Would removing score stop review bombing.

[Orby]

(Was going to put this into the Rings of Power thread, but I think there is a bigger discussion to be had with this)

I have always been a firm believer in disabling scores and just having written reviews, and I know I say that as someone who uses scores, but people put too much stock into a number over what the pros and cons of the film/show is. How many times you do see people make a big deal out of a score while never reading the review to wonder why, its always about the number, the number holds more power over the reasoning.

I could easily write a well thought out review and be fine with not numbering it.

I also think removing numbering will help stop review bombing because it will rely on the quality of the written review and reward said well written reviews over the 'show/movie is poo poo 1/10' type of reviews.

[Skulltaker]

The problem with that is that people are lazy and stupid. They'll look for a score, find none, and will then proceed to find a review on the web somewhere where a YouTuber or whatever still puts up a score. If you think a noticeable number of people actually take the time to read reviews I'm fairly certain that you're mistaken.

Also, in theory, a number is a decent way to give a quick overview of a show. The problem, and since you brought it up, let's take Rings of Power as an example, is the reviews that were clearly bombing it for stupid reasons, meaning the reviews in the range of 0-3, and the paid/programmed reviews that gave it a 9 or a 10. None of these reviews are what a review should be: objective.

There's no easy answer to the problem. As long as you have any form of critics, be it professionals or amateurs, you'll always have some bias. You can't get rid of it.

[Puri]

The big idea behind scores is that it includes the opinions of many people, not just a few you would be able to read a review from (or who would be able to even write a reasonable one).

But review bombing, bought votes and misusing the system (aka "the TV is perfect, but the delivery took three days instead of one, 1/5 stars") has pretty much made it utterly unreliable and pointless. Removing the score would do nothing good, people just need to be educated enough to read through the ratings and how it came to it.

[Daedius]

There's review bombers, and then there's paid (bribed) reviewers to give a glowing score...

The best critic would be yourself... take reviews as a guide, to be taken with a pinch of salt, nothing more.

[Melius]

(Was going to put this into the Rings of Power thread, but I think there is a bigger discussion to be had with this)

I have always been a firm believer in disabling scores and just having written reviews, and I know I say that as someone who uses scores, but people put too much stock into a number over what the pros and cons of the film/show is. How many times you do see people make a big deal out of a score while never reading the review to wonder why, its always about the number, the number holds more power over the reasoning.

I could easily write a well thought out review and be fine with not numbering it.

I also think removing numbering will help stop review bombing because it will rely on the quality of the written review and reward said well written reviews over the 'show/movie is poo poo 1/10' type of reviews.

i am curious tbh, do many people look up movies or tv shows, before they decide to watch them or not , on imdb or rotten tomatoes?? personally i dont give 2 shits about critic reviews since almost all seem biased these days or worst, bought by big corp.

[Thelxi]

Removing the internet would also work.

[tikcol]

I find it surprisingly reliable. More often than not when a show or a movie is around 7 on imdb it's because it is no masterpiece and anything below 6 is usually riddled with problems.

Is the scoring perfect? Nope. Review bombing exists? Yep. It goes both ways though and they usually cancel each other out. See rings of power 10/10 review bombing as the latest example.

[caractacus]

I think numbers or scores are pretty arbitrary. I had a short stint writing film reviews for a small gaming community and I refused to use any rating system at all.

[Mysterymask]

i am curious tbh, do many people look up movies or tv shows, before they decide to watch them or not , on imdb or rotten tomatoes?? personally i dont give 2 shits about critic reviews since almost all seem biased these days or worst, bought by big corp.

Kinda it depends

TV shows Ill just give a shot if I was kind of hyped..IE if people say it sucked ill give an episode or 2 a watch cause all I'm losing is time

Movie is a bigger investment a few bad reviews mixed with good ones Ill give it a shot might be so bad its good, ALL bad reviews "nope" and all good I'll watch if I was interested in the first place.

For most people, no reviews don't matter, if it did Transformers and Adam Sandler wouldn't of done as well as they have

[Sialina]

I don't think review bombing is that big of a problem. If you look at the rings of power it's got more 10/10 than 1/10 reviews currently, so the paid reviews are just slightly out edging the bomb reviews.
The series sits at 6.2 which I would say is pretty fair after having watched the first 2 episodes.
The opposite of review bombing is called astroturfing, and if you check nearly any movie on IMDB, and you go to the very first reviews you will always find the 10/10 astroturfers hyping it up.

