[mydriasis]

Reading the article, I'm recalling the "Social Credit" episode of Black Mirror. My my, it seems to be coming true --

> Five stars is good. Everything else is bad. For riders, a couple bad ratings don’t mean that much, but for drivers they could be the difference between maintaining access to the app and being deactivated—gig-speak for being suspended or fired.

I'm only being a _little_ dramatic. I swear.

[JustBreath]

The parallels are eerie.

> Sometimes, she gets worried about picking up passengers rated less than 4.8. Like a 4.79 is really low. I wonder, ‘Do I have to fear for my life with this person?’

[Finnucane]

I used to buy vintage cameras on ebay (not so much lately--no more room) and one of the things you quickly realize is that a 'seller rating' of less than say 95% means 'avoid'. The way the ratings are calculated mean that if they're getting enough dings to bring the score down even a few points, they're doing something wrong.

[plorkyeran]

I remember in the early days of ebay before they had the official rating system it became accepted that you had to leave a review containing A+++++++++++ if the shipper did an acceptable job because a grade of merely A+ meant that you got the thing you bought but something wasn't great about the experience and anything worse than that meant the seller was a scammer.

[JustBreath]

I used to really enjoy writing and reading those ridiculous reviews.

"Shipping came so fast I had to duck!!!"

"If I were locked in prison this seller could be my bunk mate!"

[Finnucane]

Yeah, just saying the item was what it was supposed to be and the price was fair was not enough.

[RobotToaster]

I find it depends, a small seller can end up with a low percentage because one unreasonable buyer leaves them a bad feedback, but for large sellers anything less than 98% or so is a big red flag.

[JustBreath]

Usually the thing they are doing "wrong" is not focusing on volume to overcome the occasional bad rating.