Now that there are a lot of new users on MDL many of us noticed that the quality of reviews also dropped. Many new users write on-going reviews after seeing 1 or 2 episodes (sometimes we see reviews being written even before drama starts airing), when there is no reason to use review option to share their initial thoughts. It would be more appropriate to use:

  • Episode review, if someone wants to share their views on first episode. 
  • Comment section: if they want to share their excitement for the show that just started. 
  • Note option if they just want to keep track of their thoughts and ideas as they watch, before writing the final review.

A number of on going reviews never gets updated nor switched to completed, even after said user finishes watching a drama. Sometimes the score on the review does not match their final score either. 

There is no practical reason to keep "on going" review. I'm aware of the fact removing "on going" as an option would probably mean changing the status of currently on doing reviews to "dropped", and it could create some confusion among the users (writing an update article explaining the change would make the issue a bit smaller tho), long term I believe it would help improving the quality of reviews on the website, for example, it would be easier for the users to report reviews that were written to just increase the ratings. 

Maybe if in the future a role of "review moderator" or something similar was introduced, it would also make their job easier too (also, it's a role I believe is greatly needed  on mdl). 

So that's that. I know this would be hard to implement, but I also believe it's worth it. I think that if the issues with reviews won't be fixed now or in a near future, it would be even harder to tackle later. 

218votes

This idea popped into my head, so I'm just gonna write it down. If it's a bad idea or it doesn't make sense, then it is what it is...

tl;dr: a "draft" version of a review for ongoing drama's or drama's the user has not yet finished or dropped.

What if, when a user is still watching a series (aired or still airing), they can write reviews but it stays as a draft? That way their initial thoughts aren't lost, and they have to come back to their review to post it.

Now I'm thinking they can review an episode, but then again, people watch a few episodes to then write a review, meaning it's not about a particular episode, but about the series up until then. This means a draft would be handy dandy.

But you are 100% right with your stance on this subject. It's way too easy to just rate a drama you haven't even watched low and then never think about it again.

 Maeionic:
"draft" version of a review

Sounds good. An option to write a review and only publish it after you either complete it, or maybe drop at some point. It would still allow people to "collect" their thoughts and ideas as they watch a drama, with keeping the public section of the reviews more in order and "clean". 

I myself just simply use google doc for drafts, but having that option on mdl would be nice too :)

If they ever consider to update Reviews Section, the review rating system should be updated too. I never got why rewatch value’s vote sum up to the final rating, production would be a more useful criteria. 

For the on going reviews I have doubt it can be solved, there is already the useful/not voting system that allow you to filter for the most useful review. They already hide the reviews section while the drama is on air to limit the problem. If they remove the flag “on going” people will protest on why they can’t write review early on when people who drop can. 

I think the best solution is the old report + implementing moderators. The draft is also a good idea but only if they remove the on going, or will be just a new feature but not a solution for the problem. 

 Poia:
They already hide the reviews section while the drama is on air

people still go and check the reviews from review section, even if it does not show on the front page of a drama. And then there are cases of ongoing reviews few episodes in rated 10/10 being on top after the drama finishes airing, simply coz of fans upvoting any positive review. 

There is a difference between ongoing and dropped, and it can be explained so people can't argue about it much. If you drop a show, you can write in a review WHY you dropped it, you sum up your FINISHED experience. But ongoing suggests someone plans to finish a show, so it makes no sense to write a full on review based on PARTIAL experience that WILL change as they watch more episodes (whenever they will have more positive or negative thoughts about it). 

Adding moderators while keeping ongoing would not change anything, since ongoing gives people a right to write reviews based on even one episode, and even if realistically speaking it's not valuable for others, moderators could not do anything about it. The option exists so people have the right to use it. 

 Poia:
If they ever consider to update Reviews Section, the review rating system should be updated too. I never got why rewatch value’s vote sum up to the final rating, production would be a more useful criteria. 

I agree. Rewatch is way low on my criteria for how good a drama is, or whether I will watch it in general. I don't very often rewatch a series no matter how good it is. I would rather have production value, like you noted. 

I think there are even other things that would be good to include in ratings even if they are a very low percent of the total score, or just there for reference.  I would like to see other criteria like translation availability, translation quality, sound quality (different than music), and picture quality.  

