James's Weblog

Netflix allows people to rate movies. I remember their rating system once upon a time including a “just okay” choice. Now, however, their options are:

• 1 star: Hated it
• 2 stars: Didn’t like it
• 3 stars: Liked it
• 4 stars: Really liked it
• 5 stars: Loved it

There is no room to indicate that a movie is mediocre, that you neither would demand your money back nor would care to watch the movie again. Is this another form of society’s belief that there’s something inherently wrong with being average? It’s like parents who can’t stand the thought of their kids getting C grades in high school.

So, as in high school, the end result is grade inflation. I see a movie that I think is “just okay”. I don’t dislike it, so I give it 3 stars. But then I see a movie that I actually do like, and now that the 3-star rating is cheapened, I have to give it 4 stars. Argh. (And do we really need to distinguish between “really liked it” and “loved it”? Is this really high school?)

Why can’t everyone have Bill McNeal’s attitude? (And yes, he did admit at the end of the episode that being adequate sucks, but it was fun while it lasted.)

Not coincidentally, it’s the time of the year when everyone at VMware writes performance evaluations.