TER poll of approximately 2300 votes speaks volumes. Guys bitching about getting rid of appearance ratings altogether, blah blah blah, can STFU now cuz the survey here speaks for itself. An overwhelming majority feel that ratings do matter a great deal.  

This was rather obvious though because despite looks being somewhat subjective over a range of objectivity, I personally have never met a girl get anything below an average of TER 9 in looks when she's in fact truly DDG and stunning in person, taking into account she has a whole bunch of reviews to reflect a useful average score.  

This doesn't typically seem to go the opposite way though (and this is where subjectivity cums into play): just cuz a girl has average 9 or 10 and has more than 20+ reviews, doesn't mean she's really DDG to YOU. There's definitely room for improvement in making this appearance rating thing a bit more accurate (maybe by cracking down on inflated or bogus/self-written reviews, for starters? but that's another topic. )

But the point is proven: by no means is the TER appearance rating a useless system. I use it mainly as a confirmation tool and apparently so do many other guys... that's the very first thing they look at when they see a girl's TER profile!!  

(those bitching about the accuracy of this particular survey, get some clue and chew on this: 2300 votes reflects a fairly reliable indicator equivalent to roughly 95% confidence level, confidence interval 2 for a population of 100,000)

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When looking at a provider's profile, what is the first thing you check:

36% - Rating (overall, looks and performance)
4% - Contact Information (website, phone, email, location)
6% - Service Information (incall/outcall, Availability, On time, Delivered as Promised, Porn Star)
13% - Appearance
12% - Services Offered
6% - Cost of Service
20% - Reviews

Total Votes: 2298

Are you a statistics guy?

For the record, I consider ratings important and don't want to see them go, but I also think the reviews are more important.

However, I do check the ratings first just because they are right there and it is quick and easy to do so.

If I am looking at a profile, there is already some reason I am doing so, and I will go on to the reviews as long as the rating show the person to be somewhat viable.  Even if they don't, I'll probably read the reviews just to see what the issues are for my own edification.

Is all of the BS and puffing that goes on. They can erroneously raise expectations and lead to disappointment. It took awhile, but I finally learned to ignore the writer's ego and focus on details and descriptions of the provider that were consistently expressed in multiple reviews. I don't put much stock in numerical ratings as they are far too subjective.

The appearance response ranked essentially equal with services offered in a dead heat for third place.   The Rating response (first place) includes both appearance and performance.  Further, I am not certain whether the appearance rating refers to the numerical rating or the appearance section in the provider information.  

If the purpose of the poll was to figure out whether the rating system is useful or could be improved - I would argue that the construction of the poll question was flawed.  It is interesting that the content that has to be clicked through to be read - ranked second.  Especially since the rating is on that same line....  In other words - 20% of respondents claim to have NOT checked the ratings BEFORE they checked the review - even though it's on the same line and sticks out like a sore thumb.  That's astounding - it is as if you asked people what the first thing they noticed on the dashboard of their car was and 20% said the oil pressure rather than the speedometer.

However, if the purpose of the poll was to determine how well the web page design works with respect to the designers goals - then I think it works quite well.  Whether the designers goals are useful to the user (me) is a completely different issue.  My take away from this poll is that the review grid (which includes the ratings) should be at the top of the web page - not that the rating system is meaningful to the typical user.

I think the appearance rating is absurd and should be dropped now that nearly every reviewed provider has a ton of pictures on the Internet.  I think that the performance rating needs to be modified to be more of an overall session experience rating - which would include appearance and presentation as an aesthetic component of the session experience.  Does this mean I think the rating system is useless - Not at all - but I think it is much less useful than it could be and it could be dramatically improved

and that is eliminating the obviously unattractive women with blurred pics. I only use the numbers to "exclude" and never as a reason "to" book.

IMO just because a lady has all 9's and 10's for appearance does NOT mean that I am going to find her even remotely attractive, much less DDG. OTOH I don't think I have ever found that a women with most of her scores in the 7 range to be what I consider hot.

So IMO high scores mean she "might" be hot, mediocre scores mean she is almost certainly NOT a hottie. So I guess I have to agree that the scores are not completely useless, just almost so. lol

Please note, I am only talking about appearance scores, performance scores are a different matter IMO.

Personally I chalk this up to the fact that most reviewers are either spineless and don't want to hurt the lady's feelings, or simply have no taste in women and give any woman who will get naked for him high scores whether she deserves them or not.

"This doesn't typically seem to go the opposite way though (and this is where subjectivity cums into play): just cuz a girl has average 9 or 10 and has more than 20+ reviews, doesn't mean she's really DDG to YOU."

