Not all ratings are equal. Raters who've demonstrated consistent, high-quality judgement carry more influence — and that's by design.
Four Levels
Weight by merit
Every rating you submit is combined with others for the same spot into a single score. That combined score is a weighted average — and your tier determines how much weight you carry.
Member
×1.0
Rating Weight
Member
The starting point for every new account. Your ratings count fully — you're just beginning to build a track record.
Pro
×1.5
Rating Weight
Pro
Raters who've submitted a solid volume of consistent, well-detailed ratings. Elevated manually by admins.
Expert
×2.0
Rating Weight
Expert
A proven track record of discerning, reliable first-hand reviews across multiple categories and countries.
Founder
×3.0
Rating Weight
Founder
Permanently held by Ben & Del — the founders of SpotRate. The highest possible weight, immovable by design.
🔒
Tiers are permanent where it matters. Founder tier belongs only to Ben and Del, forever. All other tiers are manually assigned by admins and can move in either direction if rating quality changes.
The Principle
Earned, not purchased
Tiers are not a subscription. There is no payment, no badge unlock, no premium tier you can buy. SpotRate has no ads and no financial relationship with the venues we review — and the same goes for raters.
A higher tier reflects one thing only: a demonstrated history of genuine, first-hand, quality contributions. Right now, tier elevation is awarded manually by admins. We plan to publish clear merit criteria — things like rating volume, detail level, consistency, and category breadth — so that the path is fully transparent.
The Maths
How the combined score works
When a spot has been rated by more than one person, we don't just average the scores. We use a weighted average driven by three factors: the rater's tier multiplier, their trust score (a measure of rating consistency, default 5.0), and a gentle recency factor that slightly down-weights older visits. The combined weight for each rating is the product of all three.
The simple average of those three scores would be 8.3. The weighted score is 8.1 — pulled slightly by the Founder's lower rating carrying more than 4× the weight of the Member's rating, and by the recency of those ratings.
Questions
F A Q
Right now, tier elevation is manual — admins review contributions periodically and upgrade raters who show consistent quality. We're working on publishing explicit criteria, which will likely include: a meaningful number of submitted ratings, detailed notes and dishes documented, breadth across categories or countries, and consistency in scoring approach. There's no application process — just rate honestly and thoroughly, and we'll notice.
No. Full stop. SpotRate runs no ads and has no financial relationship with any venue, brand, or rater. There is no way to buy a higher tier, boost a spot's score, or pay for any kind of advantage. The entire point of the tier system is to make the ratings more trustworthy — and that only works if tier assignment is completely decoupled from money.
When a spot has multiple ratings, we compute a weighted average. Each rater's score is multiplied by their tier weight (Member ×1.0, Pro ×1.5, Expert ×2.0, Founder ×3.0), those products are summed, then divided by the total weight. See the worked example in the section above. Individual ratings are always visible on the spot's detail page — the combined score is a summary, not a replacement.
Yes — completely. A Member rating at ×1.0 is still a real, full data point in the algorithm. It's not discounted; it's just that Expert and Founder raters carry proportionally more influence when scores differ. If everyone rates a spot similarly, the weight barely changes the result. Weight matters most when raters genuinely disagree — and in those cases, you probably want the more experienced voice to pull harder.
SpotRate started as Ben and Del's personal food journal — every rating in the early database is theirs. Founder tier reflects that authorship and long-term curatorial responsibility, not just rating quality. It's a fixed structural decision, not a reward that others can earn or that can be taken away. All other tiers, including Expert, are earned and adjustable over time.
The Core Philosophy
No ads. No incentives. No fluff.
Every rating on SpotRate is genuine, real-world, first-hand experience. The tier system exists to make the signal stronger — not to gatekeep who gets to contribute.