Personally, the ranking doesn't "persuade" me to review any more than I normally would. I just don't have the time for that stuff. I write reviews if I legitimately feel it would benefit someone. I use my "star ratings" to limit or completely block out recommendations from movies I would never want to see-not to reach a certain level or influence anyone else. And for that matter, I really hate that the initial star ratings Netflix shows us, is the rating Netflix thinks WE would rate it. I would rather not see their best guess for me-but that's getting a bit off topic.
And I believe good ole "Phatz" is number one right now. That's one busy reviewer!
I could care less about my ranking, but enjoy reading different reviews for movies because you can kind of get different perspectives on what the movie is about or how enjoyable it might be in your own mind. Of course, some reviewers go into great detail about cinemography, plot development, character development etc. while others just state thier opinion. I find both enjoyable.
I've never liked the reviewer rank and would be happy if Netflix did away with it. I write reviews and make lists of movies because it's fun for me and sometimes it might be a movie that others don't know and I can help others find a little hidden gem. That makes me happy to know because I find so many of those from others on Netflix. I'd like to see a couple of changes in the rating system.
1. Change the voting on reviews so it's just positive - Just a Helpful button. People can click helpful if they want or not click anything. I like the positive approach!
2. Have a little counter beside movie lists showing if someone actually put a movie from the list in their queue. That would be so cool to see that someone added a movie I liked.
When I look at others lists or reviews I don't check their rank or even the sim %. Some of my favorite faves have really low % similarity to me.
Actually, just allowing ppl to mark a review as helpful is a terrific idea, as some ppl can really turn the whole review process into a rather nasty business. The counter idea is great as well.
The motivation is the sheer enjoyment of reflecting on how a movie speaks to me and sharing my thoughts with others. In other words, we reviewers do it even though there is nothing "in it for us" and would continue to do so even without a free toaster (or even a toaster strudel). You'll find that Phatz, Creeper, and others with me are inveterate list makers. (We obsessive-compulsives prefer the term inveterate, or committed.) Lists, by the way, seem to contribute a great deal to a member's ranking at times (see discussions elsewhere). Perhaps it should be called Influence Ranking. I don't know if anyone obsesses over it or tries to game the system. I just view it modestly like an academic or corporate pat on the pack such as the Dean's List or Employee of the Month: I would do what I'm doing even without an accolade. I think if someone is obsequiously (suck-up-edly) chasing after small honors then he should find more productive or satisfying things to do that might actually better the world. We can all make a difference, and if a person's real-world life is giving him true satisfaction then he won't make a hobgoblin out of the "foolish consistencies" of something as incidental as the Netflix ranking system.