I have watched quite a few Filipino series the last couple years, and on a few the sound quality was so poor, it was hard to watch even with a terrific story or otherwise good production. Air conditioners blowing in the background, microphone problems, etc.  Same could be said for editing, there have been a couple Thai series the past couple years where editing was just awful, and it completely wrecked a terrifically good story. 

 Kate:
It would be more appropriate to use:

Episode review, if someone wants to share their views on first episode.
Comment section: if they want to share their excitement for the show that just started.
Note option if they just want to keep track of their thoughts and ideas as they watch, before writing the final review.

Even if this was added to the "instructions" (Step 1: Guidelines) at the top of the page where the review is done, it may help to direct people to the proper place.  

 Kate:
Sometimes the score on the review does not match their final score either. 

I am a bit guilty of this, but for good reason. It is because the categories provided don't always capture everything (good or bad) about a series.  I have run into all these below issues at one time or another.

  • For example, you could have a perfect story, acting, music, and rewatch, but the series is so full of advertisements and product placement it ruins things.  
  • Things like hearing clothing rustling on microphones or the air conditioner buzzing through the whole series can (and have) wrecked a series for me, and there isn't anything in those 4 limited categories to reflect that or other production issues. 
  • Or a series where all these categories would be 10/10 except whoever did the translations skipped some of the series (or just the last episode!) or the translations are so awful you would be better off without them at all.
  • Similarly, the series never got finished, what is available is good, but incomplete for some reason or another. Maybe they never made the last episode, or it just isn't available online. 
  • There have been a few series with absolutely breathtaking scenery and cinematography. Things like that can lift an otherwise OK series higher than the arithmetic of the rating system shows.
 j729:
It is because the categories provided don't always capture everything

I'm talking about the overall score someone gave in the review (for example 10) and the score they gave on their mdl list (for example lower one, like 8). Since they wrote the review before the show ended, like after seeing and liking first 3 or 4 episodes, they might have seen some issues and things they did not like later and after they finish the drama they give it a rating on their list that is lower than the one they indicated on their ongoing review. 

So that's a different situation that the overall rating not matching the sub-ratings in the review :)

 Kate:

Sounds good. An option to write a review and only publish it after you either complete it, or maybe drop at some point. It would still allow people to "collect" their thoughts and ideas as they watch a drama, with keeping the public section of the reviews more in order and "clean". 

I myself just simply use google doc for drafts, but having that option on mdl would be nice too :)

LONG RAMBLING INCOMING, EXHAUSTED MUSCLES ACROSS MY BODY BUT MY BRAIN FULLY AWAKE. I WARNED YOU. Gonna break the subjects by lines (editing it a bit for orderliness here). 

OBVIOUS, BUT VOTED, 3+. No matter how many times you nicely tell people their episode review would really be useful in episode reviews, they are like hell no, FIRST, B!tchzzz, more likes sooner is my end game… in energy and “this is where I Want it because more will see it.” in reply… so I  stopped bothering, as they neither know nor want to know or know but want their ego boost anyway. Downvoting them is not often worth my time, but I still do it sometimes since it is NOT helpful. 


DRAFTS: I honestly would probably actually write more reviews, coherent helpful ones specifically, if there was a draft option here. Drafts elsewhere get forgotten about and left in the overpopulated abyss of unfinished tasks. I don’t actually do much reviewing or episode reviewing (which feels way more menacing somehow, just me there in a desert most of the time or surrounded by people especially passionate about their fave’s project here, scæwy)  even though I half beg people to write their review there instead when they do these first impression reviews… which annoy the bejeezus out of me... But I would love to have it save like a private article draft, only existing for that person until changed to public at the end of a show if & only if they remember to go back and ideally turn it into something useful (and if they only wanted to squeal out that squeeeee he looks so hannnndsommmmme omg it is already perfeccct I am so excited for the rest… sometimes written before it airs, a trailer and teaser review lol… welp, then it just won’t show, huzzah!) 


