Same as Google ratings. Like it? 5 stars. Hate it, 1 star. No nuance. If it's below 3.5 stars, absolute garbage. In Japan they somehow treat the rating system as intended. 3 stars is a solid, ok experience. 5 is exceptionally hard to achieve

I agree with you, but the problem is, IMDb collates ratings from thousands of people, each of whom have their own scale. I might have the same opinion about a movie, but I rate it as a 5 because it was completely average, and the next person who feels the same gives it a 7.

I would love to use a service that asks you a series of questions about a movie and generates a rating based on that. That way, if you're honest about your answers, the ratings should match. Questions like "was the acting good?" with answers like "the acting was exceptional," "the acting was bad," and "the acting didn't make me think about it at all." But if you ask if the movie was good? If it's a movie about a working man being pushed to the breaking point and he dies, the rich man is going to like that a lot more than a working man.

Then you have review bombing. I think the best example of this is Fullmetal Alchemist. FMA fans believe that no anime should be rated higher than FMA, so if something starts to get popular, they will organise a review bombing of it. Don't get me wrong, Fullmetal Alchmist was a good anime, but it was also kinda trash. The first series in 2003 did 20-odd episodes, caught up with the manga, then they decided to write their own ending/second half. In 2009 after the books were done, they did a remake, but the first episode was original (not in the books), the next nine summed up the first half of the books (because the 2003 series already covered that), and then the next 50-odd episodes cover the second half of the books, so you have one where the pacing is good but the story goes off the rails (IMO, in a good way, I like where they took it), and another one where it's more true to the books (except that random ass first episode) but the pacing sucks. To top it all off, the lead actor was accused of sexual misconduct a few years ago and has basically been cancelled online. It's still an awesome series, but is it so good that nearly 20 years later, nothing can be rated more highly?

A LONG time ago back when Netflix first started its rating system was its major speak. I recall articles saying that even if you did not pay for the service, you should make an account just simply to use its rating system to decide your next watch (and then go get them at Blockbuster or something:-P). My, how things have changed in the meantime..

The scaling on IMDB is bad, 10point scales do not work 5 and below isn't really used, unless they hate it passionately

I've always found imdb way less inflated than Rotten Tomatoes.

I have both problems or I am counter-cyclical to IMDb. Anyways. My algorithm now works like this:

IMDb > 5 = potentially good movie
IMDb <=5 = trash

Rotten Tomatoes > 70% = potentially good movie
Rotten Tomatoes <= 70% = potentially good movie.

I just joined a site called criticker that aims to fix this via data normalization. It can adjust ratings to the way you rate and base them on people who rate like you as well. Although its database is a bit lacking and all ratings are public.

Also FYI on 1 to 10 5.5 is average, 5 is below average.

Might I add, a 10 scale is too granular for most people. It should be on 5. Most people have their scale start at 5 and go above. The only time they will go below is to give a 1 to a movie they hated.

On a scale from 1-10, the average is 7. That's how humans work. You should probably get used to it.

Ah, people.

5 is avreage? Oh so you mean 5 is absolute baseline? Like, treat 5 as 0 yes? Then anything below is basically how much you shouldn't watch it, no?

My friends balk when I say "Welp, that was 6/10, quite a good movie" xD

Yeah I think this is an issue in general with any kind of 1-10 scale! People tend to think 7+ is good. I don't think people recognize 5 as average or they see "average" as less than what it actually means - I'm with you that most media is average and that doesn't mean it's not worth checking out.

Anyone who creates a scale needs to be super clear about what each interval means lol because I think they get misconstrued all the time.

I do miss the old IMDb review/chat boards though. Before everything just moved to reddit, it was fun to go on there and just talk to people about certain movies. Was so good for when a movie had a confusing/open ending to share theories and stuff. Didn't get trolls when forums were all separate!

This is why approval voting is better than score voting, or rather, score voting quickly becomes approval voting anyways so might as well not overcomplicate matters 🙃

I rely on Letterboxd for a glance on rating curvature but that too has become untrustworthy for anything just released big and blockbustery that fortunately isn't really my thing anyway.

When I see something I really like I go check out the other productions by the people involved. Director and writer mainly, also producers and sometimes actors if they seem to be character actors that pick what projects to be in.