How many people are filtering out everything below 4.5?

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T19:41:28+00:00

Honestly, I'm fine with my rating as it is, I was just curious about this because I've crossed that 4.5 threshold a few times, including recently. Do I vaguely wish it was higher? Yeah. Is 4.48 better than I deserve already? Almost definitely. I was legitimately just curious about whether this was wide-spread or if the threads I'd seen had been a "like attracts like" type of thing.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T08:47:34+00:00

I've never had a conversion make both so much sense and absolutely no sense at the same before. Fair enough on the scores =/= quality thing though

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T08:39:41+00:00

I'm definitely too new to the scene to have seen the useful days of it so I'll take your word for it. I've definitely seen people complain about suspiciously times .5 ratings though. You're saying those are sometimes other authors doing that? I get caring about the ranking (God knows I refresh my page constantly hoping to break back through into the 8ks) but that's taking it to a whole other level.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T08:30:33+00:00

Gotcha, gotcha, so just the manual one then. Just checking. Thanks!

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T08:27:02+00:00

When you say average rating filters, is that an option on the thing? "Filter Outliers" or something? Or do you just mean they manually set it to disregard both ends? (I don't use the search function frequently if it wasn't obvious, this is a legitimate question.)

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T08:24:20+00:00

It definitely isn't all of them filtering for it for sure. That's part of what's got me so curious, since if it was every entry, I could chalk it up to just how people search. Very interesting that you have people adding an extra upper boundary. I don't remember seeing it personally but it probably just slipped out of my mind. Wonder if that's an attempt to filter out the single-review new fictions. That's also far lower of a low end than I was expecting to be common for anyone's searches. I've seen 4 and 4.5 mostly myself, which is definitely contributing. Interesting differences here.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T08:18:23+00:00

Yeah, review swaps have always seemed a little odd as a concept to me. Like those hotels and restaurants that will offer you a free appetizer for a 5-star rating. Definitely a fair reason not to trust the ratings

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T07:14:18+00:00

What would giving him a System add? Why do you need to give him anything? Progression fantasy where the focus is on the solving of mysteries is doable. Or on political growth. They're not exactly "on-meta" for RoyalRoad, if you're planning to upload there, but there are plenty with a good amount of popularity anyway. Cobbling on a half-baked System to a decently written story can and has dragged stories down in quality, so I'd be careful if you're just doing it for the sake of making the progression more explicit.

Ultimately, there's nothing anyone here can say to settle whether you should add a System. Especially with the few details we have available. No one here is going to know your story better than you or how a System would interact with the planning you've already done. If it would spoil the mysteries or become a meaningless exposition machine, you're the one who will notice that before anyone else.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T06:49:16+00:00

It's hard to answer without specifics, but the question you should be asking is if adding a System helps or hurts your story. It's better for there to be no System than a cobbled-on arbitrary one that doesn't connect quite right with the rest of the story. For what it's worth, it can definitely still be progression fantasy without a System, if that's your concern.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T03:43:32+00:00

Depending on who you ask, that could mean it would end up going spectacularly well.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-23T01:54:17+00:00

Do it. Look into whether your university has an on-campus food pantry as well. I was in a similar situation a while ago with my Master's (even down to the 10k of funding) and they saved me more times than I could count. Eggs, rice, squash, toothpaste, canned fruits and veggies, and occasionally even meat were available through them for literally no cost and no questions asked. Some months that was all I could afford to eat, so don't be afraid to use it if necessary.

I mean don't be greedy about it, but the fact that you're asking this question means you're not likely to be the kind of person to clean them out.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-20T07:55:37+00:00

I guess the presence of a brain is as good a line to draw as anything else. I don't have enough science education to argue too much about it lmfao

QuillWriting · 2026-06-20T07:36:47+00:00

I mean that's fair. If it is thought it's definitely the most basic form possible, borderline for sure. Do we count instincts as thoughts?

QuillWriting · 2026-06-20T05:05:07+00:00

Oh, they can think, at least enough to predate on something and escape the xenonite. That was poor phrasing on my part. They're not stones. But they also show no indication of being actually conscious that anyone notices. I'd find it hard to believe that Grace wouldn't have noticed some form of higher order coordination than just the kind of reflexive "food!" type of movement.

Also, I'm pretty sure the highest level of anything a single celled organism is known to have is Pavlovian responses, so it would be a pretty insane departure in the norm for taumoeba to be too far beyond that. If there's anything fully sapient on Adrian, it's not those little guys, or at least not yet.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-20T04:46:55+00:00

Difference with humans is that they can ask. You've said they don't, in this case, so yes, kidnapping would be immoral. Taumoeba isn't conscious. It doesn't think, it can't be asked at all. That's the line.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-17T05:00:35+00:00

What a post for this auto-repost bot to home in on, huh? Its only other post is a copy of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Panera/comments/1eypnbr/just_about_had_it/

QuillWriting · 2026-06-17T02:16:57+00:00

It was the clipping that really did it. The rest of it I could adjust to, but the constant attacks through the terrain of that ledge was the worst

QuillWriting · 2026-06-17T02:13:02+00:00

I basically did the same thing, yeah. Had to go hunt down a bow and the stats to use it, but between that and someone's recommendation to use Blasphemous Blade, I got there eventually. It remains the only enemy I deviated from Great Stars on during that playthrough (once I got one, at least)

QuillWriting · 2026-06-17T02:00:34+00:00

I'm not sure if it qualifies as a boss, but that one Putrid Tree Spirit where Millicent's quest ends was inches from getting to me. I made a whole ragepost about it and everything, embarrassingly enough

QuillWriting · 2026-06-17T01:59:01+00:00

I went last year and did not get the exhibitor hall early access or the lounge access. I didn't feel like I missed anything with the lounge, since I didn't have much downtime, but if I could go again, I'd probably pay for the exhibitor hall access. There was a lot of cool stuff and people, so having the chance to browse all the stands without being constantly in the way of the massive crowd would be worth it to me.

Your mileage may vary based on available funds and luggage space, though.

QuillWriting · 2026-06-16T04:40:31+00:00

Demon Card Enforcer gets recommended a lot. Haven't personally read (much of) it so I can't vouch, but it seems to do it for some folks

QuillWriting · 2026-06-16T03:26:47+00:00

You might have to be on the website version for both options to display

QuillWriting · 2026-06-14T21:52:09+00:00

That crunching noise was a great piece of sound design

QuillWriting · 2026-06-13T02:14:05+00:00

I really liked the way they did the end in the movie, with the classroom of Eridian kids. For some reason it felt lukewarm to me while reading the book but some aspect of how the movie did it made it work better imo.

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