I remember watching a fast and the furious wannabe movie, it was really bad, so I just checked it out on IMDB for fun, and the first 2 pages were filled with 10/10 "This is an excellent movie, the score by "insert dudes name" underpinned the action very well and it was beautifully shot, don't pay attention to the negative reviews, this is a fun ride!"
I bet you if you go to nearly any movie you will find these. How do you know it's an astroturfer? Because the style of the review, they all look alike.

[Kumorii]

It would lose it's purpose. No one is gonna read through thousands of reviews to get a balanced view on the thing.

This is from someone who ignores review scores.

[Dezerte]

While it probably would I don't know if it'd be worth it. It would make it harder gauge the reception of a product if there wasn't some kind of ranking (be it scores or most upvoted reviews).

[Ivanstone]

I just want a rough idea before I decide to pay money for something.

Every movie I’ve seen in the theatre this year has had middling to strong scores. The lowest scored movie I saw this year was Dr Strange. I quickly skimmed through a few review intros. Weak story, very good visuals. Good enough for the big screen. High scoring movies I’ll go watch in a more premium theatre or watch in 3D.

Sometimes it’s good to manage expectations. Like tomorrow night I’m planning to score well in a video game event so I need something in the background to cut the monotony. My background choice is: Ghost Rider 2. Even if it somehow slithers under my low expectations, I’ll at least be able to tell people that I knowingly watched a piece of shit and it still managed to be shittier then I imagined.

[Illusions]

I do think review bombing is a problem, because it can also muddy actual critique (or in astroturfing's case, actual genuine praise). Sort of defeats the point of gauging the general quality of the content immediately if you have to end up looking through the reviews to see if it's review bombed or not. I think the 'balance' of both sides reviewbombing is also a rarity, and more often something just gets reviewbombed because it was slightly diverse (as an example).

[Geckoo]

To me review bombing, paid reviews and all that crap is just a small price to pay. Ultimately i rely on my own criteria and reviews or scores are just tools that can help me make a decision by giving me some insight, not by making the choice for me.

[casecase89]

Meh. I don't explicitly use scores. I will watch some things that I have a vested interest in regardless of what critics say or what the score is. If I am looking for something to watch with my fiancee, I look at scores first, if they are bad, I scroll down ( rotten tomatoes ) and see why it was bad. It's quite rare that I dislike a movie that had good reviews and a good score. It is very rare that I like something that turned out to have bad scores and reviews. We are humanbeings. We like scores. We like numbers attached to things. We like easy. If review sites removed the numbers attached, another review site would pop up and become popular because it offers what the others do not. It's like asking for class guides in wow to vanish. If people want it, there will be those to fill that void.

[Skizzit]

i am curious tbh, do many people look up movies or tv shows, before they decide to watch them or not , on imdb or rotten tomatoes?? personally i dont give 2 shits about critic reviews since almost all seem biased these days or worst, bought by big corp.

I don't look at review aggregators cause they are pointless but I do look at reviews, just ones from reviewers I trust. Primarily a handful of youtubers who's opinions I have found to be similar to mine. Even then, I don't just look at a number and go form there.

[StillMcfuu]

(Was going to put this into the Rings of Power thread, but I think there is a bigger discussion to be had with this)

I have always been a firm believer in disabling scores and just having written reviews, and I know I say that as someone who uses scores, but people put too much stock into a number over what the pros and cons of the film/show is. How many times you do see people make a big deal out of a score while never reading the review to wonder why, its always about the number, the number holds more power over the reasoning.

I could easily write a well thought out review and be fine with not numbering it.

I also think removing numbering will help stop review bombing because it will rely on the quality of the written review and reward said well written reviews over the 'show/movie is poo poo 1/10' type of reviews.

Anything thats apart of a big Fandom, it's safer to throw away the high and low scores.

[Mendzia]

Some sites already tried to 'fix' review bombing: Anne Boleyn on IMDb
Do you find it fair and transparent to see 87% of '1' ratings and then being presented as 'weighted average' of 5.7?

Anyway... assuming that everything new now is 'review bombed' is pretty... uhh... not smart.
What if X movie/comic/series/book just sucks?

Personally i am more interested in reading what normal people think than person from X site or newspaper who already got his agenda ready... or is just being paid for this review.

[Gumble]

I find it surprisingly reliable. More often than not when a show or a movie is around 7 on imdb it's because it is no masterpiece and anything below 6 is usually riddled with problems.

Is the scoring perfect? Nope. Review bombing exists? Yep. It goes both ways though and they usually cancel each other out. See rings of power 10/10 review bombing as the latest example.

Thread was done after this post.....