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When do you rate?

Quasirandom 🚫
Updated:

I'm curious: when do you rate a story?

Do you give it a rating as soon as you have an impression, or wait till you're a ways into it, or hold out till either you reach the end of the story or your patience? Do you ever go back and adjust a vote as you go?

For myself, I don't rate till I finish the whole thing — otherwise, how can I judge it as a whole? Which means I don't rate out of anything I nope out of, or just get tired of. It also means I almost never give anything less than a 5, because if it isn't at least "some good and some bad," I rarely get through it — I've got too many other stories to read.

Replies: Mushroom steeltiger anim8ed Remus2 jps71 Switch Blayde awnlee jawking irvmull AmigaClone rustyken Harold Wilson irvmull helmut_meukel awnlee jawking smitht

Mushroom 🚫

@Quasirandom

With me, it depends on the story.

For most long form stories I read, I already have a good idea as I have likely already read one of the authors previous works. And I tend to rate more on the uniqueness of the story, and if it was well written. And I rarely read any of those until at least several chapters have already been posted.

steeltiger 🚫

@Quasirandom

I rate when I've read the whole thing. Sometimes (particularly with long stories) I'll let it sit for a week or so, then re-read it before I rate. I want to be sure I'm not giving a first impression rating. It's often informed at least a little, by an author's previous works - I know what to expect from the folks I read - but only a little.

anim8ed 🚫

@Quasirandom

Lately, I try to wait till I finish the story. In the past I have voted before I finished if I enjoy the story. Now I wait till I finish as it helps me keep track of those I have read and those I have not finished.

Yes, I have changed my vote on several stories. Some were before I waited till I finished where the story was great but the end sucked. I have also changed my vote on rereading a story and no longer agree with my original vote. Some go up, some down, never more than a point. Usually the technical difficulties will be more apparent on a second (third, fourth...) reading and lower the enjoyment of the story. Once in a great while someone has gone back and made corrections to make a story easier to read.

Remus2 🚫

@Quasirandom

Depends on the length of the story, but generally somewhere between the 5th and the 10th chapter. I don't read the shorter stories.

jps71 🚫

@Quasirandom

I rate them after I have read the completed story.
I have read to many that have a good/great start but then they just seem to fade away or have a rushed or inconclusive ending.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Quasirandom

Do you give it a rating as soon as you have an impression, or wait till you're a ways into it, or hold out till either you reach the end of the story or your patience?

The end of the story.

Do I change the rating? Well, since I rate it at the end, the obvious answer is no. However, I recently read a story that when I went to rate it (after finishing it) I saw that I had already rated it. I ended up changing the rating.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Quasirandom

I'm curious: when do you rate a story?

I use my own rating system. I rate a story after I've read the first chapter. It's quite common for me to bump a story up or down in the first few chapters, very uncommon after that. Although some authors get their stories downgraded if the intriguing initial premise has been worked through and the rest of the story is just soap opera or 'more of the usual'.

AJ

irvmull 🚫

@Quasirandom

Occasionally I find one which I can rate highly even though it isn't or might never be finished. What was posted so far is enjoyable enough to make it worth reading.

For many more, I can give a low score after painfully fighting my way through the first few paragraphs. There's no reason to suspect they'll get any better.

AmigaClone 🚫

@Quasirandom

I tend to vary on when I rate a story. One thing that I try to be consistent is that if I happen to rate one that is in progress, I will rate it again when finished, often revising the score the story receives.

In general, the worse scores I will give is when I am ready to stop reading a particular story because a variety of things.

rustyken 🚫

@Quasirandom

I generally rate a story after reading several chapters. The point at which the rating is done varies. Sometimes i change my rating but not very frequently.

Cheers

Harold Wilson 🚫
Updated:

@Quasirandom

I rate authors like I tip hookers - on my way out the door after everything is over.

I have changed my ratings on stories, after going back and re-reading the story and coming away with a different impression. Generally, that will be some months or years later.

I don't generally give out low ratings, simply because the title and the blurb/description keep me from reading too many stinkers. And if somehow a bad story has a good description, I'll usually Ctrl+W within the first few paragraphs anyway.

As a result, most of my ratings are in the 6-10 range, and changes to ratings are usually +/- 1, +/- 2 at the most.

irvmull 🚫

@Quasirandom

The second or third time an author uses the word defiantly when he obviously meant definitely is when I stop reading and leave a low vote.

This is a surprisingly common problem, perhaps due to people using a "spell checker" instead of thinking. Whatever the cause, it just proves the author doesn't even read his own work.

