[stewbrew]

So you are forcing people who are neither in favour nor against something to produce false pro/contra votes. There are some cases where this strategy makes sense like questions about controverse topics. Other than that it produces noise. In my experience, the debate 4 vs 5 options often has more to do with the authors' personality and training than anything else. Surprisingly little is based on solid, non-ambiguous evidence.

[bad_user]

It's not forcing -- most rating systems don't force you to rate -- rating is for when wanting to express your opinion.

And I can see a difference between someone that hasn't voted, and someone that voted a 3-stars in a 5-stars system.