Jan Templiner replies to Richard Pennycuick's comment:

>>I have a strong dislike of magazines which use star systems to rate
>>performance and recording.  I wonder how others feel.
>
>I prefer little hearts over stars, too.  And seriously, I find the star
>rating (or distributing points as www.classicstoday.com does) quite
>useful.  It gives a short, easy to understand summary of the review if
>you just want to sample they opinion on a given recording.  For this it
>is much more effective, I feel, than a verbal summary, which oftens ends
>up with something like "A curious release" which doesn't tell anything
>at all about the quality of the disc.

I can empathise with both viewpoints.  Like Richard, I occasionally find
the 'star' rating system (so overdone with hotels, restaurants, tourist
attractions and travel attributes as to be practically useless) somewhat
irritating and presumptious -- after all, how do I compare 'star' ratings
from different publications, or even from different reviewers in the
same publication?

On the other hand, it is a quick guide to more detailed exploration when
flicking through the pages of a magazine.  If I don't have time to read
the whole mag when it first arrives, I pick out the star rated reviews
to see what other people think of the recent releases.  That doesn't
mean I will necessaarily agree with them -- but it helps me 'triage' the
plethora of reviews.

Tim Mahon
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