That's how ratings work everywhere. People who know how ratings work and how averages work won't judge a series when it has a 5.0 and only 2 subscribers. Same concept of how I know a series can't possibly be a perfect 10.0 when it only has 1 subscriber who undoubtedly hit the 10 star button.
I will say that to any artist who actually wants to improve.
No, seriously. Call me a cynic, but this is how I was taught, and it's how I teach others. I'd show my animation teacher something I drew or worked on, and he'd basically say "this sucks, do better". Then he would ask me how I could improve it, so that I could actually improve my critical viewing skills and recognize how I could improve my art even as I was improving, and he would show me if I needed a demonstration of how exactly to fix something.
I mean, yeah, saying "get good" is literally easier said than done. You can't just "get good", not without actual practice and knowing exactly HOW you can "get good". I'm still learning how to play violin, and I can't just decide I'm going to "get good" and then pick it up and magically know how to play. With enough patience and persistence though, and if I actually CHALLENGE MYSELF, I will "get good".
In the art and comics world, those that actually take constructive criticism and ratings seriously will do just that. They will work harder so they can do better. Why is being told to "do better" such a bad thing? Have people really become that soft and defeatist?
Just because you love your work doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be improved. It's the same logic that if you love your body just the way it is, it doesn't mean you should just keep being unhealthy if it's killing you - if you really love your body, go to the work to get healthy and fit, whether or not you lose weight. Same goes for drawing. If you love your work, if you love your craft, then why is it such a bad thing to love it enough to make it better?
"Hmm, my average rating for Time Gate: Reaper was 7.50 when it finished. Let's try and get book 2 to be 8.0 when it finishes! Hmm, what can I do to ensure that? Can I make the backgrounds better? Can I make the character writing better? Can I make the story more interesting somehow?"
It's foolish to say that a rating system does "absolutely nothing to help a creator out". It's all about perspective.
because it got more votes and the average rating became a more realistic representation of the work because that's how averages work
and maybe, i dunno, the creator recognized the flaws and made it better, and so people changed their ratings later on because yeah, you can change your ratings on webtoons if you suddenly decide to rank it higher/lower if the quality of the story changes for better or worse. things are capable of changing.
this is tapas, LINE can't hear you from the other side of the mountain.
or you know
just
don't use LINE.
I'm sorry, I know I'm being super salty in this whole post but like, it's almost midnight, I've been working all night, and just... I dunno. This bugs me.
I've talked about this before in another thread (or maybe it was in this thread but a long time ago, I dunno, this thread has been going on for months lol) but ratings aren't supposed to be a bad thing. Just like the rating you give a comic, what you think of the functionality of ratings as a whole is a matter of perspective. Comics are an entertainment medium, just like books and movies and video games. Why should we treat them as anything else? If we want comics to be treated just as seriously as any other medium, we have to expect them to be marketed as such as well. We can't treat it and the people that partake in them as some fragile little flower that needs to be preserved. That is exactly why online webcomic artists still aren't taken as seriously as publication comic artists.
The best thing about webcomics is that, unlike movies or novels, there are so many ways to express them and show them to people. You've got Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, Patreon, Webtoons, Tapas, SmackJeeves, Wordpress, personal domains... unlike videos, you're not really bound to one location in order to make a name for yourself (in this case, Youtube. Not a lot of famous videographers or content creators who haven't started out on Youtube). There are famous comics on Tapas, there are famous comics on Webtoons, there are famous comics on Tumblr, and there are famous comics that operate on their own website. And of course, there are famous comics that utilize all of the above.
So one open comic platform utilizes ratings. If you really think it's the number that's preventing you from finding readers, then go ahead, post to another website and gain thousands of subs in the blink of an eye. I'm sure it's just a rating that's keeping people from reading comics there. As I said in my earlier post, I have loved comics that had a 3.0 rating, and I have hated comics that had an 8.0 rating. I have loved comics that only have 500 subs here on Tapas, and I have hated comics that always end up on Tapas' popular page.
If you're doing comics simply because you love them and you just want to tell your story, then more power to you! Do what makes you comfortable. But don't take that power of perspective from others who need it because they do comics for more than just passion. Whether they do it for a living or because they want to make it a living some day, there are people, myself included, who enjoy having the rating system because it helps them know, on a general consensus, where they are to their chosen market. It gives them a margin of improvement. And when they see those numbers improve, they know that to the public eye, the work they're putting into their comics to improve is paying off.
And yeah, you will have biased voters. You'll have people that spam 1 star ratings on every comic just to be a dick. But once you've gotten enough votes and readers to balance out the average, those very few 1 star reviews really don't put a dent in your overall rating (and neither do those "i love every comic i read" 10 star ratings). If, after hundreds of votes and views, your comic still can't get out of a 4.0 or 5.0, then you need to actually change your perspective and look away from the number and reevaluate your comic from a critical point of view, because hundreds of voters cannot be wrong when it comes to visual entertainment, and I can guarantee that we're not all going to be the next "misunderstood" cult classic. Maybe you (speaking to all creators here, myself included) just need to do better.
Or, again, if it bugs you that much, just... don't use LINE.