing new features. Thank you!

Re Bayesian ratings and rating scales: I typically rate series about one full unit below the mean rating. On the other hand, I tend not to rate series that I've dropped or that put me off in the first couple of chapters. Perhaps I'm giving the author the benefit of the doubt. After all, in theory it could get better.

That said, since the numerical ratings have verbal descriptions on the site, starting the Bayesian rating at "average" does have merit. That's even if most ratings given on the site are higher. Unfortunately, doing that really isn't in the spirit of Bayesian statistics. An uninformative prior should be the best estimate given the absence on information, i.e., the estimate which will converge to the population statistic as quickly as possible. Hence, the average of all ratings on the site is a good predictor of the final rating for a series that gets lots of ratings. So the question is, are series with few ratings unpopular or just new? What weight do you give to implicitly low ratings that were never given?

Note that using the average of all ratings, rather than all series with ratings, increases the upward bias from popular series getting more ratings.
 

vox

Joined
Jul 30, 2018
Messages
18
Can we tweak the rating, so people who generously hand out 1s or 10s get "punished"? Some kind of heuristic that would devalue the vote of users that excessively give extreme scores, or vote after reading just one chapter would be a good addition IMO.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread

Top