Are the ratings on MDL useful to you?

I'm new to MDL, and started streaming dramas only 1+ year . So i have not watched many dramas, and currently still going down the MDL top 10 dramas. Currently, i have completed 4 and dropped 2.  Watching My Mister now.

 Baklajan:

kdramas are always higher rated than other dramas.
shows that are on Netflix get higher ratings than those that aren’t
new shows get higher ratings than older shows

Noticed the same patterns as well. I reckon the reason being accessibility i.e. most people have Netflix that carries mostly kdramas from Asian countries, and Netflix started only in the late 2010s.

I enjoyed the 4 dramas that i have completed and noted that those are all heartwrenching dramas that touch hearts - Move to Heaven (MTH), Flower of Evil (FOE), Nirvana in Fire (NIF) and The Untamed (TU). All these dramas also carry powerful messages to stay true to one's pure heart, and have either intriguing plots (FOE, NIF, TU) or have very compact compelling episodes (MTH).

So i can understand the ratings for those 4 dramas, except for HosPlay 1 and 2, which i have dropped and can only attribute the ratings to those patterns that Baklajan noted, and possibly also a massive fandom with 5 Main Leads, vs typical 2 Main Leads in other dramas.

 burhaa aadmi:

I gnore the ratings, but do read reviews, especially the lower scoring ones. That's why I'd love it if reviews could be sorted by score.

So now, i tend to refer to MDL ratings together with the reviews, especially those lower scoring ones, and also the newer reviews. i reckon the newer reviews are more objective, as reviews tend to be overrated by fans during the hype period. I'd thus love it if reviews could be sorted by score, or by "Most Recent" instead of by "Most Helpful".

I rather read comments. Rating is important to me if I want to choose some new genre. E.g. I wanted to watch my first Xianxia, so I looked at those rated 8+ , but then it depends on comments (I require happy ending) and also the cast is important for me +if there is some actor/actress I like or wanted to watch. What I chose was Eternal Love of Dream with Dilraba (my first drama with her, but I wanted to watch her for some time) and it was wonderful. 

When I choose dramas/movies with my favourite actors/actresses, I don't care about ratings,e.g: japanese movie Shisha no Gakuensai (rating 6.9) and it was amazing for me (9.5), If I would care about rating, I would never watch it.

No, seen many of the high rated drams of Korean, and so many of them are overrated and not that great, the rating score on this site sucks, The dramas that have a score 8.3 or below I end up loving more than those 8.7+ rated dramas 

Before joining MDL, I was searching for articles on top kdramas to watch and I believe that did help me choose some excellent shows.

On MDL, I like to read both positive and negative reviews. Sometimes negative reviews are more helpful in deciding if I need to skip a show or if I should have lower expectations. When I write a review, I try to explain what I liked and didn't like to help others understand and decide better. But overall I don't trust ratings as much as the plot summary, genre, trailer and maybe if it's a trending show.

I'm mainly speaking of kdramas here. I haven't watched that many cdrama, dramas, thai, etc to have an opinion on the ratings. 

Not always

Saw high rated that i didn't enjoyed, saw low rated which i did.

Here  for example the movies are the  rated low some and I really liked.

Depends now. 

No, the ratings are chronically inflated, especially for Korean shows and Thai BL.
The first partially due to fans of the idols/actors giving blank 10 ratings just because of said idol/actor, they care very little if the show is actually good as long as certain people are in it.

Negative reviews are the only thing I take into consideration, mainly for popular shows, seeing what people who go against the majority have to say often helps to get a much more realistic impression of it than just going by ratings and hype.

Generally, if I see rabid fans in the comments, I know the show isn’t worth my time.
The fandoms on MAL are by far the best indicator for how good something really is, nothing that’s objectively good attracts mad fans that are ganging up on critics and insult others.
A comment section says more than ratings.