Should You Rate Every Lens You Read?
The question about Squidoo Star Ratings comes up every so often and I thought now would be as good a time as any to address it here at the Showcase blog.
Squidoo star ratings are in place to help the cream rise to the top at Squidoo.com. When you rate a Squidoo lens, you are telling the entire community that this lens is worth your while. It contains good information that is presented well. It helps that lens get seen and it tells the lensmaster that they are doing a good job and getting noticed for it.
And yes, even the dreaded one star rating will help to increase a lens’ rank.
But who rates all of these lenses? If you check the stats on Giant Squid lensmaster’s bio pages, you’ll learn that the Giant Squid lensmasters are responsible for the greatest percentage of star ratings across the community.
Should You Rate Every Lens You Read?
My honest answer? No, you shouldn’t rate every single lens you read and here’s the reasons why. The lens might be brand new and still be in need of some tweaking or the lensmaster might still be learning how to use the Squidoo system and will fix the lens as their knowledge of lens creation and how to use the modules grows.
Another good reason NOT to rate a lens is if the lens is spammy or is in conflict with Squidoo’s Terms of Service. In such a case, it is best to use the “report abuse” button instead.
But when you find lenses that are outstanding, or good for the Squidoo community, or are full of great information, by all means rate that lens. And if you find a lens that has fantastic photos, wonderful on-topic links, or terrific youtube.com videos take a moment and give a star rating. Lenses that are creative and helpful and beautifully crafted are all also worthy of a sprinkling of stars.
Use those stars to say, “Great job!” and “Thank you for providing good information!” and “I enjoyed my stay.”or “I want the entire world to see this!”
Victoria_Neely’s lens Squidoo Star Ratings is a fun read about the subject.
So what do you think? Agree or disagree? And if you could, how many stars is this post worth? 
October 5, 2009 - 3:43 pm
to be honest, if it’s a good lens i give it 5 – and i’m pretty lenient here. everyone needs some encouragement! if it’s really bad (which i don’t often see) or plain old spammy, i skip rating. i may contact the lensmaster privately with a helpful tip to improve, however.
October 5, 2009 - 4:20 pm
I usually rate lenses, and I almost always give 5 stars. If I think a lens is not good I just move on without leaving any stars. Every lensmaster is different, and sees things differently. If it looks like the person has put in hard effort to create a nice lens I leave them stars.
And besides that I like to live by the rule of, “If you can’t say something nice, you just shouldn’t say anything at all.”
October 5, 2009 - 10:11 pm
I most of the time rate lenses. But if the lens needs work I will not rate it. The reason is that I don’t believe in giving low ratings. If it isn’t 5 star quality I will instead send a private message to the lensmaster on how to improve his or her lens. With giving praise on the good aspects of the lens.
I have mixed feelings with the rating system as well. There are people out there that may have a personal vendetta and dish out a one star. I know this all too well.
I think Squidoo should have something in place to throw out one low rating on every lens. This would eliminate an unwarranted low rating.
October 6, 2009 - 4:31 pm
I usually give a five star rating, the only times I’ve gone lower are when the lens was just horrible, hateful, me centered, or purely self-promotional with no outside value whatsoever and I’ve only done that a handful of times.
Many times I have seen a lens with potential and instead of rating I just send a private note asking if they would like some help fixing it up.
We all had to start somewhere…
October 6, 2009 - 6:26 pm
I have been known to give four stars some. I do not like to give lower than that. In fact, I think that 4 stars is pretty darn good.
Like some of you, I will not give a rating if a lens is not up to par with the best ones out there.
It had never occurred to me that even giving one star would help a spammy lens in the ratings. I am glad to know that.
October 8, 2009 - 11:42 am
I have often wondered about this too! I have given 4 stars a couple of times but usually I give 5 star ratings. If the lens isn’t up to par or is obvious that it needs more work or more content then I just skip rating it! Good to hear what some others are saying on this subject!
October 9, 2009 - 1:28 pm
I agree. These are good points, but then why have a 5 star rating if noone is going to get a 1.