I often struggle with how to accurately score movies. This topic is part of a series dealing with voting-related problems, challenges, phenomenons and paradoxes — all as part of a quest whose end-goal is to correctly reflect my appreciation of movies when rating them:
- • On what basis do you rate films ?
- • The rock/paper/scissors paradox: ranking A>B and B>C but C>A ?
- • Do you change your ratings ?
- • How to deal with our changing taste over time ?
- • How do you rate movies seen long ago ?
- • How do you rate movies you have abandoned halfway through ?
- • How granular are your ratings ?
- • Do you rate ridiculously bad movies 0 or >0 ?
- • RULES that help you decide how to vote
- • How do you account for the novelty factor and the chronological order in which you watched your movies ?
- • How do you handle the observer effect ?
Granularity
One of the things I learned is that many times I am pretty sure about the minimum/maximum score I would give a movie (for example I would score movie XY in the 20-40 range) but I find it hard putting an exact number on a film. I hear you say: "Well, the obvious choice then is to reduce the ranking granularity". Not really. Because then I'm lacking intermediate steps when I need them.
By way of experimentation I found out that my ideal granularity is 20.
I could use 0-20 in steps of 1.
Or 0-10 in steps of 0,5.
I chose 0-100 in steps of 5. It's all the same, but it somehow helps to put a percentage on the movie. Like "I liked it to about 75%", which means I would rank the movie at 75.
- • A higher granularity (0-100 in steps of 1) wouldn't work for me, as I am unable to distinguish between 42 and 43 for example. Or between 17 and 18.
- • A lower granularity (say 0-10) would make the choice easier, but then I often get the feeling "I would like something right in-between" (like 7,5).
So 20 shades is the most I can distinguish with a certain sense of certainty.
Beyond that, I just struggle and my votes would constantly change (back and forth between 42 on one day and 43 the next).
What is your experience on that subject ?