Make impossible to rate uncompleted dramas

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This suggestion is the more extreme version of this suggestion.

Personally, I find it very misleading when people rate dramas that they haven't finished yet and obviously can't judge in whole. If you drop a drama, and rate it down for that reason, you don't actually know if you're really going to dislike the rest. In the same way, if you're giving a high rating for an airing drama, you don't know yet if the rating is justified (the ending might still be bad). In the latter case, viewers might still adjust their rating later, but it's still misleading. 

For example: I was checking the ratings for Missing 9. 894 users rated that drama. When you check the completion rate, you see that only 34 people actually completed the drama. Only 4% of the people who have given the drama a rating have actually completed it. Those numbers are really far apart, and I think the ratings would be more representative if only those who have seen everything could rate them.

Meanwhile for airing dramas, you could rely on episode ratings or some different system to help you choose whether you want to start a drama or not.

160votes
I guess rating dropped dramas for the reason you're stating makes sense. (I don't rate any drama I have dropped but that's a personal choice I guess.) But rating highly unfinished dramas still makes no sense to me.
To use your pie analogy: you might know with the first bites that you like this cake and you're telling your friends "oh this is tasty, try some too!" but it's only when you get to the final spoonfuls that you realize the bottom of the cake is really soggy and doesn't taste good at all. So even if your first bites were 10/10, your overall rating is definitely not going to be a 10. 

I'd argue that episode ratings is what you should use until you've finished the drama. 

I'm all for this suggestion.

I think it's way more misleading to rate a drama high while it's still airing than dropping a drama and then rate it low, because personally when I drop a drama, I obviously didn't enjoy it, and I wouldn't waste my time to completely watch it just to make sure that I really do dislike it, doesn't make sense to me.

I disagree with this because I find every user input an important part of a drama's overall evaluation. However, I recommend a mathematical formula can be used to allocate a greater weightage to users who have watched more episodes to improve precision and accuracy of the scores. 

 bannie:
However, I recommend a mathematical formula can be used to allocate a greater weightage to users who have watched more episodes to improve precision and accuracy of the scores.

This would be great, though I have no idea if/and how it can be achieved.

I have the same idea.  The rating is the first thing I check, and is frustrating cause most of the time the rating does not reflect the truth.

No rating before the drama start airing, no rating while the drama is on air, you can vote only if the drama end airing and you have complete at least 50 % of it. 

I know you don't want to penalize on going drama, but the episode guide is there for a reason.  they can rate single episodes.  But that section is too hidden. 

You should put the episode guide as a drop-down menu under the details page, before the comments, so that anyone can select, rate and comment on the single episode.

Obviously it's just an idea, I can only imagine how difficult it is to develop a site.

 bannie:

I disagree with this because I find every user input an important part of a drama's overall evaluation. However, I recommend a mathematical formula can be used to allocate a greater weightage to users who have watched more episodes to improve precision and accuracy of the scores. 

I'm absolutely against this suggestion. And I'll explain why, as I already did in another similar suggestion thread.

Most people who completed a drama completed because they liked it and could bear to watch it to the end.
On the other side, most people who dropped a drama, dropped it because they didn't like it and choose to not waste their time over something they didn't like.
So, why would you favor one side over the other? If you do that, that's just like imposing your own view to other people. Basically, dictatorship. I don't mean to be mean by saying this. Again, I'll explain myself.

We're all drama fans here. Most of us don't just use our drama list. We also read the comments, the reviews and consult the ratings to decide if it's worth giving a second chance or not. If people who loved one drama had more weight than those who didn't, how exactly do you expect those ratings to have any meaning? But by no means are the ratings of those who dropped it meaningless nor less important than those who completed it. It just means the drama wasn't good enough soon enough to catch their attention.
Moreover, most ratings are already quite high. Korean drama average should be around 8,5 on MDL (other countries are a little behind but the problem is the same). If it was any higher, it would get difficult to see a real difference of appreciation between dramas. Personnally, I don't even take into consideration the ratings on Viki for this very reason: they're too high to guess their real worth.

no because what if someone drops while it is still airing. 

I also disagree with the suggestion : a drama dropped midway is already a kind of rating in itself. There's a reason that might be important to the viewer to drop the drama altogether, and it's a sufficient argument to allow him to express his sentiment here. Same for the 'currently airing' drama rating : there might be enough qualities (in the eyes of the viewer) to be able to rate the drama midway. And actually, I would dare to say the whole rating system come with its flaws : every minute, every scene, of every episode, could have a rating. I pay some attention to the rating, but I'm usually more confident after reading MDL fans good/bad reviews of the drama I'm interested in.

