"Factor Grade Tweaking": How Do You Adjust ?

I used to try to rate the three factors but it made my head hurt. Now I just think about my overall impression of the club, and come up with a single number, and enter it for all three factors. I admit that is a copout but I feel that the numerical scores are subjective no matter how hard you try. It's not as though we were all given training, a criteria sheet, and renumeration <grin>

If I am reviewing a club new to me or one that I haven't reviewed for a long time, I try to be objective and do the long form. If I am just giving the monthly report on my favorite club, I just slap a 9 in there and then get more explicit in the text of the review.

Club Grade: Was it clean? Did my dealings with staff go okay? Any huge negatives or positives like parking or such.

Dancer Grade: How attractive were they? Agressiveness? Mileage?

Value Grade: It's a combination of Dancer Grade and price.

Typically I like to give an rate for each subgroup and then average them, I don't do it that scientifically, but that's my line of thought.

For me, the club grade is everything about the club that has nothing to do with the dancers, at least overtly. Stuff like is it clean, are prices high or low, is the staff friendly and capable of doing its job, and do they always have dancers dancing. A couple clubs I've visited don't get good club ratings because they feel the need to not have any dancers for about 10 minutes an hour. Some of that may be a byproduct of not having enough dancers for a night and I try to factor that in. Sometimes I give a club a good ranking simply for playing some tunes I like which aren't necessarily strip club tunes.

As for dancer rating, I don't always have a coherent philosophy on that. Sometimes, I give a high ranking to a club with girls with a lot of hotties. Sometimes, its all about the mileage. Sometimes, I give a high ranking because I found a girl I clicked with.

Value rating is simply whether the cost fit what I got.

Given the obvious differences in interpretations of those grades, I focus on the narrative. The numeric grades give a rough idea of the overall potential enjoyability of a visit, but don't provide enough info to understand the meaning behind the numbers. It is similar to movie reviews, with the star-rating/grade/thumb-orientation being meaningless without the text of the review.

I Personally love the rating factors.

Club: Staff attitude, Service level, Non-Intrusive behavior, No Money Scams, No Cut Songs, Drink Charges, Dancer Drink Charges, Bathroom attendant BS, comfort level, Privacy, Clean Air and Atmosphere Vibe of the club.

Dancer Value:(50%) Cumulative score of all dancers present by Look, and then by attitude experienced. (50%) The experience of Dances bought from particular girls. (Bitch factor can really take this score down low)

Over all Value: Did I have a good time? Were the prices fair and competitive for the entertainment provided? How does it compare to a similar club that I would rate of same value?

Yeah...I'm totally into the score and review.

I've never felt the need to spend any more time arriving at a rating than the split second it takes to pull down on the pop-up menu. I think it's fine for reviews to be a gut reaction and for the rating to be the least considered part. Tweaking? Dilemma? Uhh, not here. I think it's silly that TUSCL's three-part breakdown results in fractional overall ratings. A 10 point system already provides more gradations can be given any meaningful distinction.

I've always just given the same rating to each category in order to keep the overall rating a whole number, but mainly because I don't see any difference between the three categories. For me, the club is 99% about the dancers, and any value is completely dependent on how I like the dancers. I don't give a rat's ass about the club layout, parking, men's room, drink prices, friendly staff, blah blah, unless I'm turned on by the strippers.

Yet, under a reasonable interpretation of the three-part ratings, 2/3 of a strip club's score could have nothing to do with the strippers. To illustrate how absurd this is, consider the following two hypothetical club ratings:

CLUB A
Club: Kind of a dive, bad parking, grumpy staff, slow drink service, annoying DJ. Rating = 5
Dancers: Always plenty of hot girls. Incredible dances. Make you feel like a king. Rating = 9
Value: Steep cover, expensive drinks, bathroom troll, no dance specials. Rating = 6
Overall Rating = 6.67

ClLUB B
Club: Convenient lighted parking, beautiful interior, comfortable seating, friendly, incredibly helpful staff, delicious beverages. Rating = 10
Dancers: Not very attractive unless you're into matronly types who wear glasses, and they don't really dance, just stand around, sit on stools, etc. Rating = 1
Value: Well, everything's free. Rating = 10
Overall Rating: 7.00

Club A would describe some of my favorite clubs ever. Club B is a public library.