SEEING STARS

posted by James Reel

    Salon.com’s tech blogger, Farhad Manjoo, has an interesting article on ratings bias, and why all those user-driven Web sites featuring one- to five-star reviews aren’t reliable. The story contains a nugget that applies to professional criticism as well as amateur contributions; referring to the head of one popular review site, Manjoo says, "Stoppelman and others at Yelp also have another bit of advice about star ratings—that it's wise to look past them and to judge a product or a place according to the people reviewing it, not how many stars it gets. It's the people, not the stars, who shine on Yelp.” Ditto for the professional critics in newspapers and magazines; you should always consider the credibility and peculiar personal tastes of any critic when you read a review. And never, ever look only at how many stars are awarded; the written reviews are far more informative and important than some silly graphic device.