Mobs of 10* bc oppa: People post reviews before a show is over largely, from those I see all over, to get voted up and be one of those top couple of reviews on a page or at least not at the bottom. I sometimes downvote early reviewers out of annoyance because they aren’t helpful when they are not about a full product. It is like those glowing influencer reviews of something they JUST UNBOXED and, say, slathered all over their faces or turned on and said ooh so shiny and wow so fast with no apps on it yet, wow, or to rave about how they ALREADY FEEL AMAZING AND LOOK BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE, EVEN BETTER THAN THEIR SKIN WAS BEFORE PUBERTY! Better than my collagen plumpness at age 5! That is how it feels. Precisely that. (I don’t despise unboxing first look videos that don’t remark on anything beyond initial impressions despite knowing most reviews of the sort now are commission earning and skewed too favorably too often as such, but unboxing *reviews* of something you don’t even know will overheat and kill the motherboard and device or will cause you to break out all over in 2 days, etc… are nothing but NOISE. Ya don’t have to tell me oppa be hot. I am not blind. If I was blind, I would not give two $#!tz if oppa be hot, only if his voice be sexy or convincing for the role since it is an audiobook for me and I might want to burn you for reminding me of the gap that voice has to fill in my oppa gazeless life-like my blind next door neighbor who just doesn’t get to hear me talk about hot sexy oppa cause I am not mean. I instead let her hear sexy voiced oppa and she can do what she will with his voice quivering all over her in 6.1 surround sound cause Han Seok Kyu and Joo Jin Mo (oppa not grumpy cat ahjussi JJM) can fill many gazeless gaps.


Where to stick it to maybe make enough calmer: I would be content if they just don’t show reviews in the review section if they were made before it finishes airing. Like, sure, let it show in their personal/friend feeds on their profile and their review tab, but don’t clutter reviews with those random early upvoted 10s down the line (or the opposite at times) from incomplete viewings which is just one more way of trolling, ultimately. It is already awful enough that people will rate dramas or films high or low solely because of who is in it before they watch it-if they hate someone, even their minor roles and bit parts tainted the work of everyone else. If oppa is in it, who cares that the writing is actually repulsive? Who wants a script? Just want oppa abs and I am giving a 10. (That said, Ji Sung, please show them more often in future works, k, thanks, mah Oppa cause you’re hot of over 20 years!)


I would like to see other criteria like translation availability, translation quality, sound quality (different than music), and picture quality.”

The only thing about translation availability and quality is those do change over time, so a good thing to note for this would be where ya watched because subs are wildly different across different sites-it would honestly be great if that was something we COULD note in reviews with a “where seen” detail to fill in since that way the places people were giving high ratings to translations would be the places new viewers would go. Case in point from earlier this year: Kdrama Agency started with horrible mostly AI generated subs or maybe they were translations from Indonesian to English, not much better if any auto translation was there, and they were a nightmare, even technically okay translations sucking pretty bad when someone was quoting something famous (it felt like when a drama is constantly referencing a popular kdrama that a person hasn’t seen and the humor is totally lost on them-I felt like the translator had never read any western classics, even translated into their language, and as a result just threw me generic wording void of the tone and artistic merit of the original and even the Korean way of saying it. I had, where I watched (had no streaming for a long time, not while airing at least), a running episode commentary translating things grossly mistranslated and the abundance of cultural references and classical works/quotes that were originally in English or another western language and translated to Korean from what seemed to generally be English regardless of original language… the lost words, quotes, and complete tone deafness were catastrophic. All the episode titles (which I added here at the time) were a hot mess in subs but really clever overall.

ANYWAY, I never fault a show/lower its rating based on translation because I have seen too many kdramas with lousy generic “same phrase for 30 different expressions“ kinds of translations that are utterly boring from the translation but actually enticing from the native dialogue-the vast amount of them from the 90s-2005 or so made me need to learn if I was going to watch as more than a short work break with Korean immigrants helping me know what was up, why they all laughed etc! When two ppl don’t talk at all alike but the subtitles make them seem like they are identical in speech pattern, oof, it sours the experience even when subs are just there as backup for kid lingo and legal jargon sorts of stuff I don’t even intend to learn if I am honest. I just assume that when people fluent or anywhere close in other languages is talking about the dialogue lovingly, the translation for me isn’t a great one compared to the source material (I’ve only seen a few that I could give close to perfect marks to in the “no translation is perfect but this hits the same heartstrings and neurons the same way, is still relevant to the thing on screen, and respects the original while making it understandable in another language,” honestly, largely because the subbers rarely know western literary references or jokes or kid humor or what have you well enough to catch the ref if there isn’t a famous author name under it and someone just throws it out there or it is just flashed on the screen in Hangul…

