Three separate features, frequently lumped together.
Ratings
A rating is a single bit: positive or negative. One per member per thing.
They attach to almost everything — items, but also individual reviews, comments, media entries, bug replies, status updates, roadmap items, discussion posts and feedback. That is how a helpful review rises and an unhelpful one does not.
Governed by allowRatings on the item. Collections have no such switch because
they cannot be rated at all.
Reviews
A review is a star score plus a written body. One per member per item — you can edit yours, you cannot leave a second.
- rating0–5
The star score.
- contentmarkdown
The body. Optional — a score with no words is a valid review.
- hiddenbooleandefault
false Hidden by a moderator or by the review’s own author.
A review can itself be rated, commented on, reported, and can carry media of its own — so “here is a screenshot of the bug I am describing” works inside a review.
Governed by allowReviews.
Comments
A comment is a threaded reply. Comments carry a parent, so they nest.
They attach to items and to almost everything else on the site: reviews, releases, media, reports, penalties, questions, roadmap items, feedback, bug reports, status updates, and directly to a member’s profile.
isAnswer marks a comment as the accepted answer, which is what turns a
question thread into something useful to the next person reading it.
Governed by allowComments.
The switches are enforced, not hidden
allowRatings, allowReviews and allowComments are checked server-side on
every write. Turning one off does not merely hide a button — a script posting
directly to the API is refused too.
When engagement is switched off, the item’s page says so. The exception is items
marked isOfficial, which are trusted and do not carry the notice.
Penalties suppress engagement
A member under a full penalty cannot rate, review, comment, favourite or report anything. A limited penalty leaves all of that available — it only stops them creating new content. See Penalties.