MovieChat Forums > Pathogen (2006) Discussion > IMDb's 'skewed' star voting system.

IMDb's 'skewed' star voting system.

posted 15 years ago by mdhagins
13 replies | jump to latest

On the main page, it appears that Pathogen has been rated at hovering around "5" stars for the last two years. When you click on the "more" link next to the votes and look at the breakdown of votes, mathematically it comes down to more like 8 stars.

But, then, if you read the fine print, IMDb has the right to "adjust" the rating to be what THEY THINK it "should" be, regardless of how people really vote.

I know the movie, as a movie is pretty flawed technically, but it has a good story and fun spirit.

I can only hope that people's votes are their honest assessment...unlike IMDb, who obviously feel it is "fair" to mark this movie down a coupla notches.

[–] OPTIMUSCRIM 14 years ago

well, you can see that %43 of the votes were from cast and crew as noone else would rate this a 10. So whos trying to skew the system?

Also, because i liked Zombie Girl, ill let you in on a secret. I think IMDB automatically dismisses all votes that are a 10 or a 0.

I personally give it a 5/10, .4 less than the IMBD rating.

[–] mdhagins 14 years ago

The voting is anonymous, so I don't know how you can "see" who is casting votes.

[–] madsic 14 years ago

so you are honestly saying that the 43% who voted this a perfect 10 had nothing to do with the movie?

come on, its obviously people who were involved with the movie or know someone who was and quite frankly is annoys the hell out of me and I'm glad imdb adjusts it.

its not supposed to be used as a marketing ploy to get people to see your crappy movie

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] madsic 14 years ago

what the hell are you talking about?
what you just said had nothing to do with anything

I bet you just saw that "Perhaps you should have watched Transformers 2." comment in another forum/topic and you thought it was funny so now you're using it out of context thinking it applies whenever someone doesn't agree with you that some "non-commercial" wanna-be independent movie isn't amazing

besides, you rated this a 10. Do you realize that? Nevermind the thousands of movies that have been made in the past 80 or so years, NONE OF THEM CAN EVER TOP THIS SCORE!!!

or maybe all the movies you like are 10s and the ones you don't are 1s?

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] sparklebutt777 14 years ago

Megan this is Courtney McMinnis. I am Estrella's mother. I have seen in the last year that I have been removed from the cast on the credits. I am unsure why this has happened. If my part of the movie has been deleted I completely understand. However, I don't think it has been removed. If there was something personal that happened it would be nice to hear it from you. I contacted Emily over 2 years ago about this. She said she had no idea why I was removed from the cast credits. Maybe you can explain.

Courtney

[–] mdhagins 14 years ago

I cannot explain. No bad feelings were behind this, I assure you. I did not take your name off nor did Emily. Anyone can go and add and subtract names and it is up to you and me to monitor it. I am going to add your name again. It may take up to 3 weeks to appear, but usually it is a shorter amount of time. All I can say is I would NEVER do that to you. You did great in the movie and we really appreciate your help. If it disappears again, just feel free to put it back in contact us. I am sorry this happened.

[–] sparklebutt777 14 years ago

Thank you so much for responding so quickly. This makes me feel much better. I thought there was something wrong that caused this. I was reminded because we watched Zombie Girl on the documentary channel the other night. It was a wonderful experience for both Estrella and myself and something we are proud to be a part of. We are very honored to know Emily and her family and hope to keep in good sorts. Hope you and yours are well. Thank You.

Courtney

[–] amberiellamaria 13 years ago

The calculation makes sense. When statistics are analyzed, any extreme deviations outside of the bell curve, which in this case are the 10's and 1's, are eliminated because they indicate something unusual has happened when it really shouldn't. The rest is then averaged, which currently a 5.9.

I guess a good example would be the average of human intelligence. The results of the geniuses and those who are extremely slow are eliminated from the calculation because if their results were included, they would throw off the average by a lot, and therefore not be an accurate representation of the average person's intelligence. The same thing is done for movie ratings to eliminate any unusual rating patterns, which are usually caused by people trying to inflate the rating or to drag it down for whatever reason. Like the people who give Captain America a 1, when it's clearly not a 1 (that's Manos Hands of Fate territory).

[–] Strazdamonas 10 years ago

They are using a weighted average and while real average is 6.4 (not 8 as you claim) there is clear sewing of ratings from 10s and 0s. IMDB however coutns votes much more complex than just dismissing some votes, there is a formula out there if you bother to google it. And to be honest, the result is much better and it provides a security agasint "vote this movie down" campaigns to a point.
That being said i saw movies that were 9.8 and i saw ones that were flat out 1.0, so you can override it if it is really "That good".

---------------------------------------------
Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] mdhagins 10 years ago

That is a really great answer, Strazdamonas. At the time I wrote the original post, the actual (not weighted) average was 8. It seemed to me, at the time, that it was working the other way...to avoid overly-high marks given by friends, but now I can see how this works both ways. Thanks for the edification.