When you rate a story, you are not only leaving a souvenir for the author. Your stars feed the story’s public score, Critically Acclaimed shelves, and parts of Popular and Hidden Gem.
What you can leave
- An overall score from 1 to 5 (required for the rating to count).
- Optional category scores: story, characters, worldbuilding, writing, and pacing.
- A yes/no on would you recommend this?
- An optional written review.
One review per person per story. You can revise it later; the latest version replaces the old one.
How the public score is built
The number you see on a story is not a simple average of every overall star. The site:
- Ignores empty or invalid overall scores.
- Gives each review a weight — readers who have actually progressed in the story, leave thoughtful reviews, and have solid Commons Trust tend to count a bit more; spammy or barely-started reviews count less.
- Blends the weighted average toward the sitewide typical rating until enough weighted feedback arrives. Early glowing reviews alone cannot crown a brand-new title overnight.
Category averages are tracked separately so Reception in Studio can show where praise or friction concentrates. Recommend yes/no rolls into a recommend percent used by Critically Acclaimed.
Helpful votes
Other readers can mark a review up or down. Helpfulness shapes how trustworthy a reviewer’s voice becomes over time — it does not delete stars, and it does not let anyone buy a higher score.
Authors see the roll-up under Studio → Analytics → Reception. For the short how-to on leaving a review, see Ratings & Reviews.