Mining the wisdom out of crowds is not easy, it is however easy to find false wisdom and pretend that it is real wisdom.
At the most basic level of many failed attempts is the following problem.
Collapsing the positive and negative parts of any experience down into a single number between 1 and 5 is fucking retarded and impossible.
Displaying that number to others and then asking them to do the same is even more retarded and just creates a feedback loop.
This doesn't matter to the content aggregator, they win whatever content ends up on top as long as they are the one aggregatng it. But for the content creator this is a mess that only succeeds in devaluing all content.
Here is a link to a link to some research that shows a huge problem with everybodys mind. Any random statistics displayed next to content will drown out the content. This works, you have seen it work, you know that it works.
When I say everybody I include myself, it can of course be combated on a conscious level but only if you notice it happening. That's the problem, it is somewhat similar to some visual illusions, you will continue to see the false image no matter how sure you are that it is false. When you talk in terms of website users and include feedback loops, this sort of thing is highly effective, more effective than anything else anyway.
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/10/false_advertising_st.html
Remember if one is to understand the audience one must first understand this zen koan.
"Participants were given a choice between a short proofreading task that would award 60 points and a longer proofreading task that would award 100 points and were told that 60 points would entitle them to a serving of vanilla ice cream and 100 points would entitle them to an equally large serving of pistachio ice cream. Most participants opted for the longer task. But when asked later which flavor they would enjoy more, most favored the vanilla ice cream."
