О, нашёл тот монолог господина Karhu.

Rating in generally is based on mean score deviation that gives ratings their value. Person whose mean score is 4.50 gives the same value to their 5/10s as person whose mean score is 7.5/10 gives to their 8/10s. The lower your mean score, the more value you give to high ratings. The higher you mean score, the more value you give to low ratings. When your mean score is in the midground, you achieve the balanced scale that MAL offers but almost no one uses. Very simple.

The 10-digit scale MAL uses starts from the rating of 5/10, which stands for average. For it to truly stand for average and match the definition of average, it needs to be your most used rating. If it is not, then the scale loses its balance. From the starting point of 5/10, the ratings ascend and descend with positive to negative counter parts. 6-4, 7-3, 8-2, 9-1. Leaving 10/10 as a separate entity for something truly unique. The ideal mean score on MAL is 5.50 when looking at it linearly, but it's actually 4.5x on this 5-centric scale where 5/10 defines the common mediocrity ground and 10/10 comes with a value that has no negative counter part. On the ideal, linear scale, the score of 1/10 is negatively equivalent to a 9/10 due to their deviation being the same. However, when I still rated anime, I was using the 5-centric 4,5x variation, which means that my 8/10s are as positive as 1/10s are negative, again, because of the deviation. My current review mean score is 5.67, meaning extremely close to the MAL ideal. This is because I tend to write more reviews from the far end series than focus on the middle ground.

The general thought on MAL is that 1/10 rating is almost always unacceptable whilst no one is questioning 8-9/10 ratings, which essentially have the same value, not to even mention 10/10s. This shows us the massive double standards this community has and how much everyone struggles to comprehend the rating scale. Since the amount of people who actually care about rating, understand the scale and have a balanced mean score -- is very slim on this site, I gave up and quit rating over 5 years ago. Before that, I spend hundreds of hours talking about ratings and finding the ideal way to rate. I am one of the reasons why MALgraph became so popular for there was a time when over half of their traffic went thru my profile. With this, my point being that I once was very passionate about rating and cared about it a great deal, but now I can only conclude that the only thing that was achieved was my own understanding of how hopeless the situation is.

It's quite saddening that even today, when I write reviews, most of the criticism I see is exclusively about the numbers I use. It's sad because new generations are repeating the mistakes of the earlier ones. The same fallacies, the same thoughts, the same arguments and the same rhetoric echoes from user to another without anyone stopping to think what they are actually doing.