How Ratings Work
Every score on Nibeat comes from thumbs up and thumbs down votes cast by people who've had a bite. Nibeat doesn't rate anything itself: product descriptions describe, and votes judge.
One Vote, Two Choices
A vote is a thumbs up or a thumbs down, answering one question: worth a bite, or skip it? There's no star scale to average out. A written review and photos are optional, and voting doesn't need an account.
How the Score Is Calculated
A product's score is the share of its votes that are thumbs up. Nine thumbs up out of twelve votes is 75%. Every vote counts the same.
The score is always shown next to the number of votes behind it, because 100% from one vote and 100% from a thousand aren't the same claim. Each score also carries a label:
- Overwhelmingly Positive
- 95% or more
- Very Positive
- 85 to 94%
- Positive
- 70 to 84%
- Mixed
- 50 to 69%
- Negative
- 30 to 49%
- Very Negative
- Below 30%
When a Product Gets Ranked
Each category has community rankings, by category and by type of product. A product joins a ranking once it has at least 3 votes. Until then it's listed as a contender, with no position.
Ranked products are ordered by score. Where two scores match, the one with more votes goes first. Nothing else moves a product up or down.
Keeping Votes Honest
- One vote per person per product. Changing a vote replaces it rather than adding another.
- Repeat votes on the same product from the same connection count once.
- A review removed by moderation stops counting toward the score.
- Written reviews are checked for spam and abuse, and photos that don't show food are removed.
The full review guidelines are in the Terms of Service.
What Brands Can't Do
No brand can buy a rating, a ranking position or the removal of a review. Nibeat doesn't sell placement, doesn't run sponsored rankings and doesn't publish prices.
Product descriptions are written from published sources such as brand websites and menus. They say what's in a product and where it comes from, never whether it's any good.
Opinion Lives on the Blog
Blog posts can argue a position, and a post that does is labelled as opinion. A post never sets a score. When a post discusses a ranking, the ranking itself comes from the votes.
What a Rating Isn't
A rating reflects the people who voted. It isn't lab testing, nutritional advice or a professional review, and it changes as more votes arrive.