Bug in the BL rating? (or possible review bombing?)

It might be related to us purging thousands of invalid accounts yesterday.

We did multiple purges this week and last week. I'm just guessing it was due to the one yesterday since you mentioned the 15th.  I believe some Chinese dramas were affected as well.

I don't know anything about those specific issues. We usually do a purge every 3–6 months based on suspicious activity. They're usually all related, but sometimes it doesn't have enough of an effect to impact the ratings.

 Ji-N:

I don't know anything about those specific issues. We usually do a purge every 3–6 months based on suspicious activity. They're usually all related, but sometimes it doesn't have enough of an effect to impact the ratings.

Also, as you mentioned, you purge accounts every 3-6 months based on suspicious activity. But in the past, I never noticed any sudden drop in ratings in past, even after purging thousands of accounts, let alone a drop of 0.3-0.4 points. The decline always happened in an organic manner, usually by 0.1-0.2, not an overnight drop of 0.3-0.4.

In the past, I only saw such steep drops in a drama's rating when there was a major controversy, like in King the Land or When the Phone Rings. But this time, the drop seems specifically targeted at certain BLs, which says a lot about whats actually going on. It definitely doesnt seem related to account purging.

 Ji-N:

Reviews have zero effect on ratings. While the ratings count may not go down, the rating itself will no longer be counted. We can't always detect bot or abusive accounts, as they're often very good at hiding it. I'm not here to argue. I've already answered the questions.

This is a public ratings system, which means everyone can share their opinion. As a result, there will always be some negative ratings, it's a normal part of any open platform. It's strange that when a show gets mass upvoted with 10s, no one seems to have a problem with it.

I understand that reviews have no effect on ratings, but i brought up review bombing because when haters target a specific show, they usually engage in both mass downvoting and review spamming. The recent review bombing of Revenged Love clearly suggests that the show has also been subjected to coordinated mass downvoting.

You mentioned that people don’t complain when shows are flooded with 10 star ratings but at least in those cases, the fans have actually watched the show and rated it accordingly. On the other hand, haters often downvote a show without even watching a single episode, simply to drag it down and boost another.

But even if we put that aside, is it really acceptable for multiple shows from a particular genre to be repeatedly targeted and unfairly  mass downvoted?? Shouldnt the platform take action against this kind of manipulation instead of just letting it continue unchecked??

 Ji-N:

We are taking action.... but we're not going to review every single show and every review, nobody has time for that. 

You dont have to do that for reviews from every show, but at least delete those 1/10 hate ratings that were given during the specific period OP mentioned. That alone should be enough for the ratings to become stable again.

 Ji-N:

How can you even confirm that the 1/10 ratings are from bots/fake? Just because a rating is low doesn’t automatically mean it’s bad.

In a perfect world, we’d love to manually clean up every unfair rating during suspicious periods. But the reality is, every time we remove ratings, someone else feels it’s unfair.

We're not ignoring the issue, we continue to improve our detection methods and take action where possible. But expecting manual intervention every time drama flares up just isn’t something we can sustain long-term.

We doing what we can with the resources we have.  This will be my last reply.

Honestly im not asking you to eliminate all the 1/10 ratings, only the ones from that specific 2-4 days period where the ratings suddenly dropped by a massive margin. Imean, if there are hundreds of 1/10 ratings given during those 2-4 days, im pretty sure over 90% of them are fake ratings meant to deliberately downvote the drama. So whats wrong with removing just those ratings from that short time frame?? Or is it okay to let 15-20 dramas from a particular genre suffer because of this??

Alternatively instead of targeting only 1/10 ratings, perhaps all newly added ratings, whether high or low, during that specific 2-4 days period could be temporarily removed. A notice could then be posted on the affected drama pages explaining the situation. Im quite certain that genuine viewers, regardless of whether they enjoyed the drama, would be more than willing to recast their ratings. And again, this would apply only to newly submitted ratings during that limited period, not to all ratings overall.

I would also like to suggest reviewing the current process of account creation. As its currently quite easy to register on MDL, this has unfortunately opened the door for misuse through bot accounts that manipulate ratings and boost certain reviews.

If revising the sign up system isnt feasible, perhaps a middle ground solution could be implemented: restrict newly created accounts from rating dramas or writing reviews for the first 15-30 days and require a small level of engagement (such as leaving 50 comments on drama pages of interest) before they can fully participate. This simple step alone could significantly reduce bot activity and rating manipulation.

These days, everyone in the comment sections is complaining about how bots and haters are downvoting dramas and how MDL ratings are no longer reliable. While i understand that increased site activity is important, i truly believe that ensuring a fair and trustworthy environment is even more valuable in the long run. If these manipulations continue, MDL may risk losing its loyal and long time user base.

So, my request is, please at least make the account creation process stricter and restrict new accounts from rating or writing reviews for a limited period. This would go a long way in maintaining the credibility and integrity of MDL’s rating system.