[tde-users] Re: LWN.NET: Trinity keeps KDE 3 on life support

On Tuesday 21 May 2024 16:05:09 deloptes via tde-users wrote: People get too hung up on the power of reviews, but don't think critically about how that system used to be structured. There was a time when reviews might have actually meant something; but even that is questionable. Back in the newspaper days, an *individual* food critic or music critic might give a subject 1-5 stars, in which case it meant something. Whether one agreed with the critic's judgment or not is another matter, but at least it was clear what that review meant. When we get masses of people all trying to give 1-5 star reviews, it actually screws up the system, and gives us false readings. I worked some jobs (many years ago) where people would review our work, 1-5 stars. But we found out very quickly, with so many people making their own "reviews" (really, just votes), that there was one BIG problem with the system. To get anything less than 4 or 5 stars was like a death sentence: might as well get just 1 star, because it messed up your numbers, and anybody who wasn't regularly pulling an average of 4.5 stars or better would be cut out of the loop, stop getting work, which affected income, life, everything. If people had just voted yes or no, good or bad, that would give truer results. 85% positive is better than saying your work gets 4.89 stars out of 5, especially if those "reviewers" are really just customers or clients, who moreover have had somebody beg them not to give less than 5 stars, or at the very least, not less than 4 stars. It reminds me of that radio show that we used to have here in the US, Prairie Home Companion, where in Garrison Keillor's imaginary hometown, "all the children are above average"! Bill