For those of you who have one, what do you think about MAL's rating system?

[Eater of All]

Originally Posted by DemiSoda

I'm of the same opinion that MAL's rating system is fine and that the problem lies in a lack of a standardized "universal" way to rate things, which ultimately means a score for individual X means something different to individual Y.

That's like saying the problem lies in the fact that subjectivity exists.

Though I find that average ratings of the entire community do an ok job of reflecting an anime's quality. I don't look at MAL rankings, but most things within top 500 of ANN's ranking tends to be, at the very least, watchable, if not good.

[Tiran86]

I like it, and think it works pretty well.

I give a
10 to anime that I love, and have no complaints about.
9 to anime that I love. I may have one or two small complaints or problems with it.
8 to anime that I enjoy and parts of it stand out.
7 to anime that I enjoy, but doesn't stand out.
5-6 to anime that was entertaining but heavily flawed.
4 to anime that was boring, but not particually bad.
1-3 to anime that I strongly disliked or outright hated.

I don't usually finish anime that I dislike, so I haven't given that many grades below a 5.

[MyGoddess]

I don't like MAL's rating system. Rating a show in 1-10 scale isn't enough for me. But I guess universally it's the best system without being too sophisticated.

I myself use an other system by grading different aspects of an anime(Story,Animation,Soundtrack, etc.) and adding them together to get a 0-100 score.

[Gamer_2k4]

My official rating scale, pulled from my MAL profile, is as follows:

10: Profoundly impacted my life, possibly in several ways
9: Strongly influenced my life; extremely profound/entertaining
8: Decidedly enjoyable and rewatchable; very profound/entertaining; lasting impact
7: Well worth watching again, profound/entertaining, though no real lasting impact
6: Would watch again; entertaining, but not quite gripping enough
5: Enjoyable once or twice but falls short in the long run
4: Average; potentially striking the first time it's seen, but no rewatch value; some problems
3: Below average; not especially enjoyable while watching, many problems, would be hesitant to watch again
2: Decidedly unenjoyable when watching; potential to cut off viewing before completion; fraught with problems
1: Awful, awful, "holy balls who thought this was a good idea" bad; active refusal to continue or rewatch

I would say that I'm a low rater in general, but my list isn't indicative of that as I only tend to watch highly recommended animes (Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, Haruhi, Madoka, etc.) Only one anime has received my coveted "10" rating, and only one has been given "9" as well.

The MAL rating system isn't bad, though it's just a notch more generous than my own. That's the main reason I have my own system on my profile, so that others can get a feel for why I'm rating the way I am.

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by MyGoddess

I myself use an other system by grading different aspects of an anime(Story,Animation,Soundtrack, etc.) and adding them together to get a 0-100 score.

That's too much and doing things that way would really piss the crap off me - if someone implements that on a site.

[Tempester]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

That's too much and doing things that way would really piss the crap off me - if someone implements that on a site.

That's the way MAL's review system works. In it, you are asked to give separate scores for art, sound, story, characters, and enjoyment. If you ask me, I don't like it either, because my final score for an anime is usually based on my gut feeling combined with a quality comparison with other anime that have similar scores, rather than purely a sum of its parts. Because of that, I don't see myself posting a review there any time soon, but instead doing so here on AS or on my own blog.

[Darkbeat]

Originally Posted by Tempester

That's the way MAL's review system works. In it, you are asked to give separate scores for art, sound, story, characters, and enjoyment. If you ask me, I don't like it either, because my final score for an anime is usually based on my gut feeling combined with a quality comparison with other anime that have similar scores, rather than purely a sum of its parts. Because of that, I don't see myself posting a review there any time soon, but instead doing so here on AS or on my own blog.

Exactly, because there are just some anime that are more than the sum of their parts.

MAL's review system isn't bad by any means, but for many anime it simply doesn't reflect the overall experience (giving equal credence to art and sound as they give to characters and enjoyment).