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

The thing is, episodic ratings dont really affect the overall score much. And yes, i know many dramas also get 1/10 ratings but they dont receive them in such large numbers that the overall rating suddenly drops by as much as 0.4 overnight. If a drop happens organically, there is no issue. But when 15-20 shows from a particular genre suddenly see a drop, not just of 0.1, but by 0.3-0.4, then its definitely the work of a coordinated hater group manipulating the ratings. Thats the difference between a sudden large drop and an organic, gradual decline.

As for 10 star reviews, at least those are from fans who have actually watched the drama. But what about those bots that downvote shows without even watching a single episode?? At least the fans giving 10 stars have the right to rate the drama, even if their judgment is biased. But what right do haters have to pull down the ratings without watching anything??

User review ratings have actually been reliable in many places, for example, IMDb. That site isnt flooded with bots, so people dont usually downvote dramas just to push their favorite ones higher, unless there is a major controversy surrounding the show.

Secondly, a 0.3 drop is definitely significant and its not even 0.3, its 0.4. A drop from 9.0 to 8.6 is huge. If this had happened gradually over a few weeks, no one would have complained, as it would have seemed organic. But if MDL keeps ignoring this kind of bot driven downvoting, it will only encourage more of it and the score will continue to fall, possibly even to 8.0 or 7.5, further discouraging potential viewers.

So yes, it actually harms the drama a lot. And for your information, many people do consider MDL ratings before deciding whether to watch a drama. So dont say it doesnt matter. A drop from 9.0 to 8.6 might seem small but if the trend continues unchecked, it will definitely affect future viewership.

 Ivy:

Just thought I'd pop in here to link a couple suggestions I've made in relation to the rating system that might be of interest:

https://kisskh.at/discussions/suggestions/72447-get-rid-of-overall-ratings (though this topic is dead  in the water at this point)

https://kisskh.at/discussions/suggestions/109137-grace-period-for-new-accounts

I support your request and will have a look at your thread. I am of the opinion that it should not be possible to give an overall rating for series after the first few episodes. If you allow an overall rating after the half-time of the series at the earliest and calculate an overall rating from the individual episode ratings beforehand, this can, in my opinion, have a preventive effect on mass voting (both in up- and downvoting, this kind of voting culture annoys me in both directions). If you also only activate the episode rating when the show is broadcast, I think the hurdles for this type of activity are higher and it means more effort.

 Aoi:

Since this is no longer a support issue, I may have to close this. I believe the ones that got purged were mass bot 10s, but people seem to ignore that.

I'm also really wondering: if this was due to the removal of inactive accounts, why has it almost only affected BL dramas? What's even more baffling is that if it were understandable for dramas with few ratings to be impacted, then why would a drama like Love for Love's Sake—which has over 20,000 ratings—also be affected by just a few thousand inactive accounts? Could it be that all these inactive accounts rated this particular drama? That's clearly impossible. Moreover, regardless of the base number of ratings, the score has dropped by 0.3-0.4 points. This is truly odd: some dramas only have a few hundred ratings, while others have thousands or tens of thousands, yet the drop is the same. It's completely unexplainable. I tend to think the score drop isn't caused by the removal of inactive accounts. Could the administrators please investigate the cause? Thank you for your hard work!

 Socialpulse:

As for 10 star reviews, at least those are from fans who have actually watched the drama. But what about those bots that downvote shows without even watching a single episode?? At least the fans giving 10 stars have the right to rate the drama, even if their judgment is biased. But what right do haters have to pull down the ratings without watching anything??

No one, whether a hater or a fan, should be rating episodes that haven't aired, and therefore have not been watched.  And if it's open voting, then EVERYONE has a 'right' to vote.  Of course, bots and voting twice through multiple accounts shouldn't happen, but apparently, that's why they purge those accounts and their votes when they discover them. 

 Socialpulse:

User review ratings have actually been reliable in many places, for example, IMDb. That site isnt flooded with bots, so people dont usually downvote dramas just to push their favorite ones higher, unless there is a major controversy surrounding the show.

Please.  IMDB is NOT a reliable rating source, especially for Asian dramas.  It is rife with review bombing.  Allegedly, there were even fandoms circulating posts on weibo detailing how to make an account and vote on IMBD to raise the ratings, when Douban or MDL ratings weren't 'high' enough for these fans.  I witnessed the review bombing firsthand, in real time for one of the first CDramas I watched a couple of years ago -- my introduction to the dedicated Chinese fandoms, who put the FANtatic in FANdom.

 Socialpulse:

Secondly, a 0.3 drop is definitely significant and its not even 0.3, its 0.4. A drop from 9.0 to 8.6 is huge. If this had happened gradually over a few weeks, no one would have complained, as it would have seemed organic. But if MDL keeps ignoring this kind of bot driven downvoting, it will only encourage more of it and the score will continue to fall, possibly even to 8.0 or 7.5, further discouraging potential viewers.

And out of the 21 dramas  listed, only 3 had a .4 drop, the rest are .3.

I disagree.  .3 is not HUGE.  It's a minor drop.  This sort of downvoting has been going on for all the time I've been here, which is only a couple of years, but I imagine it has been around even before that, as review bombing is not new.  And TBH, so what if it discourages potential viewers?  Have you got money invested in the drama?  Ratings are important to fandoms as some sort of badge of stat honor.  If viewers are too lazy to read the reviews and comments, and are basing their choices just on an entirely arbitrary and subjective open voting rating, then they deserve to miss out on the gems and eat the "popular" pablum.

It's just a number that has no uniform or objective scale.  If a drama is good, word of mouth prevails.  Like if The Untamed or Nirvana in Fire dropped from 9.1 to 8.8 here on MDL, they aren't suddenly going to disappear off every known list of Must Watch C-Dramas.