We use the TIARA Rating
systm. This replaces the * (star) with the ^ (tiara) but otherwise is much the
same.
!x! Off the chart bad
You need to understand that, aside from quality matters, like durability,
ease of use, fit and things of that type, persons give ratings by their
persceptions and their own frame of reference. This can vary widely from person
to person and with things like AB/Little Girl items, which get much of thier
value to a person from their esthetics, one may like what another may hate. This
should be taken into account when rating an item. When reading a rating, it is
up to you to know what you like. For instance: Rubber Panties: If ithe material is "textured", "embossed" or otherwise "grainy" I will give it an x Now, you may not care, DPF's Baby Heaven is an example (as of a few years ago, anyway) The fit and other attributes make them a slight bit better than Comco, but the material felt like sandpaper so they are automatically unacceptable to me, the same is or was true of Lang. Often it is better to use sub ratings as we do in the doll stores so that you maight rate material, fit, durability and things like that. Gary used to use smooth material but they would fall apart in a few weeks so whereas Baby Heaven and Lang would get X's Gary would get ^+ Another thing is price A.C. Medical "Hight-Waist Susan" get about ^^^^ in most categories but ^^^- in "Finish' as the elastics are kind of funky but the price is low enough to make it a worthwhile item, and that does not affect the appearance for which they get ^^^^+. In fact, A.C. Medical is a very good company with sooo many different kinds of things and things to choose from that you cannot go wrong. As a company I give them ^^^^^
Another thing that can happen is "package rating". For example with FairyWand. None of the programs is better than ^^^^+ but the bundle gets ^^^^^. How come? Because what the bundle is s a set of programs geard to a purpose: Building a site or doing things on the Web. Now it has everything you need or can use to build "from scratch to final upload" and can be used by a relative newbie, meaning quite a few wizards and templates, to select the webhost, find a domain name, wirite the pages and organize a website, create music if you want to, edit images and photo's, create photo galleries, slide shows Themes and screensavers, put up your blog, and guestbook and a profile of yourself,stoke the site up with goodies and upload it to the host. And it will be a pretty good site, too, as long as you know what you want to put in it and the content is worthwhile. The net result is that the package is better then the best program. That is how "package rating" works
x=unacceptable, F, Only reviewed becuase it had to be
Anything below this line is worth having for some reason
??? unreatable due to complexit; some of it is really good and some of it sucks big fat rotten eggs but still worth having if you know how to use it. Even the best social networks fall into this category because, while the facilities are a dream, they get overrun by 20nothing lighter-than-air heads whose stupid posts you have to wade through, or trolls or self-absorbed twits
^ poor but
passing, barely acceptable or unacceptable but for a redeeming characteristic.
60-67
^^ fair, Well...um...okey I guess. 68-75
^^^ mezza-mezz, average.
pretty good. 76-83
^^^^ Superior, better than average. 84-91
^^^^^ Excellent, A-1, 2di4. 92 and up
!^! Off the chart good
after the tiaras you may find or put a +, -
or a fraction like 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, etc.
+ is called "upgraded" means the
item has things about it that are better than the rating or that it is higher
than the number of tiaras that you give it but not up to the next highest
number; this a ^^^+ is better than a 3 but not as good as 4. Read it as three
plus up to a half.
- is called "downgrading" means that you would like to
rate it higher but there are drawbacks that necessitate a lower rating than you
would like or that it is less than you are rating it but not down to the next
lower rating so that ^^^- is not really up to 3 but is better than two and a
half. In both cases the difference is not exact. A "downgrade" since its reference point is higher is better than an upgrade. this ^^^^- is better than ^^^+. These are usually used to refernce differences that are intangibles
the fraction indicates that
you think you can assign a more exact upgrade. For the sake of sanity, keep such
fractions as quarters, thirds and halves.
Sp=Specialized following the
rating is to be used if the item, whatever its rating is recommended to a
special interest. This, a one-tiara item may be the only thing of its kind to
suit certain interests so it can be recommended on that basis. For scoring
purposes, call it a full tiara for persons with that interest.