Now, to preface: There ARE several more reasons for why both the rating and tagging system are totally fucked. But will be touching on these two at this time.

Firstly: Tagging. This is just a clusterfuck in general.

As many, MANY refuse to learn how to tag. And, most websites have corrupt and/or inept admins, that also don't know the tags. Landing in a bit of a "It's not lootboxes! It's surprise mechanics!" type of thing. To give a simple example: Many sites have stuff like "You need to tag anthro stuff". And people look at that and go "What counts as an anthro?" and just... COMPLETELY IGNORE the on-site definition of it. Then shrug and doesn't use the required tag. And, I've seen several mods/admins then look at that, shrug and go "Well... they say it's not an anthro, its just a humanoid with animal features!".

Nothing is really done about this. Most websites just keep ignoring this. Heck, even a certain "HF" one that CLAIMS to have "quality control", is just littered with useless staff that doesn't even know the site tags, are easily bribed, and just... allow content that match their preferences. Heck, even seen sites cram tags into each other. As, "they seem close enough". Only real fix would be for people to get a standard when it comes to tagging. And stop accepting sub-par tagging.

Main issue seems to be the whole "I can tag whatever I want!". Where people ignore rules as "I don't FEEL like that applies.". Like for example: Not feeling like the definition of a ex: "shapeshifter" applies to their character, despite every single point is correct. They just don't WANT to call it a shapeshifter, etc.

And secondly, the main topic: The rating system.

It has an inherent issue that is pervasive in... basically all areas with rating systems.

The "hate out of ten" being a prime example. Where, SOMEHOW: 8/10 means a game is shit, 9/10 means it's "tolerable", and 10/10 is "Eh, it's aight." And it's very... not how that's supposed to work. 5/10 is a solid score there. It's something average.

This can amusingly be seen a bit on many rating sites.

Where the "critic score" is WAY off compared to the "people's score".

And you can see like, stuff with 6/10 get praised for being "a solid movie". While on other sites, you can see "7/10. Utter fucking garbage.". Or, even more ironically: "10/10. REALLY badly optimized, crashes all the time, lacks major features and is barely functional."

Now: When it comes to art: Style IS subjective.

BUT: Quality and anatomy, IS objective.

We have quite a lot of examples on that. Like the infamous Captain America chest. Or AI hands.Or the very much memed "Reminder: The winner was based on VOTES.".

This is where we start running into the same issues as with tagging: Entitled and/or lazy people.

They draw something incorrectly and/or badly. And REFUSE to improve.

They then get lower rating, are offended,and start to report people. Since they aren't being given a free pass to be lazy.

For those going "It's an art style!". To paraphrase a Disney animator from ye olden days: "Unless you learn how to draw proper anatomy, you can't make it your style. As then you don't even know what you are changing in order to make it your own.".

I do come across this quite a lot. And: To use hands as the example in this. Say someone draws two left hands. Refuses to admit it. And just... keeps doing it. Maybe switches it up to two right hands at times. 4-7 fingers on each hand, never consistent. "Maybe it's their character?" you say? No. They say its not. They "Just forgot how many fingers" or whatever. In short: They have no excuse for why they keep messing up, besides "I cba to improve.".

So, these people just keep doing certain aspects in worse or terrible quality. And, whenever they are rated based on that poor quality: They get triggered. Report reviews, throw hissy fits, what have you. Some do take it in stride. But most seem to get ticked that they're not given a free ride. Since: They chose to be lazy on purpose. Why should they have to face the consequences of their actions?

Now: This is where there is a subjective divide.

As you have people that rate the median average. And people that rate based on the lowest denominator. 

For example: Say that someone messed up a movie's audio. And it's just... 24/7 CONSTANT nails on chalkboard. The ENTIRE audio is corrupted and just screeches non-stop. BUT: The movie itself looks stunning.

Ofc, we'd have the guys that go "10/10, amazing, believe me." that just utterly ignore any and all mistakes from their fav artist.

But when we'd have the people that go "Well, the sound is garbage. But the visuals are great. So... 5/10." and lastly, you have the people that go: "1/10. The sound is inexcusable.".

And it's the last type, that clashes heavily with the spoiled brat artists.

As they 100 % think you SHOULD give them a free pass on that aspect being garbage. As they intentionally made it garbage, because they are too lazy to put effort into it.

These people amusingly pop up in quite a few cooking shows.

Like, they show a magnificent steak,souffle or whatever. And then just... the sides.

And well, they cry A LOT of wolf. Since how DARE the world not cater to them, and them alone?

And to be fair: This CAN look a bit suspect to the untrained eye. As why IS this artist continually getting bad scores from certain people? But high from others? And well: Context is hard, so... that one I can't blame too much on the untrained eye.

But it has spiked the last decade with people demanding you only rate them based on their good qualities. And well... that's not how that works... it can technically be changed into that. But I do hope we have more people that want a functional search and rating system, than we have that wants platitudes.