MAL is one of the biggest anime fandom sample size so the scores and reviews here matter right?
| as the title says any counter argument on this? i want to hear from you be sure to vote on the poll a lot of vocal users of MAL says the scores and reviews here are worthless EDIT: about the bot voting it will be fixed soon here is an update by Kineta https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=245618&show=4750#msg58736434 but even if its not gonna fix soon there is only 1-2 cases like this at most every season that has 40+ anime so its no big deal overall EDIT: gonna expand on why i think it matters because for the anime industry they only care about how much profit/capitalism they can make so popularity is the key and with a high score (at first) then more people will be curious to watch the anime but ye as time goes by scores will go down but the popularity numbers can become big enough that it will continue to be popular despite having low score later on and about the reviews sure i can see that professional critics and the public does not agree with each other a lot of times too, the Academy Awards for example usually awards unknown movies (but they are kinda changing this past few years) and heck Venom movie was hated by critics but it become so popular and profited a lot anyway but MAL does not have professional critics so im neutral on if reviews matter for now |
degDec 5, 2019 1:23 PM
| I'd say that scores matter since high scores are a good advertisment for a show although I'm not sure if the effect they have is as large as I think it is. I feel that industry people probably don't give a crap since earnings are more important than the user score on some foreign website. |
| MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST |
Theo1899 said: I'd say that scores matter since high scores are a good advertisment for a show although I'm not sure if the effect they have is as large as I think it is. I feel that industry people probably don't give a crap since earnings are more important than the user score on some foreign website. they care even if they do not show it lol MAL is like one of their metrics im sure here is an example from Mob Psycho official twitter account https://twitter.com/mobpsycho_anime/status/1112966443518160896 BlakexEkalb said: I feel a majority of the time the people that say “scores don’t matter” end up getting annoyed that a certain show is rated less than it should or higher than it should. agreed they be like muh favorite anime is better |
| I'm pretty sure MAL is the biggest anime community/database site |
 plz @ me |
| At the moment MAL scores don't matter since bots can run rampant and downvote to oblivion until this supposed new system gets put into place Just look at as soon as the illegitimate accounts thread was closed how the scores for almost all the top shows went down by a couple of points. Even look at this season's Chihayafuru for instance |
 'On-Hold' is another way for a completionist to say 'Dropped' |
024 said: I'm pretty sure MAL is the biggest anime community/database site anime community nah CrunchyRoll got 40 million registered users alone compared to only 6 million MAL registered users so far but biggest anime database then sure Short_Circut said: At the moment MAL scores don't matter since bots can run rampant and downvote to oblivion until this supposed new system gets put into place Just look at as soon as the illegitimate accounts thread was closed how the scores for almost all the top shows went down by a couple of points. Even look at this season's Chihayafuru for instance it will be fixed soon here is an update by Kineta https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=245618&show=4750#msg58736434 but even if its not gonna fix soon there is only 1-2 cases like this at most every season that has 40+ anime |
| I think the main reason why some people think the ratings don't matter is because a majority of people on the site only view anime as a mainstream entertainment form, so shows appealing to this category (battle shonens and certain dramas) will get highly rated while shows highly different from it may get disregarded by this precise audience. Some shows that are older or slowly paced (stuff that gets mentionned in this category is usually like Texhnolyze or Lain or that kind of stuff, I haven't seen them yet though) are the ones that get disregarded because they have "bad animation" and are boring. This is my opinion on the matter, so don't take it as an absolute. EDIT: Concerning reviewers, I personally like reading reviews but nobody should take them by heart. Everybody can have a different experience watching the same anime and like/dislike different things about it. A lot of reviews aren't really reviews and just expose the opinion of the person on "X" anime and I still like knowing others' opinion on whatever show but they are rarely what interest me to get into "X" anime or explain the critical aspects of it, I'm generalizing of course but I still think it holds true for the majority. |
BiDiGiNDec 1, 2019 11:02 AM
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EpicYarn said: They don't matter due to bots and trolls, reviews are a better way to judge the anime but even those are filled with trolls. how many bots out of 6 million registered users do you think MAL has? about review trolls thats seems to be a systematic or rules improvement matter like i never read much reviews here on MAL but the reviews should be about constructive criticism showing both positive and negative criticism as well as suggestions for improvements on future shows like it and this should be done on each category of visuals, sound, story, direction, enjoyment, etc |
| @Daniel_Naumov i already answered that here https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1813557#msg58744021 |
deg said: EpicYarn said: They don't matter due to bots and trolls, reviews are a better way to judge the anime but even those are filled with trolls. how many bots out of 6 million registered users do you think MAL has? about review trolls thats seems to be a systematic or rules improvement matter like i never read much reviews here on MAL but the reviews should be about constructive criticism showing both positive and negative criticism as well as suggestions for improvements on future shows like it and this should be done on each category of visuals, sound, story, direction, enjoyment, etc Animes that have low amounts of member are usually more affected by it, LOGH has 2.5% 1 votes in 1k votes and Ashita no Joe 2 has 3.5% 1 votes in 250 votes. https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1798704 (little thread I made a bit ago already). |
