Media Thread Grading Scale

So for the last few years I've had Media Threads, I've used a basic 10-point scale. Scores go from 1 being the worst to 10 being the best, with a rare 0 for things that I just abhorred. This worked before because I rarely consumed media and mostly just watched good things. This will change in 2026 because I plan on intentionally watching a lot more bad movies. The problem with this is that some bad movies can instill more joy than good movies. If I watched a good movie that felt like a 7/10, and a bad movie that felt like a 9/10, do I rate the bad movie with a higher score? I felt this recently where I watched the 2025 War of the Worlds movie. That movie was absolute ass, but because I watched it with a bunch of friends it was a fun experience to shit on it the whole time. So while the movie itself was a 3/10, it was a more memorable experience than another movie I watched that year Repo: the Genetic Opera. I gave Repo a 5/10 because it was a better "Movie" than War of the Worlds, but I had less fun watching it because I was alone in my room. Not only that, but both of them felt more like I was enjoying the films cynically or ironically. So for 2026, I've elected to steal someone else's grading scale. For 2026, I'll be using JelloApocalypse's 21-point "Negative Ten to Positive Ten" Scale.

The purpose of this grading scale is to facilitate "Ironic Enjoyment" or "So Bad it's Good" media. If there is sincere enjoyment of a thing, it earns a positive score (Like The Nightmare Before Christmas being a 10/10); while if there is ironic enjoyment of a thing it gets a negative score (Like Rankin-Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer being a -8/10). The positive and negative symbol is just a mark of sincerity or ironicism, with no bearing on quality. Alternatively, the raw score is what dictates sheer joy and possibly quality. So a 9/10 movie would be a fantastic movie, while a 0/10 would be a miserable experience. This means that bad movies will likely rank in the low positives, and the more I can laugh at them the more they will rank in the low-to-mid negatives.

I feel like I should also make note of what I feel like each number represents on the 0-10 scale, but that would make a long article even longer and even I'm not sure what each number means to me. All I can say is that I view 10/10 movies and games as "Life-Changing". The experience either affected the way I look at the world, or (more commonly) is just infinitely replayable. Most Holiday movies are 10/10 on the sole grounds that I can play them every year, and the only 10/10 games I've played are Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon ORAS, and Terraria. Alternatively, I hand 10/10s to Manga a lot more freely for some reason. Last year I handed out six 10/10s: KPop Demon Hunters (which might be a 9/10), and five different Manga. I should figure out why I think this way, but until then I'll start giving more manga 9/10. Even if it's peak, I need to understand WHY it's a 10/10 before calling it that.

But yeah, TL;DR: 10/10 means peak, -10/10 means fun garbage, and 0/10 means I feel pain.