1/2 Star Ratings

[Sinnylicious]

I use Netflix to keep track of movies I've seen by rating them with the stars. However, almost every other movie I see deserves a "1/2 star" rating. What I mean is, the movie deserves 3 and A HALF stars in my opinion, but I can only give it a 3 or 4 whole star. Maybe I'm just over zealous about ratings, but this bothers me. Can't Netflix give us the option rate in halves?

[Spindaddydad]

I sometimes run into this too. Then when I relate the stars to my emotions rather than as a numbering or grading system it helps.

1 - hated it
2 - didn't like it
3 - liked it
2 - really liked it
1 - loved it

[Sinnylicious]

Yes exactly, therein lies the problem, that Netflix rates movies based on emotion (loved it! hated it!) rather than the traditional method of ratings based on the merit of the film, the way critics rate... it should be the traditional way, I think, and I rate based on 1 - poorly made to 5 - work of art, amazing execution. Just can't get used to the Netflix scale.

[Spindaddydad]

Netflix rates movies based on emotion (loved it! hated it!) rather than the traditional method of ratings based on the merit of the film, the way critics rate... it should be the traditional way, I think

But if I am your Netflix friend, don't you want me to know how you FELT about the film? If I have a high similarity to you, then I am looking for movies that you liked (or didn't like) as there will be a good chance that I will like (or not like) it too.

Traditional rating methods can be good for film criticism and review sites, but don't emotions work best in the Netflix community? They do for me.

[Sinnylicious]

Yeah thats true too, its a matter of personal preference I guess. But if I think a movie is well executed and well made, I usually liked it too. I think Netflix should at least give us the option of half star ratings, and people can choose not use the stars however they want.

[spiderpig]

Hi Sinnylicious, welcome to the community. Yes, a lot of people have requested this functionality, but so far Netflix has not ceded to those requests.

If you are looking for a workaround, this might help:

1. If you use greasemonkey with Firefox, you can use this script to rate movies half stars.

2. If you don't use Firefox (crazy talk!), don't trust javascripts or don't want to mess with greasemonkey then here's another solution. I found this on a blog a while ago.

You will need to copy and paste the following URL into your browser (while being logged into Netflix, of course)

http://www.netflix.com/SetRating?widgetid=M70071613&value=4.5

That particular link will rate No Country for Old Men 4.5 stars. To rate other movies, simply replace 70071613 with the ID of the movie which you can find by hovering over the movie or clicking on it and you will see it in the URL of your browser and change the last number (i.e. the rating) accordingly.

If you just wanted to vent about Netflix and weren't looking for a solution, then just ignore the above. :)

[Sinnylicious]

wow that worked!! see the attached picture, where Netflix says I rated No Country 4.5 stars! But, when I look at the list of my ratings, it still shows it by whole stars, and I could not find No Country for Old Men on that list. Still, my rating was counted by Netflix.. brilliant!

[wowwee123]

It's too much work!

[Tommy]

half stars would be nice, but what i do when encoutring a film i'd rate with a half star is round up to the nearest star. in other words, half a star becomes one star, 1 1/2 becomes two stars, and so on.

[Spindaddydad]

what i do when encoutring a film i'd rate with a half star

But how do you distinguish such a minute difference between, for instance, "hated it" and "didn't like it" that you would need something between the two?

[Tommy]

something i didn't like has at least some redeeming quality that saves from a one star rating, however fleeting it may be. the films i'd rate with one star (and actually there aren't that many) do not.

[Adrian]

This has been discussed before by Todd in the Netflix Blog. Netflix tested half stars, and found a counter-intuitive effect that giving people extra choices makes them indecisive, and we get fewer overall ratings as a result. The higher number of ratings outweighs the higher precision.

[Spindaddydad]

giving people extra choices makes them indecisive

Aren't people strange?