Five Star Ratings

This is something I was thinking of today, having seen so many different scoring systems used I realised that people can have the same regard for an album, film, or anything really as another but score it differently dependant on their own personal system. It got me thinking about 5 star ratings, the top tier, in particular and under what conditions we give out a 5 star rating or review on MMA. I know some of us are more free with them than others. The above poll represents what I see as three common options:

You know, when I first registered on this site, I dreaded giving out 5 star ratings (or 1 star ratings, for that matter) because that meant to me that the album was perfect.  I guess I've become a little more lenient since then (and I should probably go through all of my ratings to adjust them accordingly), because I found that a 5 star album shouldn't necessarily be a perfect album.  This gets into your question of percentage, to which I say that there isn't really a straight-up conversion; in my opinion, they're two totally different rating systems and should be treated as such.  When I read reviews that are posted to both MMA and EM (and all due respect to the people who write them), it's pretty obvious that they're written for one scoring system and that the review doesn't quite match the opposite site's rating.  Like, a 4 star rating on this site shouldn't automatically equal an 80% on the other, you know? 

I guess I'll go with B.  I don't give 5 star ratings unless the album seems really special to me, but that still doesn't automatically make it perfect IMO.

adg211288 wrote: Diogenes wrote: Like, a 4 star rating on this site shouldn't automatically equal an 80% on the other, you know?  Agreed. It's easier to convert the other way around. i.e. 79%, 80% and 82% all round to a 4 star. But 85% rounds to a 4.5. Since I use decimal on Heavy Metal Haven, that's how I convert my scores to MMA's system in any case.

I occasionally round up to five stars on ProgArchives (where half-stars are not available), but I don't round up here. Like Jonas said, I also only give out 5 star ratings to albums I feel are the best out there. I don't really think about it in percentages, though.

I guess it's not an issue like that when you don't ever work in percentages or decimals. Being a decimal user though I've always gone with the rules of maths that I was taught in school. If its 4 or under, round down. If its 5 or above, round up. 

Wilytank wrote: I think it's better to score an album based on its own merit.  I'm not going to preclude an album a 100 just because I didn't enjoy it as much as The Dwelling.

That too.  I always try to review albums in a vacuum, but it's harder than you think if you're actually looking out for it. 

Triceratopsoil wrote: I have a bad habit of regarding everything I like as perfect or near it, so hard to say

Haha, I suffer from this bad habit as well. 
But I also don't think I want to stop since I don't really consider it suffering....

To me, there's no such thing as a perfect album, because to me that would be one that fits every mood, playable at any time and that lasts without diminishing returns. Every album I have heard falls into at least one pitfall, however slight. But there's albums that come close to perfect, so all my 5 star ratings are 95-99%.

Eria Tarka wrote: I use the second option.

Unitron wrote: I give 5-star ratings quite a bit, but that's because there are a lot of albums that I find flawless. I went with the second option, seeing as there are a few albums I've given 5-stars that aren't 'flawless' and have one or two weak tracks. I've never went with percentages, I just go with how I feel about the album and how good it sounds to me. I'll sometimes feel differently about albums and go back and edit or remake reviews, but that doesn't happen very often.