We’re in the process of re-evaluating our use of explicit ratings on The Conversations Network, so I just did an analysis of our rating activity. Interesting.

• Total ratings to date: 65, 881
• Mean per episode: 38.5
• Median: 17
• Most-rated episode: 1,041 ratings
• Episodes rated per day: 60
• Ratings made per day: 78
• Distribution
  • Episodes with only 1 rating: 70
  • Episodes with 2 ratings: 77
  • Episodes with 3 ratings: 95
  • Episodes with 4 ratings: 61
  • Episodes with 5 or more ratings: 1,410
  • 40 most-rated episodes: >200 ratings each

The numbers tell us that ratings aren’t terribly useful in the short term such as to understand the quality of episodes published within the past week, but they are quite valuable for the long term.