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| they matter to you as much as you want them to matter |
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BiDiGiN said: deg said: how many bots out of 6 million registered users do you think MAL has? about review trolls thats seems to be a systematic or rules improvement matter like i never read much reviews here on MAL but the reviews should be about constructive criticism showing both positive and negative criticism as well as suggestions for improvements on future shows like it and this should be done on each category of visuals, sound, story, direction, enjoyment, etc Animes that have low amounts of member are usually more affected by it, LOGH has 2.5% 1 votes in 1k votes and Ashita no Joe 2 has 3.5% 1 votes in 250 votes. https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1798704 (little thread I made a bit ago already). no wonder Chihiyafuru if i spell that right is more affected then since it only has like 50K+ users on MAL at the moment but bot voting will be fixed soon like next week from the latest update of the admins |
| That means this site has a lot more bots and fake accounts/ fake scores.. So the scores don't matter much here. |
| ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ _Open to criticism._ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
MAL is the proof that anime fans are toxic fanboys that like in metacritic they do "review bombing" when they don't like a game. Here they start scoring with an 1 to a anime that they haven't even seen, so that your favorite anime is first in ranking. |
| about the bot voting it will be fixed soon here is an update by Kineta https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=245618&show=4750#msg58736434 but even if its not gonna fix soon there is only 1-2 cases like this at most every season that has 40+ anime so its no big deal overall |
Daniel_Naumov said: deg said: @Daniel_Naumov i already answered that here https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1813557#msg58744021 deg said: no wonder Chihiyafuru if i spell that right is more affected then since it only has like 50K+ users on MAL at the moment but bot voting will be fixed soon like next week from the latest update of the admins Do not be so optimistic. They said they will "start developing countermeasures". This is not a case where you can say "Imbeciles, don't spam 0/10 votes!" three times and it will go away. This is a mindset problem as well, the mindset some viewers bring here. MAL will not be easily fixed like that. Nevertheless, as long as discussion keeps going here, I might visit. obviously there is no perfect solution to bots but it can be lessen to the point their insignificant like how reddit does it with their upvote/downvote system |
| I'd say that in general scores don't say anything other than how popular something is, if you want any info about a show before going in you should find reviews. |
| Don't listen to people who have anime characters as their profile pic. |
| I don't think they 'matter' in any tangible sense. They can be one useful criteria amongst others to determine which shows are worth checking out, but saying they 'matter' makes it sound like they have some sort of quantifiable impact on the world and I'm not sure they do. SalsaDraugur said: I'd say that in general scores don't say anything other than how popular something is, if you want any info about a show before going in you should find reviews. Scores actually don't say anything about popularity. Popularity = How many people know or have seen the show? Score = what do the people who have seen it (whether that's 50 or 500 000 viewers) think about it? |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
| As far as I'm concerned, so long as there's personal bias behind these ratings and reviews, they don't mean much to me. |
| It's matter only for newbie who watch anime based on score and review... |
 Try reading Spy x Family Manga ^_^ U will love it, i promise... |
| they do not reflect the perceived quality of the work as for an individual anyway so they do not matter i don't give a fuck about other people's opinions whether they be good ones or bad ones depending on how much efforts they are willing to put into making arguments and the quality of them i only care about interesting and creative thoughts that are free of criticism |
| MAL scores matter because peer pressure matters. Even people with somehow more individual tastes here say "for newbies" - which means that those newbies will be indoctrinated by said scores. They will develop taste for those types of shows that are high in the list and will neglect those which are lower. Even if we ignore bots (and we shouldn't because they are upgraded periodically to counter the improving site protection) there are fanboys, people that rate only 7/10 and above, people voting 1-5 because 1-10 is confusing to them (but why?) and people that doesn't vote at all... If you ask me this will give us some biased averages. So the answer is "Yes". Not for me personally but for many people. And I think that this is actually a bad thing. |
alshuDec 2, 2019 6:30 AM
petran79 said: I'd like to see scores based on users age and gender lol that will be awesome but gonna be another headache seeing that a lot can just fake their age and gender |
| The only real score system that at least somewhat represent what people actually enjoy and hate on mal are the popularity ranks, granted popularity does not always equal best reception but the way i see it the more popular an anime is than that means that it has something going for it that attracts everyone. |
| It would be great if MAL scores were a kind of objective appreciation of the medium, but the way they are currently they're more a reflection of the hype of the majority. It's better than nothing certainly, but does that really matter? It's not like we don't know what is hyped and what isn't already. |
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| the entire planet could rate every series and it still wouldn't matter. imdb ratings dont matter either |
| I don't know about the scores but the reviews are definitely god awful. |
| The beauty of humans is that they say one thing then do another, but at the same time that can also be their ugliest side. |
| Well yes but actually no. It matters only in terms of an average viewer's opinion, i.e. just in common |
