Slow day in the markets and my clients are sitting still, so I was bored....

Ever look at how many pages of reviews are still showing in the system?
well over 1100 pages going back ~25 years.  I was bored today and flipped through a few pages.  A lot of gals have come and gone obviously!  

I noticed that reviewers gave much tougher scores.....  a lot of "6" scores.......
I doubt that much has changed in looks/performance today vs 25 years ago.  

Just different standards, I guess?  

I've only been hobbying since ~2008-2009.

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Honestly not sure if you're saying the reviews now or then are tougher. It's an interesting question as to are looks the same or is performance the same then as now. I would actually think that changing moral norms today would allow improvements in looks, and perhaps even in service/performance. But that is very speculative. I don't know if looking at the porn (or what you could find in the usenet news groups for pron) from 2000 compared to now would be a good proxy. Maybe though. I do know I am not impressed with old porn -- but then modern porn isn't all that attractive to me either so...

The "performance" rating is based on the acts done rather than the quality. For example, in order to write a review with a score higher than 7, it has to include french kissing, BBBJ, a duo, or anal. A terrible system... it's not rating the actual performance because of this.

Pretty much everyone has complaints about the grading system but claiming that requiring some acts for a certain level of performance rating invalidates the whole thing is not correct. A bit like saying it's unfair and not actually rating the restaurant because the critic is required to comment about decor, service staff and the food and not just the food (or just the decor or just the service).

 
The requirement is just an imperfect attempt to get close to the impossible where the scores are something like comparing apples to apples and not apples to dishwashers or legumes.

A reviewer can list all of those things and still not have a great experience and rate a 7 or below. The experience definitely does matter.

That's why the details of the review matter.  

 
More than once I've been limited by TER rules on scoring but I'll say something like "if I could I'd give her a 12/12" in the text if the review.

I had to delete and restart my account in 2015, but I posted my first review in the early 2000's.  I do think there's been some score inflation over the years. Maybe it's inevitable?  I saw in the news the same is happening at colleges and universities. I don't remember details but it's something like Harvard gives out 60% A's now?  

Given that, I kind of like the TER scoring rules - the rules might actually be helping keep score inflation under control by setting some non-negotiable standards.  

But maybe some folks misinterpret the grading rules? In other words if the provider does BBBJ, some reviewers might think they have to give an 8?  

I was writing a review yesterday and felt like I had to mention/remind readers that 7/7 means "attractive" and "hot time". It's a good grade!    

TER is still the best resource out there IMHO.