History Main / BrokeTheRatingscale

* The fact-checking website Politifact.org rates statements (from politicians, media commentators, Facebook posts, and such) on a scale of truthfulness: True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, and False. Then there's [[ThatLiarLies Pants On Fire]], for a statement that is [[BlatantLies obviously false, laughably stupid and/or has already been disproven multiple times]]. Each rating on the scale is depicted with a galvanometer-type gauge, and for Pants On Fire, [[ExplosiveInstrumentation the gauge itself in on fire]].

* LetsPlay/{{Skawo}}: When rating green stars, and all of battle belts green stars where in very similar uninspired places, the first two got a 0 stars/[[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey Odyssey]] [[TakeThat Moon]] rating, the third star gets a rating of negative 5 stars/Indescribable

* When it comes to ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'s'' {{metagame}}, Pokémon are ranked on Website/{{Smogon}} by [[CharacterTiers tier]] from [[GameBreaker Uber]] to Never Used. However, [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Mega Rayquaza]] turned out to be '''so broken''' (in fact, the most broken Pokémon in the history of the franchise) that it actually got ''banned from Ubers'' and a new "tier" called Anything Goes had to be created just to house it! In short, Mega Rayquaza has in fact ''broke the metagame''! The only other things to be banned to Anything Goes since then are [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Arceus in the Gen 4 metagame]] (albeit retroactively), [[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield Crowned Sword Zacian]], and the Dynamax mechanic in general.

* LetsPlay/{{Skawo}}: When rating green stars, and all of battle belts green stars where in very similar uninspired places, the first two got a 0 stars/[[Videogame/SuperMarioOdyssey Odyssey]] [[TakeThat Moon]] rating, the third star gets a rating of negative 5 stars/Indescribable

* Throughout LetsPlay/RoahmMythril’s ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}}'' Perfect Run videos, he strictly adheres to a scale of 1–10 for difficulty rankings, though there are some Robot Masters that test the limits. For example, he says that giving [[VideoGame/MegaMan3 Top Man]] a score of 1 is being generous, because he wants to be fair by not going any lower. Conversely, [[VideoGame/MegaMan2 Quick Man]] gets a 10, after which Roahm jokes “Can I give you more?” and temporarily fills the rest of the screen with rating icons and the text [[MemeticMutation “OVER 9000!!”]]

* Lou Lumenick, the movie critic for the ''New York Post'', gave the sketch comedy film ''Film/{{Movie 43}}'' [[http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/movie_is_aggressively_unfunny_GrC6L1aNDk6tj55TmFN1wO negative four stars]], calling it “the worst movie I’ve ever seen”.

* ''Musings of an X-Phile'' is a retro review page devoted to analysing ''Series/TheXFiles''. Salome’s aim is to analyse all the episodes and both the movies. The episodes get grades like at school, and only the very best episodes have merited A-plus. ''Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture'' review has two parts: one based on the storytelling and the plot, while the other is based on Mulder and Scully’s relationship. The latter got A-plus-plus-plus.

* The [[http://www.reptonresourcepage.co.uk/ Repton Resource Page]] rates the difficulty of individual ''VideoGame/{{Repton}} 3'' levels on a 0–10 scale. Levels in the {{Expansion Pack}}s exceeded a ‘10’ rating so often that the scale was changed to "more skulls = harder" without any specific maximum. So far, the highest rating given is 16.

* [[http://www.countryuniverse.net/2009/07/10/toby-keith-american-ride/ This]] review of Music/TobyKeith's "American Ride", in which he is so baffled by the song (he can't seem to pinpoint whether it's an IndecisiveParody, SoBadItsGood, or a MindScrew), ending his review in "I'm afraid the 'Ride' has just left me stranded too deeply in WTF-limbo to render a verdict." He eschews the site's A-to-F rating scale to give the song a rating of "AMERICA!… I mean, N/A."

* The writer of the tier system for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons 3.5e'' refused to give the truenamer class a rating—due to poorly-written formulas, after the first few levels it can’t use its powers at all without extremely heavy MinMaxing, and even then it’s a SquishyWizard with worse spells than some MagicKnight classes. He would later note that an optimized truenamer is in Tier 4 (about as good as a warlock or rogue), while an unoptimized one is Tier 6 (the same as {{Joke Character}}s like the commoner and infamous trainwrecks like the samurai and divine mind).

* [=ARamone=], who reviews on ''The Arched Doorway''[[note]] www.archeddoorway.com[[/note]], once refused to rate a book she hadn't finished; the closest she got was saying she wouldn't recommend it.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM1Ay9vsbXI A review of Brazilian movie]] ''Motorrad'' had the critics refusing to give it a grade, because while they didn't like it, [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible they couldn't make]] [[MindScrew any sense out of the movie]] - it still later made their list of the worst movies of the year.

