How to read a score

A Meal Score that tells places apart

Some people rate generously; others rarely give a high score. A star average carries that difference straight through. BapsangLog first calibrates each person's ruler, then computes the place's score.

If everything is high, you can't choose

When scores bunch up at the top, the number alone can't tell you which place is better. BapsangLog evens out each person's standard before computing a place's score, and keeps scores across all places from bunching up at one end. That way a high score is something you can choose by.

Bands

• 1–39Lower tier
• 40–59Average
• 60–69Upper tier
• 70–79Real find
• 80–100Exceptional

Few ratings means the score may be less accurate

The fewer people who have rated, the more the score is pulled toward average. This keeps a handful of tastes from deciding a place's score outright. While that's true we note that, with only a few ratings, it may be less accurate.

We also read whether you rate high or low

We read a person's standard from all the scores they've left. An 80 from a generous rater and an 80 from a harsh one don't carry the same weight. What never changes is the number you entered — only its converted value, the one that feeds the place's score, moves. So all you have to do is keep rating by your own standard.

Applied on the spot, settled within minutes

When you leave a rating, that place's score changes right away. Then, within a few minutes of a rating being added or removed, we recompute every rater's standard and every place's score together and settle the rankings and the map on that result. If a recomputed result fails our checks we publish nothing new and carry on from the previous result.

What we don't publish

The formula and its settings are not published. Knowing the numbers would make it possible to build a score to fit them. What we do is written out in full on this page.

Who gave which place what score is shown only when that person chose to make it public — then their nickname and score appear on the place's page. There is no path from a place's page to anyone who did not.