I admit, though, I might just bump a 9 to a 10 if the subber took wordplay, unique cultural rhymes, puns, etc and found equivalent nursery rhymes and puns, wordplay in English that mean the same thing and are related ie food puns and general dad jokes that translating directly sounds like a different language that just has similar sounding words  but that they go hunt down a similar dad joke with the same kind of reactions across different people who love em, roll eyes at em, hate em, or all of those which is totally possible, ask my dad. ? One drama was already making me the happiest kdrama watcher imaginable, but I got DOUBLE the jokes, eeeee! It made it a spinal tap 11 experience. Agency was frustrating because I hate pausing to read (slow at reading and figuring out which word has one vs two of a character ending/starting since honestly the context is the thing that makes dialogue easy to follow-if I had a spelling test in Hangul or even romanization, I would fail. I would botch half my syllables and completely, bc people slur things together, misspell even common words way too much. I barely feel confident in my colors and foods, the ones I know that I for sure know.) 


Score criteria: rewatch and production aspects: I would honestly rather just have rewatch value be a simple high medium or low like how we mark rewatch priorities in our individual rating box and not effect rating at all cause if someone wants a one time epic experience or they want something they can come back to on bad days, people really shouldn’t ding points because a tragedy that was intensely meaningful to view was also hellishly painful and repeating it would be a bit of self-assault on one’s psyche!

I don’t get why when we marked what we liked when rating it, we have 5 pretty reasonable categories but then production (which could, for reviews, include Visual fx when they are prominent since plenty of shows have minimal effects but it doesn’t detract if that isn’t something needed to tell that story) is ignored. Production also, to me, includes the annoying noises they don’t control for/minimize through equipment and editing. It also includes, when present, dubbing since the actors are not who sync up the final sound to the mouth movement, editors are. Dubbing is both sound and visual FX. 


Exception time!! The only thing I can honestly say is fine for ONGOING reviews=TV Shows. Not like the impression I have of, say, Running Man or Master of the House is going to drastically veer off the path if I only watch 100 episodes vs 252 or 500. For the long running shows, these multi-year ones that we so far don’t split the title by season/year when reviewing… those should be okay. If it is 12 or 20 total eps, it is usually still fine if someone skips one or two eps. If someone loves Because I Want to Talk but has no interest in the politician on there, it shouldn’t really lessen their score or relevance (I still watched the ones I was totally unaware of, but it is kind of like that actors guild program-while I don’t watch it much, I acknowledge its cultural worth and the quality of its interviews-master strokes in interviewing of someone were wanting to see how to interview properly lol…at least what I have seen. It doesn’t lower its worth that I don’t watch episodes with actors I have not seen, well, act. That kinda defeats the purpose for me in most cases since talking about acting with someone who I have never seen act is like philosophizing with a stranger about a subject neither of us is past elementary school knowledge in. My intro to an actor shouldn’t be an interview reviewing/reminiscing on their acting but their acting itself. Likewise, I can not and likely will never be able to say I have seen all of Hui Yeol’s sketchbook, but every single ep I saw had me so so happy even as I watched total strangers, and no one had even bothered reviewing it even prematurely/incompletely (not only did I learn of it very late as a non-TV show goer but plenty of eps just aren’t anywhere to view with subs and I am not gonna try to keep up with song lyrics lol). I would never do it with dramas, but interviews, game shows that aren’t survival sorts/competitions with final winners from many to ever dwindling numbers and general variety shows where you watch here or there when in the mood or when guests you know&like are on there seem okay to review after you’ve watched 30, 50, or even 100 hours lol. Even 10 hours is usually enough to know whether the format is one you like and will return to. They don’t require in-order watching (wishing I could mark which eps I saw is another issue, but for now my notes are all I have since ep reviews don’t show what eps I tapped a score on without me going into that ep).


Okay, done. Figured alllll my feedback could go into this one place and I will never have to think about it again until we have a party for when it is implemented!!

Thanks for bringing attention back to it!

Voted!

At least limit people to publish a review until a drama airs. Comments section should be used until that time. Often people write review, give a 10 and gets as many upvotes during this period even when the reviews doesn't provide much.

And they don't even care to update the review once it finishes airing and the review remains featured and gives an incorrect overall impression of the drama


 

Someone just wrote a long-ass review for A Journey to Love and gave it a 5 after only watching one and a half episodes. It's not a review that should be taken seriously, obviously, but those kinds of reviews should instead be actively discouraged.  

I gave this suggestion three votes earlier, but coming back to this discussion to make a plea for this change again.

Update: I also just saw a user who gave multiple dramas (like 20 or so) one star after watching one episode, or even none.