Replies: Quasirandom Switch Blayde JoeBobMack AmigaClone

Quasirandom 🚫

@irvmull

I defiantly agree with that.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@irvmull

This is a surprisingly common problem, perhaps due to people using a "spell checker"

I believe that's the culprit. But that wouldn't stop me from reading. As you say, it's very common. Quite/Quiet too (and many others).

JoeBobMack 🚫

@irvmull

How about "make due" instead of "make do" - see this a lot and it's not a spell check error. I really don't know what it is, but it drives me crazy.

Replies: helmut_meukel

helmut_meukel 🚫

@JoeBobMack

it's not a spell check error

But it's an error a spell checker can't find, as is true with most homophones.
Then there are those spell check errors where the spell checker finds a wrong spelling and automatically replaces it without asking for confirmation or it suggests a replacement which doesn't fit and the user confirms without thinking.
Last are mostly cheep spell checkers with limited vocabulary which don't recognize the correctly spelled word. If those words can't be added to its vocabulary you better use a better spell check program. But if a stupid user adds a wrong spelled word, the spell checker will faithfully ignore any further wrong spellings of this word.

HM.

Replies: Dominions Son JoeBobMack

Dominions Son 🚫

@helmut_meukel

Then there are those spell check errors where the spell checker finds a wrong spelling and automatically replaces it without asking for confirmation

Every word processor with an autocorrect function lets you turn it off.

Replies: helmut_meukel

helmut_meukel 🚫

@Dominions Son

Every word processor with an autocorrect function lets you turn it off.

Yes, I know.
And how many user do this? Or at least change its default settings to only obvious typos like teh - the?

I wrote about the real life situation, where this happens because the user was too lazy to change the settings to his needs.

HM.

Replies: Dominions Son awnlee jawking

Dominions Son 🚫

@helmut_meukel

And how many user do this?

I do.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@helmut_meukel

Or at least change its default settings to only obvious typos like teh - the?

I tailor it to avoid substitutions which aren't .txt compatible.

AJ

JoeBobMack 🚫

@helmut_meukel

Oops. Should have added that I see it repeated by an author which makes me believe they think it is correct. Weird.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@JoeBobMack

I see it repeated by an author which makes me believe they think it is correct. Weird.

Not necessarily. I have a few typos that fall into this category.

I know which word is correct for a given situation and I still can't stop myself from frequently typing the wrong one.

And since I know which word I meant I don't always catch it in reading through what I wrote.

AmigaClone 🚫

@irvmull

This is a surprisingly common problem, perhaps due to people using a "spell checker" instead of thinking. Whatever the cause, it just proves the author doesn't even read his own work.

LibreOffice has a limited Thesaurus feature that when used can help avoid that type of errors.

helmut_meukel 🚫

@Quasirandom

it's very common. Quite/Quiet too (and many others)

You omitted the third: Quit. There could be a fourth, (Brit.) Quid, but I have not seen this yet, probably because the US-based spell checkers don't recognize it as a correctly spelled word.

My personal pet peeves are hanger/hangar and faint/feint.
Reading about a sword fighting were one of the fighters suddenly faints!

HM.

Replies: StarFleet Carl

StarFleet Carl 🚫

@helmut_meukel

hanger/hangar

That would be why I use live editors/proofreaders now, to catch stuff like that.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Quasirandom

I'm curious: when do you rate a story?

'Rate' means to scold or criticise angrily (although in that sense it's more often found as part of 'berate').

I don't usually rate my own stories - all the failings are my own work so I criticise myself instead. However one particular story seemed to be cursed - whenever I tried to work on it, something in my life would go wrong. I brought the story to a premature end and kicked it out the door.

AJ

Replies: Quasirandom Radagast

Quasirandom 🚫

@awnlee jawking

A situation that called for "Then an asteroid struck and they all died, The End"?

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Quasirandom

"Then an asteroid struck and they all died, The End"?

Not far wrong ;-)

AJ

Radagast 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Rate also defines how many guns a ship has. So if you ship Lara Croft and The Punisher it would be at least a fifth rate story.

Replies: mauidreamer

mauidreamer 🚫

@Radagast

No, not enough guns. Neither Lady Croft nor the Punisher would accept anything less than a third-rate ship of the line ...

:)

smitht 🚫
Updated:

@Quasirandom

As A side issue, how do stories get their initial rating? It appears that many stories have a rating when the initial chapter is posted.

Replies: helmut_meukel

helmut_meukel 🚫

@smitht

It appears that many stories have a rating when the initial chapter is posted.

I bet they have no rating within the first or so minute after actual posting. Look at the time stamp of it's posting and compare to the actual time you accessed the home page. Time enough to access the first chapter, jump to Bottom and vote. Remember you can vote prior to reading the story!

HM.

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When do you rate?

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