* On the positive end, Meltzer first broke the rating scale for a June 3rd 1994 match at Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling, which had been shooting 5 out regularly during the decade, between Wrestling/MitsuharuMisawa and Toshiaki Kawada, which got 6 stars to symbolize he thought it might have been the greatest pro wrestling match of all time. Another match wouldn't get such a rating from Meltzer until the ''Wrestle Kingdom 11'' main event between Wrestling/KennyOmega and then-reigning [[Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling IWGP]] Heavyweight champion Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada on January 4th 2017. Meltzer then later stated that the second match between Omega and Okada a few months later at ''Dominion 6.11'' was better than the first, giving it 6.25 stars. A year later, at ''Dominion 6.9'', the Omega/Okada 2 out of 3 falls title match scored ''seven'' stars.

* A new matchmaking app named ''Fanfic/SoulmateSurvey'' takes the world of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' by storm. Unlike many other dating apps, this one has phenomenal, long-lasting success for pairing up couples. Of course, it’s supposed to be impossible for two people to match each other at higher than 85%. But when Marinette and Adrien sign up, they are matched with one another... at 100%.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' was given 11/10 by the Italian Official Nintendo Magazine. As the magazine had always been known for being far too generous regarding scores to Nintendo games, some readers were outraged.

* Thrash metal band Music/FlotsamAndJetsam’s debut album ''Doomsday for the Deceiver'' [[http://www.allmetallica.com/info/interviews/kerrang86.php got 6 Ks out of a possible 5]] from Kerrang! magazine. Kind of a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for a relatively obscure band[[note]]They're better known for being the band Music/JasonNewsted left to join Music/{{Metallica}} than for their music, quite frankly[[/note]], considering no other album in the magazine’s history has ever received the honour.

* ''Webcomic/SexyLosers'' is the highest scoring entry on the List Of Potentially Offensive Webcomics, having been awarded six "toilets" out of a possible five.

* Creator/JamesRolfe attracted some minor backlash from fans of ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'' when he, an avid and vocal fan of the Ghostbusters franchise, issued his "no review" and simply refused to watch or support it, and by extension and in the interest of fareness, refused to give it a rating. His "review" of it instead consists of him matter-of-factly explaining how people should "rate" it by voting with their wallets, admitting he's too biased and attached to the original films to give it a fair rating as he felt it would taint his memories of the original films, and simply criticising the trailers for their jokes and special effects and the title itself for simply using the name of the original film instead of having a subtitle as if it's trying to replace the original.

* ''WebVideo/TheCompletionist'': After coming to love ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' and becoming personal friends with its developers Creator/YachtClubGames, Jirard declines to give official ratings for its spinoffs like ''Pocket Dungeon'' and ''Dig''; as he feels that he is just too biased in their favor for his ranking to be valid.

* Pascal Wyse's [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/oct/01/popandrock.shopping1 review]] of Creator/WilliamShatner's 2004 spoken-word album ''Has Been'' in ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Guardian]]'', in which he eschewed the paper's normal 1- to 5-star scale, instead calling it "[[JustForPun beyond the star system]]".

* During his usual ''WebVideo/MothersBasement'' "Hottest Trash" reviews, Geoff normally rates the series he selects for the videos a rating from 1 to 5 based on how trashy (read: not "bad") he thinks they will be. When it came time to rate the anime of ''Manga/TheLuciferAndBiscuitHammer'', he refused to assign it a score, instead giving it "the bullet" because he loves all of Creator/SatoshiMizukami's works and was so appalled by the low quality of ''Biscuit Hammer[='=]s'' animated adaptation that it didn't qualify as trash.

* Creator/JamesRolfe attracted some minor backlash from fans of ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'' when he, an avid and vocal fan of the Ghostbusters franchise, issued his "no review" and simply refused to watch or support it, and by extension and in the interest of fairity, refused to give it a rating. His "review" of it instead consists of him matter-of-factly explaining how people should "rate" it by voting with their wallets, admitting he's too biased and attached to the original films to give it a fair rating as he felt it would taint his memories of the original films, and simply criticising the trailers for their jokes and special effects and the title itself for simply using the name of the original film instead of having a subtitle as if it's trying to replace the original.

-> I mean, I don't have the justify this, do I? Good.

* As mentioned above in Out of Bounds, ''Fasion Photo Ruview'' is a web series in which ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' alumni Raja and Raven give their opinions on various fashion outfits, usually looks from ''Drag Race'' but also sometimes actual runways or drag queen's social media posts. The only time they have outright refused to rate a look was Joy Villa's "[[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump Make America Great Again]]" dress from the 2017 Grammys, deciding that even giving it hate with a rating would only give the look more publicity and infamy that she was looking for by wearing it. It did cause Raja to retroactively give a Toot (a good rating) to a look she had previously Booted, deciding "anything is better than this dress"

* [[http://www.jewornotjew.com Jew or Not Jew]] rates how Jewish people are on a scale of 0–15 based on heritage, appearance/behavior, and how proud they would be to have them as Jews. UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, naturally, got a –1 on the last one, with a total score of 0 (weighed down by a 1 in appearance). Queen Elizabeth II got a total score of 4.5 (a distant ancestor was Jewish).