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| You guys do know that the MAL score comes up when googling a lot of the more obscure anime series, right? It definitely does matter. It's a highly visible metric of community approval for anime. Like the site or not, like the scores or not, like the scorers or not, the scores do matter. |
| Like all things based on complete subjectivism, user generated ratings with no consistent systematic meaning are generally worthless. The honor system idealism is trash when actually put into practice with such a large and variable userbase. It can be a useful metric with adequate skepticism and actually looking at vote breakdowns and voting pool size, but only marginally so. If anything, the voting system is more useful for social signalling and tribalism than anything approaching separating the chaff from the wheat. Much the same can be said of reviews so I won't repeat myself. There are very good reviews but many more bad ones. But this is very opinion-based. MAL would do good having a more expansive tag system like AniDB or AniList do if the ability to find anime is desirable. As for the MAL population, most of us are likely here owing to missing the old school forum community aspect of weeb culture. CR has a far larger userbase but that is mostly down to being a content platform, their social/forum option is basically nonexistant. And likewise, ratings on CR are just as fallible as ratings on MAL. Edit: Forgot to also mention that I agree with the consensus above that the scores matter in the sense that people believe them which is a serious issue given what I said above. |
ItsaNicoDec 2, 2019 6:28 AM
| Nico nico ni~eed a siggy like the all the cool kids Really wish we had a rep system so I could farm it and spam rep+ |
operationvalkyri said: What does it mean when one says scores 'matter'? If by 'marter' you mean that scores are a perfect reflection of quality, that they are determined using some objective criteria, that one can use them to say one show is 'better' than the other, then no, scores don't matter. If you see them as what they are- an average of how people feel about a show with tons of subjectivity, then sure, they matter, as in, they give good insights as to viewers' reception to it. I often repeat the line "scores don't matter" in response to people who are just taking the rankings too seriously and questioning why MAL scores don't align with their own. I've used this analogy before, but scores are like GPAs; they are one indicator of quality but not the be-all, end-all metric using which you should make all your hiring decisions. obviously they are a reflection of the reception to it and thats what matters im sure if an anime got a high score you will be at least curious to read things about it then might end up watching it which is a win win for the anime owners so its free advertisement |
| No score or review matters when it comes to deciding what you should or should not consume or like/dislike. Listening to others and not trying things out and forming your own opinions is pretty lame, if you ask me. |
Hey_Taka-tin_Hey said: They definitely matter, in the sense that MAL is the biggest Western anime database in existence, and people come here looking for their next binge-watch all the time. So when they see stuff like Chihayafuru sitting at 6.9, they skip it. Which means less potential sales. Less buzz about the anime. Less people checking the source material. With foreign markets growing in importance essentially year to year, these things also gain relevance. It's important for sites like MAL to maintain a certain degree of professionalism (lol) and tackle these issues early and hard. very well said dude especially the bold part there are lots of overrated and underrated threads like each day here in a lot of subforums for example |
| >MAL reviews >it matters I digress unless it's written by god stark |
| No, it doesn't matter at all. All that matters is Japanese people. Get over it fking salty fanboys. Your vote has 0 weight... money speaks, and most of the market is in Japan. The only things that are sold in the west are things that had good reception and that "MAY" have a good reception in the west... |
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| Yes, they matter. People who say otherwise should switch to some site that simply lists anime by genres in alphabetical order. |
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| I didn't know about that mob psycho one though. oh well, if the producer care enough to see how many people outside of japan actually watch anime, does this mean MAL has become officially imdb of anime then? |
| Matter for what?.. To be used by some media, like news, or youtubers?.. Probably.. To be used by people to choosing what anime to watch?.. Probably as well.. Will it make people watch better or worse anime, though?.. Not really.. It will just make more popular shows even more popular, that's all.. I guess, it has it's pluses, for that people can talk about seasonal anime, more people sharing same things in anime community.. It kinda is better for socializing and monetary side of industry growing.. It kinda doesn't matter, though, for me personally that much, because I watch more anime for things I like, like characters, or feeling for some sorts of genre, or other things.. And really I'm not the only one, there is some percentage of people who prefer choosing by their tastes, or other things, not popularity.. So in the end, I guess scores are probably pretty important on broader spectrum, for community as a whole.. Better for socializing and monetary sides.. And how much scores are important to you - you decide by yourself, pretty much.. |
| I stopped believing MAL rankings and ratings after seeing: 1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood FAB is a great Anime and a masterpiece but "The Best Anime Ever Made"?  |
| A show shouldn't be defined by a number just like how your sat/act/whatever scores doesn't define where you will go in the future. For the anime industry? I doubt they give two shits about what a random person on an English site says about their show. Although the international market is growing, the question remains whether they more about the domestic Japanese population or are they interested in producing stuff towards the Western audience. |
Least degenerate visual novel enjoyer.  |
| the scores should matter on here, but most people dont take it seriously so at it really doesnt matter. |
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