09 · Reader ratings

A rating is in stars and needs no account. The vote is written to the site's database, and the reader sees the average and the count immediately. The question under the stars is written by the instance — "Rate this frame" and "Did this entry make sense?" are two different questions and two different series.

A new entry has a problem that collecting votes cannot solve: for the first few days there are none at all, and an empty rating block looks worse than no block. So the author may give a provisional mark, plainly labelled as provisional, which gives way to readers the moment they vote.

This is a declaration, not a manipulation: the author says what they think of their own text and leaves it in plain sight. An entry to which they gave three stars themselves tells a reader something true about the series.