[Findings](/findings/index.md) / UX-024

# All three rating scales start on 3

Open · high severity · failure · newsroom.sgit.ai

## What we saw

The usefulness, more-like-this and level-of-detail scales at the foot of every article are preselected on the middle value.

## Why it matters

Neither the reader nor the author can tell "not rated" from "useful". Every rating collected so far is ambiguous.

## The fix

Start unselected; record only real taps.

## The record

| | |
| --- | --- |
| **Status** | Open |
| **Severity** | High |
| **Kind** | Failure: works against the reader |
| **Product** | [newsroom.sgit.ai](/findings/?product=newsroom.sgit.ai), site |
| **Where** | <https://newsroom.sgit.ai/articles/> |
| **Problems** | [Preselected input](/findings/?problem=preselected-input) |
| **Visibility** | [Subtle](/findings/?visibility=subtle): felt more than seen: it costs attention or trust, but is not noticed as a bug |
| **Recommendation** | [Start empty](/findings/?recommendation=start-empty): inputs start unselected; record only what the reader did |
| **Area** | [Feedback](/findings/?area=feedback) |
| **Breaks** | [A default is not an answer](/principles/index.md#defaults-are-not-answers) |
| **Observed** | 2026-10-11, v0.6.4 |
| **Last checked** | 2026-10-11, v0.7.1 |
| **Source** | [Review: article page and feedback](/reviews/newsroom-2026-10-11.md#article-page-and-feedback) |
| **Prototype** | [Article & reader primitives](/lab/index.md#newsroom-proto-article), route `feedback`, in three directions |

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