I've been thinking about product ratings online. Product A and B both have an average rating of 4 stars. Product A is universally liked: every reviewer gave it 4 stars. Product B is the Twilight Series: lots of people love it (5 stars), but many 1 star reviews drags down the average to 4 stars.
Other than displaying the rating distribution (# of 1 through 5 star reviews), are there well-known formulas that would give Product A a higher rating?
I think what I'm asking about are weighted means, or some sort of formula that takes into account variance or skew.
But rather than re-invent the statistical wheel, I was hoping some of you may be able to point out well-known examples of good weighted formulas, or research related to this question.
Hope this is clear! Thank you!
posted by User7
on Apr 1, 2013 -
18 answers
I'm buying CDs for a friend to fill in his jazz collection. What are good online resources to help me pick the best discs?
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posted by kristi
on Oct 9, 2012 -
9 answers
Looking for software to automatically rate songs in my iTunes library on my Mac (Mountain Lion). I have
Autorate, but it hasn't been upgraded in three years and no longer works reliably with my iTunes library as of my upgrade to Mountain Lion. I've also searched
Doug's Applescripts and come up dry. Difficulty: large library (18K local songs) + iTunes Match (made no difference with Autorate but has been an issue with other metadata apps).
posted by immlass
on Aug 9, 2012 -
5 answers
My hairstylist asked me to post a review about her on Yelp. I created an account and posted my (100% genuine and not offered in exchange for any consideration) opinion that she's fabulous. Yelp has filtered (i.e., hidden) the review. Is there anything I can do to convince them of my sincerity?
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posted by Horace Rumpole
on Nov 6, 2011 -
9 answers
Looking for a tool to calculate ELO rankings for an entire tournament of an arbitrary game from scratch
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posted by LSK
on Sep 17, 2011 -
2 answers
Does anyone know any appropriate mailing lists or online forums where I can find participants for an online music rating study?
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posted by leibniz
on Jul 19, 2011 -
11 answers
My wife and I set our Netflix account to show only PG-13 and below, but now we can't watch shows like The Rockford Files or Sherlock Holmes or even Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries (!), because they're not rated (NR). Is there a whitelist feature we can use, or something like it?
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posted by circular
on Feb 18, 2011 -
7 answers
What kinds of information does Directv/Dish Network capture on my viewing habits? Aren't they sitting on much more data than Nielsen Ratings?
posted by thisisdrew
on Jan 22, 2011 -
5 answers
I listen to a lot of music. I also just have a lot of music that I have laying around on my computer waiting to be listened to that never does. There's also a lot of music that I want to have that I never really get around to buying/downloading. How can I organize my listening to make sure all my music gets some love?
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posted by azarbayejani
on Nov 4, 2010 -
22 answers
If someone watches TV (cable or satellite, digital or analog), does the provider know that someone is watching? I.e., does a non-Neilsen family who skips the ads actually benefit the TV station they are watching? How about DVRs or VOD? How about digital radio?
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94
on Sep 2, 2010 -
9 answers
Which Navy ratings would look best on a resume for a teaching job later on in the civilian life?
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posted by saran-han
on Jul 12, 2010 -
5 answers
I sometimes rate songs on my iPhone or computer. I would like these ratings to persist in the cloud (e.g. independent of any particular computer). I want the ratings to get automatically uploaded to some storage site periodically and synced to my iTunes library (and from there or directly, my iPhone) periodically. Is there a way to do this?
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posted by jcruelty
on Apr 19, 2010 -
5 answers
Where do those star ratings for movies in TV listings come from?
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posted by RotJ
on Jun 25, 2009 -
2 answers
How can I learn more about Catholic parishes online? Is there a Rate My Catholic Church.com?
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posted by anonymous
on Dec 16, 2008 -
7 answers
I recently became an Arbitron ratings person (which I'm not allowed to tell anyone, hence my anonymity). I'm supposed to carry a portable device that they say picks up "sound energy" signals embedded by participating radio and TV stations so they know what I'm listening to, even if the audio is compressed. What the heck is "sound energy"?
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posted by anonymous
on Sep 14, 2008 -
11 answers
Is there an equivalent of
IMDB or
Allmusic for books?
i.e. A site that lists all books written by a particular author with ratings, reviews, comments etc? English language based.
posted by mairuzu
on Jul 3, 2008 -
13 answers
Have American movie ratings, specifically the PG rating, gotten somehow weaker over the years?
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posted by blueberry
on Mar 26, 2008 -
19 answers
Where can I find online laptop ratings about durability, repairs, or typical problems, the way Consumer Reports does for cars?
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posted by salvia
on Mar 14, 2008 -
17 answers
I'm thinking of nuking my hard drive and reinstalling Windows XP. This means iTunes, which sits on my C Drive, will obviously be wiped and reinstalled. If I do this, will I lose all the star ratings and other individual settings I have for my mp3s (which are stored on another partition that I won't be wiping)? If so, is there some file in the iTunes directory or somwhere else that I could back up and add to my new iTunes installation so I don't have to individually rate every mp3 I have all over again?
posted by Effigy2000
on Oct 31, 2007 -
5 answers
I rate my music on my ipod as I listen through it, and I'm trying to get several thousand ratings from the ipod back into itunes. It doesn't seem like itunes can do this for me. (That's stupid!) I found
this script, which also has failed to work for me. Need help using the script, or itunes, or finding another alternative.
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posted by lockse
on Oct 7, 2007 -
12 answers
Hosted (free?) CMS to contain a directory of online resources and organizations for a college student population. Is there something better than blogspot for what we are doing? Also, is there a way to allow people to rate each post?
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posted by andoatnp
on Jun 18, 2007 -
6 answers
Say you just come out of the theater and someone asked you to rate the movie. You say 9/10. But if someone asked you how a movie was 2 months later, you may say 6/10. I'm told there is literature that supports this - people are initially more excited right after an experience than when they think back to it 3 weeks later. Is there a psychology term or articles on this?
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posted by lpctstr;
on Nov 28, 2006 -
23 answers
Family-friendly audiobooks and/or book content reviews? (Have you read
The Kite Runner?
Never Let Me Go?
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell?)
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posted by rafter
on Jun 16, 2006 -
30 answers
AirCards . . . Has anyone done a real comparison of the features, peformance, and cost of the different cards and the diferent plans? I'm sitting in an expensive hotel paying an additional $10 for HS cable access per day. I've decided to get an AirCard but I'm not sure which is best.
posted by AJ
on Feb 22, 2006 -
4 answers
I'm looking for an online index of tv show ratings (TV-MA, etc.) for various tv shows. Falling short of that, is there any sort of site that gives a guide to what offensive content may be in a given show?
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posted by rorycberger
on Jun 10, 2005 -
3 answers
Does anyone know of a website that rates realtors in Manhattan?
posted by mert
on Jan 2, 2005 -
0 answers
Thursday Tech Two-fer:
(1) What's the best way these days to have multiple MT blogs one one page-- RSS or what? What's the best way to implement this?
2) What criteria do you use to rate your MP3s? For example, does a five-star rating mean all-time best of, best of the artists' work, best within a genre? What rating method do you find most useful?
posted by keswick
on Sep 9, 2004 -
12 answers
I'm in the market for a new cell phone, and I'm trying to find some knowledgable reviewers (particularly of carriers and coverage).
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posted by keswick
on Feb 2, 2004 -
8 answers
