5 Messages
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108 Points
How can I view the "raw" unweighted average-rating for a show or movie?
How can I view the "raw" unweighted average-rating, whuch used to be the standard rating, for a show or movie?
According to your help article, you do not display the raw average for one reason or another - but you don't view a way to view the data if we would like to see it, nor a reason why we shouldbe prohibited knowing it - as we knew this data for years until the relatively very recent change:
https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/contribution-information/how-are-user-reviews-displayed-on-imdb/G3AZQK7NTWFASP7A
The question then remains, for those of us who would like to know what the unweighted "raw" votes give as the average, where can we find that?
There is no reason not to, at a minimum, make that rating available to users seeking it out - you could even put innumerable disclaimers warning us that it's "less trustworthy" or "prone to manipulation" if you so desired. Then the user would be aware to be cautious with that data.. though again it's just votes for a movie usually - and contrary to your implications, weighted systems, inherently skew the results in a way it not always in line with the actual average user's opinion. This is well documented in weighted systems both in mathematics and computer science. And that's not even considering the shocking rate of abuse we find in such systems; weighting votes opens the door to artificially altering the vote results/averages via either the algorithm or administration.
But if it's being completely hidden, that is concerning - it leads one to wonder if IMDb is using the "vote" weighting to artificially boost or deflate the average-rating of a production.
Without the data we have no way to know why, in many cases, we see a majority of negative written-reviews for a production, yet we see a highly positively average rating for the film.
Your willing to break down the ratings geographically, but are unwillng to let us see how the movie would have been rated usbder the system you used for YEARS AND YEARS without issue.
Though this wouldn't happen, if you were interested in showing us the best analysis of the quality of a production, you should the show the weighted and unweighted averages SIDE BY SIDE.
Since apparently (unless you can help me here) you do not allow us to even view the unweighted average anywhere, the above is nothing but a pipe dream.
Help me find out I'm wrong, and that you have the user's best interest at heart - and that there is a way to view the unweighted averages... something IMDb
can view internally, but that apparently is too hard for us, the ignorant users, to properly interpret anymore.
Its odd though that, for more than decade, this data was perfectly allowable for user-access. It very much looks you don't want us to know.
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BOTTOM LINE:
Whenever someone/something claims to be protecting you from yourself, by prohibiting you access to knowledge they possess - they are not trying to help you, they are helping themselves.
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When iMDB hides the raw average from you that everyone used to be able see - THEN, UTTERLY UNDENIABLY, IMDB DOES NOT WANT USERS TO KNOW THE RAW AVERAGES.
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KNOWLEDGE WANTS TO BE FREE
Col_Needham
Employee
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7.2K Messages
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177.7K Points
7 months ago
The unweighted mean is shown on the ratings subpage where it has been ever since the weighted average was introduced in the early 1990s (it is not a new feature). For example, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/ratings/ — it is located underneath the vote breakdown chart:
You can access the ratings subpage by clicking on the rating itself on the title page or via the “All topics” menu in the upper right of the corresponding title page.
Hope this helps.
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