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Comment by Legogris | Hacker News Reader

Has anyone else observed that ratings inflation is even more extreme in the USA than in Europe or Asia? This goes back to eBay, where "A+++ five stars" basically means "I got what I ordered and it arrived in time" or "I didn't but the seller resolved it reasonably and in time".

As others have stated, a single-dimension scale is difficult in Uber where it compounds the basics (get to my destination in a safe and hassle-free way) with the extra mile (some drivers are extra nice, offer you water and snacks and let you play your music etc).

If everyone who fulfills the basics are supposed to get five stars, how do we signal the extra mile except for tips?

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Ask a Brit how their day is they'll say "Not bad" - meaning everything is going fine and they're happy. Ask a Californian how their day is they'll say "Not bad" - meaning something is seriously wrong, and you need to ask about it.

Some cultures in America naturally tend to 'Fantastic' as their base line of descriptive language. This probably translates to ratings too.

"Things have been kind of rough, but I'm fine" = I'm borderline suicidal, at least in California.

I feel like it's really got to be an exceptional case to warrant "burdening" someone who is mostly an acquaintance with your drama.

For ratings, as the article discussed, anything less than 5 stars is a black mark for the driver, so those ratings are reserved for the exceptionally bad. And even then, exceptionally bad I blame on the driver (not on Lyft/Uber). Confused by GPS directions, stopping halfway down the block because they app says so, wild detour because of bad Line routing... these have no impact on my rating.

Ask an Estonian the same question and they'll answer with "it's OK", "meh" or they'll just shrug. Which means the same - everything is going fine and they're happy :)

As a Lithuanian, I feel an urge to give a full story of my day when asked "how is it going". Don't want to hear the long story? Ask if everything is OK..

I think both uber and lift allow you to 'leave a complement' where you can write a short bit of text that other people can see.

My guess, though, is that the driver would prefer the tip.

Uber introduced tipping a while ago.

right. I was responding to:

>If everyone who fulfills the basics are supposed to get five stars, how do we signal the extra mile except for tips?

Which is asking for ways of showing appreciation without giving a tip (or perhaps even in addition to giving a tip)

I gave a useful answer (the 'complement' feature that both uber and lyft have) as well as a mildly snarky joke ("My guess, though, is that the driver would prefer the tip.")

>how do we signal the extra mile except for tips?

I mean in the case of Lyft I give them money. Why should another adult care how I "rate" them?

Well, in this case, if they don't maintain a close to perfect rating, they get fired.

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