So happy a refresh erased my long winded comment now that @jlouderb stepped in. Though this one’s not short, ????!

I will just add that I love the Milan Kundera shout out in the title. 5 Star title IMHO.

When it comes to surveys there has to be a baseline or rating scale that a user must have for reference or the entire rating and subsequent analysis of said ratings becomes a mess. Also, to the point @jlouderb made, five stars is probably not the best scale for this as it’s too simplistic. But the point of the scaling process like this is it’s simplicity. Then there is scale; as in you need a large enough sample size in order to start to accurately account for deviations.

If I had to implement one key change it would be that reviews are acceptable immediately after a show but the ability to input ratings be delayed to let any post show glow or other potential influencing factor wear off.

Ultimately, while it takes much longer, I go off of the reviewers actual words as an indication of a quality show. So, I look to the fan reviews as often as possible. This is like the expanded ratings process and I can start to peak behind the ratings to get a good grasp of how the listener got to their positive or negative review of a show.

Lastly, I think there is also a tendency toward ratings going too high because there are a lot of members of this community that fight against or don’t easily accept constructive criticism when a show is mediocre or subpar. Critics are labeled jaded and toxic positivity takes hold when the whole point of a site like this is to commune and debate the music.

One last thought I just had to improve upon this would be to create a multi star rating (one to five stars for music, vibe, lights, etc). Pick five qualities of a show and create an average from those. I don’t think a few extra steps to review a show would hurt here as simplicity, as @Icculus points out, allows for Randy’s to rate shows that don’t exist.

Appreciate the launching pad for a healthy debate, @icculus, get well soon!!