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Five Star Rating System is So Yesterday


thewriteones

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So Netflix has announced that they’re abandoning the 5-star rating system for movies and shows, as they feel it is no longer relevant to their business. Instead, they’ll be incorporating a thumbs up/down system. Considering that many sellers truly loathe the rating system here on Fiverr and preferred the days of the upvote rating structure, wouldn’t it be great if Fiverr would follow suit?

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As a new seller, I kind of like the idea of the thumbs, but with room to elaborate, if desired. I mean, just a thumb doesn’t really give enough of an overview; what if it was good but not great? Or it was good but many revisions were needed along the way? There must be a happy medium, I just don’t know what that is.

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I’m new here so this answer doesn’t come form the experience i have on Fiverr…
Thinking what are the main reasons one would want one over the other this points come to mind:

Up or down system - PRO

It filterers out the buyer subjectivity - meaning the feedback of people with very high standards is put on the same level, as people that give 5 star for just an average/good job.

From my experience with other sites - some people expect an exceptional work ethic and exceptional communication skills for a 5 star.
If you do ok - you get a 4. If you made just a mistake or two you get 3. For this people 1 and 2 are considered bad. They don’t give a 5 star to anyone… they actually search for the exceptional…

  • on the opposite spectrum are people what give a 5 star for average work/good work, they give a 5 star to everyone that didn’t literally upset them… they usually have 2 choices - 5 star or 1 - 2 star… 3 and 4 doesn’t enter in their voting repertoire…

SO given that this 2 types of people exist - THE PROBLEM IS - on the exact same quality of work you do as a seller- you get a 3star or 5star - depending on the person that is voting. Which is a big difference. Because -->

IF the NEXT buyer is a person that gives a 5 star easily - will look at your 3 star review given by a “high expectation buyer” and think - oh this freelancer does a shitty job… Find another one!
But obviously this is wrong - and the difference is just perception / subjectivity.
So with a up or down system - both this types of person - WILL GIVE YOU AN UP VOTE for your work - because is a good work. Not exceptional work- but good work. So now,
IF the NEXT buyer is a person that gives a 5 star easily - will look at your positive vote and say - oh this person is very good - all the reviews are positive. Let’s work with him… - he will not see a 3 star anywhere now…

5 star system - PRO
IMDB has a 10 star system - and works amazing. It’s all about making the difference between exceptional people, average people, and bad people.

This is a powerful feature.
Buyers and sellers want this to exist. All of them - no exception!

The average workers - they know they are average - whey have no problem being called that way - they are pleased with their level of knowledge - they are in their comfort zone. And in reality they don’t want to be called exceptional - not if that title comes with high expectations - this just creates stress for them.

On the other hand - the exceptional workers - are ones that push rely hard the status quo - learning the NEXT NEW thing all the time - in their spare time - they want to be noticed and marked as exceptional - they like to be pushed out of their comfort zone - and they see this situation : "all people average and exceptional are 5 star " - as a sad reality. Is not fare nor is motivational to them.

And as a buyer - if everyone is a 5 star - how can i quickly take out the exceptional - there is no quick way - until you do the interview.

In conclusion, because people have fundamentally different expectations form life and form other people - they can’t use the same voting system - and get the proper results. They need a voting system suited for their personality. It’s hard to implement such a thing.

But for now, one way to fix it is with better education - each part should know about this points - and then a best practices should be derived - when you vote - basically there needs to be a lot more steps - concrete ones - and this will help the people rushing to give a 5 star review - see that not everything was that perfect - maybe the microphone was bad, maybe the communication skills where a 3… etc. Many many points. This will increase the honesty for them. And will also keep the high expectation people for being too exigent.

But if the review process becomes too complex - there will be even less reviews - nobody has time to spend on complex reviews. A happy medium needs to be created. Or else we will only see the negative reviews.
Or again - building some sophisticated personality type analysis - will fix this.
As it stands right now - i personally don’t think that a pass or fail (up or down) system will improve the current situation. It’s the bad tool for the job.

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