Oh okay, well how do we know whether or not the guys have seen it, because they are rating it before it's out? If this is the case, then the imdb shouldn't allow ratings, if the movie isn't out yet.
You don't. But I mean, you never do. I could go rate a movie on IMDb right now that I haven't seen. But they did change their policy so that movies can't be rated before they are released.
One example is the female
Ghostbusters. There were 12,000 votes on IMDb before the movie hit theaters. 83% of them were from male users. And the average score that they gave it was a 3.6. (Even now, male-identified users account for 100,000 votes and female-identified users account for 33,000 of the votes. Average male score: 4.9. Average female score: 6.5. 20% of men give it a 1/10; 4% of women give it a 1/10).
It's a problem with any online rating system: how do you know if the person has actually seen the movie? I guess you hope (which I do) that most people are honest in rating films and don't just go score something super high or super low to make a point.
It's honestly partly why I appreciate film discussion boards. When someone says something is a 2/5 or a 6.5/10, what does that mean? There are people on this board who tend to give 2/5 scores to films they actually seem to like, while I give things I like at least a 3 or 3.5. So having a chance to discuss things and compare your taste and interest to others is really valuable.
I'm always kind of curious about the people behind the numbers. Who are the people rating
365 Days a 10/10? Who are the people giving it a 1/10? How many people rating it have actually seen it? How many people are giving it low scores to "balance" the high scores? How many people are giving it a 10/10 to snub the low scores?