Okay, this has been picking at me for a while, but there was a recent even that brought it to the forefront. i read Geminni (like everyone here, i'm sure) and in this comic the subject matter made most of the replies result in them saying they wanted to throw up-but still rated the comic with a "5".

now, this made no sense to me so i asked on the page and actually got responses. the explanations i got were either "morbid curiosity" which i can't understand how it relates, and the even more nonsensical argument that they had 5'd the page because they like the other pages. so they weren't so much rating the comic as they were rating the idea of more comics, or something weirder.

so, i put it forth to you, teeming, hopefully washed masses of the drunkduck forums: What makes you choose to rate a comic with a 5, and what makes you rate it with something lower?

(me, i lower the score for things bothering me or lack of effort on the artist's part. i can tolerate different styles, but not half-assing your work)

I'd only give a 1 or a 5, very rare to give ones and it's usually only if a comic has some rude opinion stuffed into it (and isn't funny). It's not weird at all to give 5's for the idea of more comics or that they just like the comic in general.

And I don't know something about seeing 4's and 3's makes me think 'asshole' instead of someone giving a fair rating. Probably because 1-5 is such a low scale to put things on.

Ratings are meaningless on this site. They used to affect rankings, but now rankings go up with comments but are unaffected by the rating number, so if someone rates your comic a 1, the comic rank still goes up. Plus, the comic authors can have any comments they wish removed. So if they don't want any low numbers at all, they just have to mark them, and an admin removes them. -- They probably should have removed the numbers altogether when they took them out of the rankings system.

For the majority of DD, people generally even rank a five or give no rank when commenting. Some readers leave 5's without comments as a way of saying "I am following and enjoying your comic. Keep it up." (But have nothing to add in terms of comments.)

Then there are people who leave blank 1's. Most are trolls with nothing constructive to say or even suggest what they don't like. (And many do so anonymously.) Actually, any rating below 5 without a comment is completely useless and meaningless in all respects. If it is connected with a comment to explain the reason for the ranking, it becomes useful (but over-sensitive authors might still have the comments removed).

Some authors seeking feedback encourage using the rankings to help them approve. Most of their readers still stick to the "5" convention, but they often have a handful of other serious creators who rank them in earnest AND leave detailed commentary on how to improve, what works, and what doesn't. In these cases, the ranking is most often used as a comparison to the creator's general work and personal improvement, not to other webcomics.

Vickie summed it up pretty well. When I comment I either give a 5 or nothing. A 5 means you are still doing well. It's up to the author's normal standards and/or is better.

I won't rate if I think the page is below the authors normal standards. And I'll try and make sure to leave detailed tactful feedback why I don't think the page is of their normal standard.

This is generally only art related as I mostly only read story comics it's hard to judge 1 page of story. Something may not make sense on the page I look at but come next update it is crystal clear. So I try and take that into consideration too.

If I think something is good enough to rate, i'd give it a five

I have given honest rankings to people who give me the same which I encourage. But it's really rare that you find that. Still I try to be constructly critical when reading other webcomics and it always makes me feel really great when I see an author has taken my advice.

Something has to be pretty bad before I mark it down.
So generally, yeah, it is 1's or 5's from me.

Though I aint shy of giving a 1 when something pisses me off!

In fact....

1

There! I just gave this topic a 1! That is how hard core I am!

When I first started rating comics on DD I'd give 4's or even the occasional 3 if I thought a comic was good but just missing out on one or two elements. I very quickly found that the ratings aren't used that way by most of the readers here on DD and so some people whose comics I actually liked were quite surprised to be "marked down".

The understanding among most of the community is that a 5 simply means you've read the comic and liked it. Unless you really don't like it therefore (in which case it's far more polite to say nothing!), I'd say you should always give a 5. The other numbers may mean something to you but they mean nothing to anyone else and simply cause unnecessary confusion.

If you do have some minor gripes that you feel are important, then mention them in the comments by all means. Well-reasoned constructive criticism is far more helpful than an arbitrary sub-5 rating anyway.

Most of the time I give a 5 if I want to comment, but don't really have anything specific to say about the page.

I don't think I've ever given a 1. If a comic was that awful that I'd contemplate giving a 1, I probably just wouldn't bother leaving anything.

Giving a 1 to a really lousy comic is sort of like pointing out the obvious.

The most notable 1 I ever gave was to a comic on the Duck that was totally and utterly racist, I wont say which one publically as I dont want to send it any hits!

I just thought that everyone was giving 5's because everyone else does and you'd kinda seem like a black sheep if you didn't... Not that I don't think everyone I comment on deserves a 5, if I read the page and left a comment then I think that comic is worthy of their rating.

I do give my favorites a '5', like others have stated, because I like the comic. Surely if I were suposed to give out my honest opinion, I'd not give fives to every single page that I follow... Also vast majority of my comments are, well blanks, so imo a '5' actually says more then words :P

I give a 5 basically to give the author a face of who's consistently reading their work and that I enjoy it. That said, if I've nothing to say about a given page, I'm not going to force words.

When I first arrived at DD, I gave a 4 once or twice, but since the ratings are meaningless here, I figured that might be considered pretentious of me.

I've never given anyone a 1 or whatnot. Even if I didn't like a particular strip or comic, I'm not going to go 'anonymous'ly emo about it. It's easier to make a deafening silence.

I gave up ranking years ago. Not because it was meaningless (Which it was by then), but because of all the peevish dicks who kept on and on about how people should rate "meaningfully".

So rather than fall on either side of that debate I chose not to bother and just leave comments instead. People appreciate comments more than ratings, many times over, so that's what I leave.

Once in a blue moon on very, very special occasions I will leave a 5 with my comment, but only because something either impressed or amused me to a startling extent and I know that some comicers still appreciate a 5 as a mark of distinction. ...That and there's no way to give people a gold star

Even so, most of the time I'm impressed to that level I say so with effusive praise and don't leave a 5.

I appreciate all the comments I get, sometimes I leave a blank comment because I really haven't got much to say - but that's very rare.

For myself, I'll leave a 5 because I am thoroughly enjoying the comic, but often I don't make it back on DD as often as I'd like, so I don't always have the time to put down a well thought out comment.

I have been trying to leave more feedback as I can, as I agree with others on here that any comments left mean the most.

I usually put a 5 to the best pages of the comics I like, if I have something to say with it. I'll give 4-3 rarely if I have a remark on one particular part in a page but not often. I've never given 1-2 because I would probably give that to comics I wouldn't follow anyway.