As I said, this just means the drama didn't captivate this someone. Weither he/she watch it while it's airing or not doesn't change anything. The rating will change later anyway, from the ratings of people who completed it and people who dropped it as well.
Just so you know, I do that often for a very simple reason. Weither I watch it airing or not doesn't change anything. Actually, I have even less chance dropping it while it's airing because this means I'm not binge-watching it. If I drop a drama, it's usually because I don't like it. If I don't like it, I give it a bad rating. What's wrong with that? Why would I have to bother complete it, airing or not? Other people should know and be warned that some people didn't like it as well. Even while it's airing.
Likewise, if I don't have access to the opinion of EVERYONE and EQUALLY, then I'll find MDL useless. I might as well just use my Excel sheet and any other website with a drama database. When a drama is airing, I consult the current ratings to know if I'll watch it with everyone or not. I like the community here, but the mood won't be the same with something like that.

EDIT : +1 for mediaklan's comment

When I first started using MDL I went through adding everything I've watched to adding everything I've dropped and the majority I've rated but for some reason now I don't rate dropped dramas but I really don't know why I stopped. I think more attention needs to be put towards people rating BEFORE it's even started or reviewing while it's STILL airing. It's definitely not very helpful especially to those who are genuinely looking. For example, one could down rate a drama JUST because of something as trivial as actor's age gap or because they don't like the person playing a lead. To me these are trivial because an actor's age doesn't have anything to do with the drama unless of course it's inappropriate like a child (anyone under the age of 16) having relations with an adult (example 35). I' Not sure if my comment even makes any sense but that' just my take on this topic. 

I was dreading reading the recent replies to this subject because I thought it was really going to be a bunch of people in favor of forcing this suggestion again Luckily, it's not the case. I agree with Nastou19 and mediaklan. It is up to people jow they choose to rate and when and it should stay that way. In the case of rating before something airs, that is a separate issue. However, since 

it seems to be such an ongoing problem, why not make a special rating system for dramas and movies not yet airing? A 'hype' rating, if you will, for lack of a better term. It would satisfy those who are determined to rate before the drama airs because of their bias, but it wouldn't count towards the overall rating at all. I guess it would take work to implement, but I am getting so tired of seeing it, too and also tired of people complaining about it so was trying to think of a solution. :p

As I already said, the problem is who vote before the start just because they have the hype for their favorite Actor. I'm not against about drop and vote, but we should consider that some user vote 10 or 1 just to get back to each other.  So the rating system need to be improved considering this facts. 

open the rating only when the drama star airing will be the first step of a long way. 

The ability to rate a drama you dropped gives me mixed feelings. On one hand, if I didn't complete the drama I will never know how the story progressed, I will never know if it got better or not, so I'm giving a rating for the whole thing just based on the 10% that I watched. On the other hand, the fact that I dropped it could also mean that this was really bad, and there is no way the drama would improve no matter how many more episodes I watched and in the end it would mean an even worse rating on my part, because I forced myself to watch something I really disliked. 

I'm honestly divided on this subject. I agree that you should not be able to rate a drama that is still ongoing (like, you should not able to mark a drama as completed while it's still airing), but for example, a like and dislike button( or a recommend, or not recommend button), would be interesting for when the drama is airing.  

Maybe, instead of removing the ability to rate a drama you have not completed, you could add more information in the statistics. At this moment we can see the overall percentages of people watching the drama and the scores they gave. It could be interesting to see the average rating of people who dropped it and people who completed a certain drama. Or if they dropped it, how many episodes they watched and what scores they gave?

There is also the episode guide, something that I feel people do not use. I personally don't use it, but I still feel it's a great tool and should be more visible.  Another idea would be to make rating a drama a bit more difficult?? Perhaps, to rate a drama you would either have to rate every episode, or write a review at the end. I'm not sure how people would welcome this idea. You could have 2 options. To rate, you either need to write a review or rate all the episodes in the episode guide. For those who do not want to do that, then have a recommend/do not recommend button. 

Of course these are just ideas. I feel that ratings make everyone a bit frustrated. Personally I will watch whatever I want to watch despite of ratings because I want to decide for myself, but not everyone is like that. I guess a lot of people look at an 8 rating and assume it's going to be great. Ratings are subjective. Given the option, I would trust way more a well written episode guide or review instead of a single number.

Personally, I both disagree and agree with the notion.

Should people be allowed to rate dramas they have dropped? Yes. I don't rate dramas I dropped after one or two episodes but if I watched 7 or 8 and I still didn't like it, I'll drop it and rate it low.

Honestly, ratings are so subjective that they are hardly trustworthy anyway. It could be that a high rated drama is not your cuppa tea and similarly a lesser rated could be something you love. So if you really want to decide whether to give a drama a shot or not, it's best to read the reviews and see what you're getting into it.

What I do not agree with are reviews for airing dramas. Recently, I saw a review rated 9.5 for the drama MISTY, that has only aired about 6 episodes. Even if you loved the start, passing judgement so quick is not very helpful for other viewers. A review is a critical appraisal of something as a whole and these reviews (usually with lack of proper wording and a billion of exclamation marks) go against the very meaning of the word.

Previously, the mods would comment under these reviews and tell them to delete it and wait till the drama is finished but there are so many of them and there's only so much we can ask our mods to do.

If these airing drama reviews can be eradicated that would be great but if not, we can't help but take it with a grain of salt and mae use of our "not helpful" buttons. ^^