What if we get rid of the 5 star rating

2a05aa63 · ‎07-14-2021

There was a reddit thread where it turned out in Western Europe 3/5 is a good rating, while in most other places that a bad one.

I rarely look at star subratings (avaiablilty, communication, etc...), if I see a 4 it just seems that someone wasn't as happy as they would want to. The text review does give a lot more information. When closing a contract it's just routine to click those 5 stars.

So just asking people if the liked or disliked working together seems to be a more universal way to review things. Which would simplify the rating and make it more objective. This way if someone is mostly happy they will just leave a description of what they didn'nt like while "liking" the contract. And no one needs to guess if the "recommended score 7" it ruin their JSS or not.

prestonhunter · ‎07-14-2021

I believe that nobody is perfect.

So... if 5 out of 5 means that a freelancer's performance was "perfect" in ALL SIX categories the clients are being asked to rate them on...

It means that the pure 5-star ratings we see in freelancers' job histories are incorrect.

I bet if I examined what happened in all of those jobs... I could find flaws in at least one (and probably more) of the six categories when it comes to how the freelancer performed.

So mostly... I think a 5-star average rating doesn't mean anything.

Written text means something.

A 4.5 star average means something. Because a client took the time to think about it.

But a a 5-star average rating? I assume the client just wanted to close the contract and didn't think the freelancer was horrible, so he clicked clicked clicked and was done with it.

a_lipsey · ‎07-14-2021

Viacheslav K wrote:
There was a reddit thread where it turned out in Western Europe 3/5 is a good rating, while in most other places that a bad one.

I rarely look at star subratings (avaiablilty, communication, etc...), if I see a 4 it just seems that someone wasn't as happy as they would want to. The text review does give a lot more information. When closing a contract it's just routine to click those 5 stars.

So just asking people if the liked or disliked working together seems to be a more universal way to review things. Which would simplify the rating and make it more objective. This way if someone is mostly happy they will just leave a description of what they didn'nt like while "liking" the contract. And no one needs to guess if the "recommended score 7" it ruin their JSS or not.

So, in a perfect world, I'd prefer an actual review and not stars. Tell the world what was good and what was bad, specifically. I think that's more useful to a client to determine if this freelancer fits their needs and styles. What might be a con for one client could be a pro for another. But also, if there was something that didn't work for you, I'd love to know. But if you could separate that from any stars, it would be great.

roberty1y · ‎07-14-2021

Then there's the problem of no rating or feedback at all. To some potential clients this might give a bad impression, but it doesn't necessarily tell you much. I look at a lot of client histories where there are long lists of jobs with no rating or feedback given for any of them. A lot of clients just can't be bothered.