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Comment by naner | Hacker News Reader

Then they shouldn't use ambiguous stars for a rating system.

I think they should just make reviews less than 3 stars require a text explanation.

This. We've implemented this on a number of social networks fit reporting nefarious users. Scammers, spammers, etc. to help the community. We found that if a user can report a user with an easy click we were flooded with false positives. Users reporting one another for petty reasons like not replying to messages. The women would report other women seemingly out of spite. We later added an input box that requires a short explanation. The reporting abuse dropped through the floor, and the quality of the feedback from users is far better.

Requiring a short explanation will def put the average rating to 4.

They do. I had a driver who took me on the most roundabout way possible to get to my office. I rated him one star. It popped up a text field entry, I said what happened and Uber credited me the difference.

Agreed, they should have a colored scale from:

red -- poor -- 0%

yellow -- ok -- 5%

green -- fine -- 10%

blue -- great -- 15%

gold -- superb -- 20%

Attach a tip % to each (perhaps)

That would incentivize riders to rate their drivers lower.

Then don't attach tips, though maybe this would allow for more accurate reviews? I always give 5 stars, because its easy and all rides have been great.

Only one driver though, provided me with water bottles and candy. That was a superb experience. Maybe the only superb one while the rest were fine.

Really? The "upper-class" people who use Uber (people who are using their expensive smart phones to order the cab, people like ourselves) are averse to tipping well when the service is great? That's disgraceful.

You make it sound like a 5-star rating system is a novel thing, but it's used all over the Internet, and I think most people have a pretty reasonable understanding of the system.

Yes, and they understand 3 stars is a decent review.

I don't think so. I certainly interpret 3 stars on Yelp or Amazon as below average.

I think it is cultural, so not clear there is a real "understanding".

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