* ''"Heh heh heh....... He Is the Weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings." I Was Dismissed From My Job, but Somehow I Became the Master of a Hero and a Priestess'' has oneof these that could probably also count as "out of bounds" depending on how you see it. The magic orbs meant to measure potential glow and return a phrase. A properly prophesized Hero returns the phrase "Just what the hell are you?" which is considered the top of the scale. Level 1 ex-member of the Four Heavenly Kings Caspodia gets "Damn. Just damn." which is a result that has ''never happened before''.

* ''"Heh heh heh....... He Is the Weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings." I Was Dismissed From My Job, but Somehow I Became the Master of a Hero and a Priestess'' has a truly nonsensical example. The magic orbs meant to measure potential glow and return a phrase. A properly prophesized Hero returns the phrase "Just what the hell are you?" which is considered the top of the scale. Level 1 ex-member of the Four Heavenly Kings Caspodia gets "Damn. Just damn." which is a result that has ''never happened before''.

* ''"Heh heh heh....... He Is the Weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings." I Was Dismissed From My Job, but Somehow I Became the Master of a Hero and a Priestess'' has a truly nonsensical example of the "out of bounds" version. The magic orbs meant to measure potential glow and return a phrase. A properly prophesized Hero returns the phrase "Just what the hell are you?" which is considered the top of the scale. Level 1 ex-member of the Four Heavenly Kings Caspodia gets "Damn. Just damn." which is a result that has ''never happened before''.

* ''WebOriginal/DoubleToasted's'' rating system mostly corresponds to a four-star scale: "Full Price", "Matinee", "Rental" and "Some Ol' Bullshit". They break the scale on both ends: On the "Better than good" scale, there's "BetterThanSex". On the opposite end, there's "Fuck You" -- reserved for the worst of the worst or a movie that pushed one of the hosts' {{Berserk Button}}s.

** Also, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' on the Italian Official Nintendo Magazine. As the magazine had always been known for being far too generous regarding scores to Nintendo games, readers’ backlash raged.

* In the [[https://youtu.be/yVTXhfBcx4I?t=2640 2020 Quarter Three FIMI video]], WebVideo/CrashThompson reacted to Will Wood's ''The Normal Album'' with a bewildered look, a tilted head, and a very confused "Huh?" And "Huh?/5" was the rating it got.

* ''Series/XPlay'' required any game they reviewed to receive a rating of 1 to 5 stars. Any other rating was not allowed, so games that the hosts felt didn’t deserve even 1 star were never given a review.
** The hosts refused to rate ''VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing'' because giving it 1 star ''[[EpicFail would imply that it was actually a game]]''. Other games featured in the ‘games you should never buy’ segment, such as ''Barbie Horse Adventure'' or ''Flags'' (a ‘flag waving in the wind’ simulator), also were not rated.
** ''X-Play'' gave ''VideoGame/PokemonChannel'' a 1 out of 5, but they later said it should’ve been left unscored since it too wasn’t technically a game.

** Played straight in Sterling’s review of ''VideoGame/VelvetAssassin'', where the game is so horrible they couldn’t finish it and gave it an ‘N/A’ score.
** Was also played straight in Sterling’s review of ''VideoGame/KnightsContract'', where they stated that while they couldn’t give it a score because they did not finish it, they assured readers that “it would not get a ten out of ten”.
* Although ''Website/TheVideoGameCritic'' typically grades on a standard A to F scale, he will occasionally give a game an ‘NA’ (ostensibly for ‘Not Applicable’.) This is typically for one of three reasons: Either the game is simply an enhanced remake of another one, an unfinished prototype, or it’s meant for preschoolers and thus it would be slightly unfair for him to give it a grade.
* When Magazine/{{NGamer}} reviewed the infamous witch-touching game ''Doki Doki Majo Shinpan!'', the rating for each category simply said “'''[[{{Squick}} NO]]'''”. It was even awarded the “VideoGame/Superman64 [[MedalOfDishonor Award For Worst Game (of 2007)]]”. In a similar vein, they gave a game based around hunting wild animals a ''':(''' score, saying that 'We haven't felt this depressed in a long time'.

** ''VideoGame/WarioWare: DIY'' got 100%, as the game itself is one ''of making games''. The thinking was that [=NGamer=] made all the games, and [=NGamer=] is infallible. Therefore, [=NGamer=]’s games must be perfect.

* When TOM from Creator/{{Toonami}} reviewed ''Dropship: United Peace Force'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 the game received a “?” rating. Tom had no idea how to rate the game since he could never get past the sixth level. This was accompanied by repeated footage of TOM losing on that level. (And per the guy in charge of Toonami, [[https://twitter.com/Clarknova1/status/208662351057141760 to this day, they still haven't beaten it.]])

* ''WebVideo/ThePopArena'' grades every ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book , "[an inanimate object] out of 10."[[note]]However, the OldShame ''Go Eat Worms!'' "fixed" the scale; Greg hated it so much, he graded it, "0/10. This would later happen with ''How I Learned to Fly'' where he gives it an actual score, because the book wasn't a traditonal entry, so it doesn't need the usual scoring system. [[/note]]