Yep. I booked with a provider who's a 10/10, and is in the top 50 on TER's Top 100 National list. She was nice looking, and I can see where guys would find her DDG, but I didn't.  

Appearance is the very first criteria for me. If that's not there, I just don't see the point. I might as well just pay $200 for a B&G.

As flawed as they are, the ratings are of some value.  You just have to know how to use them and account for their flaws.  That's been discussed to death here so I won't elaborate

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excluding, since I have also never found a girl with most of her scores in lower range being very hot.  

Closer to 9+, there seems to be a lot of subjectivity but from 0 to 6 or so I'm pretty sure it's all averaged out to be a reliable indicator for me that I wouldn't find the girl too hot.  

I found that it's a pretty reliable indicator,  when I first see the photos somewhere and if I find her very hot,  her TER scores are definitely up there closer to 9 or 10.  A 7 or 8 rating when the girl looks 9-10 and tells me she's not as hot as her photos in person,  and likely photoshop job.  

So,  by no means it's useless,  cuz it is a tool we can use as confirmation or exclusion,  when we know what to look f

excluding, since I have also never found a girl with most of her scores in lower range being very hot.  

Closer to 9+, there seems to be a lot of subjectivity but from 0 to 6 or so I'm pretty sure it's all averaged out to be a reliable indicator for me that I wouldn't find the girl too hot.  

I found that it's a pretty reliable indicator,  when I first see the photos somewhere and if I find her very hot,  her TER scores are definitely up there closer to 9 or 10.  A 7 or 8 rating when the girl looks 9-10 and tells me she's not as hot as her photos in person,  and likely photoshop job.  

So,  by no means it's useless,  cuz it is a tool we can use as confirmation or exclusion,  when we know what to look f

It feel it isn't "far too subjective" but only within a range.  And outside of the range,  there's a reasonably reliable range of objectivity where we can indeed draw helpful information that helps us weed out or confirm.  For example, when was the last time you have seen a girl with over 30 reviews that have most of her scores in 5,6, or 7 being absolutely drop dead gorgeous in person?  

Within 8,9,10 there's definitely subjectivity...  especially around 9 to 10.  But the ones I've seen have accurate photos where the ratings confirmed their good looks.  

so ratings are not useless.  not perfect, but not useless either.

but I do use them as an exclusion.

Truth be told, I just don't have any faith in the taste of most TER reviewers. Unfortunately not only have I seen some rather ordinary women getting 9's and 10's, but I have seen many downright homely women that I wouldn't fuck on a bet getting these lofty scores.

IMO it's not the system that broken, you can use any system you like but that is not going to cure nearsightedness or a lack of standards on the part of the reviewer.

I will agree that if the pics are hot, the profile says the pics are accurate, and her scores are high, that does give me a bit of confidence in who I am going to be seeing, so I guess we are not in total disagreement about using the scores as a confirmation, but only if she doesn't blur her face.

I don't look at anyone with an overall rating under 8.5, so ratings are useful in making an initial determination.

OVER-analyzing every godforesaken statistic and detail on here. There are TOO many flaws in this system to do such a thing. How about this, why don't you find someone you're attracted to, do a 'lil' research, contact her and if you like what you hear, ya book her and have a great time. See, easy as pie. What IS the damn problem?
You guys can be so ridiculously complicated in what is supposed to be a 'simple' world here. Just keep it simple gentlemen. Please? I thank you LOL.  

-- Modified on 5/9/2014 10:59:15 AM

I already voted 20 sonething times in this poll. I voted over 300 times in the BBFS poll.

take the same poll again and again and again?  Most people don't take the same poll 300 times like you do.  

There's also a few steps you'd need to take in order to vote that much like logging back in and/ or changing IP.  You really think majority would bother going through those hoops just to skew the polls?  

Besides, that's where confidence interval comes in,  it's taken into account some margin of error. keep the poll going longer and you get closer to the truth.  

Also,  common sense says bbfs polls would be very different in nature to straight up "What's the first thing you look at"  poll

I do not use the TER rating system as anything other than yet another data point in my research.  From what I can tell on this board - no one else does either.

So - Why do we over analyze it?  

When a poster starts throwing around numbers - my not-so-inner nerd just has to take a look at it - especially when it has to do with a rating system that seems to drive some of your fellow providers BSC.  It's like throwing chum in the waters to guys like me who deal with numbers for a living

I admit on the BBFS one, I did that on purpose just to see if I could skew the results. I did.

How is that over analyzing?

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so out of reach for some. There simply isn't a scientific formula for attraction or chemistry.

How unscientific of us, lol.

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