John Gruber commenting on a blog post from Terry Godier:
Imagine being in a restaurant, and in the middle of your entree, the server comes to your table and hands you an iPad and asks you to rate the joint on Yelp. That’s what using most apps is like.
We are pretty close to that restaurant reality already! Rating prompts are out of control.
@manton I’ve got to agree with John on thumbs up/down but it’s because people generally don’t know how to do reviews. More often than not they give bad reviews because the app is missing something they want that was never promised in the first place. I don’t agree with Terry however. In a perfect world where people understand how to review properly if you keep getting 4 stars the average should move because you’re not making a 5 star app. But the starring system is dumb because we don’t, and never will, live in a perfect world ;)
@jkratz Yeah, this is also why I don’t give 1-5 ratings to books I read. For a lot of people, 4 stars is excellent, 5 stars is reserved for the absolutely perfect thing. I prefer just “was this good and worth recommending?” Thumbs up works for that.
@manton When my wife and I are out and looking for somewhere different to eat, we have quit checking reviews first. Firstly, they’re usually a mixed bunch, and secondly, it can take all night!