Who still believes in Douban and other drama scoring sites

(putting this here so I don't need to repeat it every time somebody mentions douban or rating)

I used to believe in Douban, but after what happened to Fireworks of My Heart that definitely did not deserve such a low rating, I recalled past favorites of mine that also got lower ratings than they deserved, e.g. Princess Weiyoung, Princess Agents and The Sword and the Brocade.

Then I encountered some information that confirmed my reservations about drama scoring sites in China.

It seems Chinese actors do not only have to contend with rabid fans of other actors who defame them to raise their idols up , they also have to deal with blackmail from so-called YXH who get paid to hate a celeb or spread negativity about them, and water armies which are groups of users who are paid to post online comments with vested interest on Chinese language websites. (definition of water armies is from google)

Here is a post from a staff at HunanTV/MangoTV:
Some YXH, in order to receive marketing placements from the drama production/airing side, often engage in various forms of negative posts. They do this in exchange for marketing placements from airing platforms or marketing companies... If you don't pay those YXH, they'll criticize you. If you pay them, they will stop criticizing. But they will criticize again next time in exchange of more.

Reply from an influencer:
And you can't do one-for-one exchange. After posting something positive, they will immediately continue posting something negative. You can only provide a large sum at once, agreeing on how many non-negative posts to exchange. In this way, it could be the least cost to cover your promotional period so that they won't post anything that intentionally defames the works or artists again.

https://twitter.com/WangHediFolder/status/1725371468891173351/photo/1

Here's another article that mentions YXH and water armies in the context of Xin Ping’s attempt to curb questionable practices in the Chinese Entertainment industry:

https://www.vox.com/culture/23404571/china-vs-fandom-danmei-censorship-qinglang-social-media

So, does anybody still believe in drama scoring sites in China? Or anywhere else in the world? As long as there are antis who would give dramas lower-than-deserved scores and zealous fans who would give dramas of their favorite actors higher-than-deserved scores, no scoring site would be reliable. Thinking that these two factions balance each other out is naive, unrealistic and unscientific.

Onine drama scoring systems are relics of the past before yxh and water armies proliferated and twisted the consciousness of drama viewers.

Garbage in, garbage out...

this drama is so popular and get a lot of traffic. But they still try to bring it down.....they say this is the worst drama of the year and people should drop it .....And I said : Are you m*r*n we watch and enjoy till eps 30 and 6 more to go drop it?" now all eps release, they cannot change one fact whether Only for Love or Fireworks of My Heart the traffic is very good, and that mean money come in, and the drama is success so who care about douban rating? we watch entertainment not rating by some m*r*n / mafia

Their strategy : no CP, the actor / actress greasy or ugly, they promote the minor character (like MYC in Fireworks, and after Fireworks? his gone...nobody pay attention to him anymore) they try to find weaknesses and exploit it making it big news. The authority should create rule and punish this people, they are the rat that is rotten the entertainment

Is this about Only for Love? It seems that the drama is causing a certain commotion lol

 nathsketch:

Is this about Only for Love? It seems that the drama is causing a certain commotion lol

Yes. It has been targeted by yxh (internet users who are paid to defame celebrities) and water armies (internet users who usually propagate the negativity created by yxh).  Apparently, if drama studios don't give in to blackmail from yxh, this is what happens - the internet is flooded with negative comments about the dramas. Even just a few negative comments, no matter how false or minor they are, can undermine a drama that would cause a proliferation of negative comments by others who jump on the bandwagon.

因为袁隆平让这些自以为是的人吃的太饱了，这个站点貌似也有不少这样的人，不过我个人从来不看点评网站来决定观看哪部剧，所以这些评分对我的影响基本上无限接近于零。

 phoenixfrost:

Hi, Daydreamlist , I don't know how to read Chinese characters so I used Google translator. Here is the English translation:

"Because Yuan Longping let these self-righteous people eat too much, this site seems to have a lot of such people, but I personally never look at review sites to decide which drama to watch, so the impact of these ratings on me is basically infinitely close to zero."

If above translation is correct, then I agree with you. I, too, have stopped depending on Douban and other drama scoring sites to decide whether to watch a drama or not. What I do is watch a couple or so episodes. If I'm still undecided, I watch the last episode. If drama is still airing, thus has no last episode, I just keep watching until I decide to either drop it or watch til the end.

Yes, that's basically correct.

PS: 鞋子合不合脚，自己穿着才知道 。

Whether the shoe fits or not, only the wearer him(her)self knows.

In other word, Follow your heart.

Interesting article:

China’s battle with the ‘internet water army’

https://www.ft.com/content/b4f27934-944a-11e8-b67b-b8205561c3fe

ML and FML won award from IQIYI. So it obvious the internet troll failed, public love it (good traffic) and IQIYI award them (must be generating good money).  If you see almost all review online, its always taking bad about other (in Hong Kong they called it "Pak Bo" LOL) so i just enjoy the pic, never read any review

 Daydreamlist:

Yes, that's basically correct.

PS: 鞋子合不合脚，自己穿着才知道 。

Whether the shoe fits or not, only the wearer him(her)self knows.

In other word, Follow your heart.