Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?

Fed up talking videogames? Why?

Which is worse

Not good
29
94%
Not very good
2
6%
 
Total votes: 31
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Knoyleo
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PostWhich is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Knoyleo » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:12 am

We've been sent a wellbeing survey at work, and one of the questions is just "How are you feeling?" and a 5 point scale to reply on, covering "Very good", "Good", "Neutral", "Not good", and "Not very good".

That last, and supposedly worst one, is clearly just mirroring the best option of very good, but it sounds wrong, and as though not very good should be better than an absolute not good. It feels like the not applies to the quantifier very, rather than the word good, so you might be not very good, but still a bit good, and not good is just an absolute absence of feeling good.

What do you think GRcade?

Please respond.

pjbetman wrote:That's the stupidest thing ive ever read on here i think.
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Cuttooth
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Cuttooth » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:16 am

A better scale:

:D :) :simper: :| :(

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Knoyleo
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Knoyleo » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:18 am

Cuttooth wrote:A better scale:

:D :) :simper: :| :(

Truly unambiguous and international

pjbetman wrote:That's the stupidest thing ive ever read on here i think.
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Balladeer
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Balladeer » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:19 am

Should be ‘very not good’. Perfect grammar and that.

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Cuttooth
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Cuttooth » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:19 am

Knoyleo wrote:
Cuttooth wrote:A better scale:

:D :) :simper: :| :(

Truly unambiguous and international


Wait :| means 'neutral' hang on

:D :) :| :simper: :(

No wait...

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Jenuall
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Jenuall » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:20 am

Cuttooth wrote:A better scale:

:D :) :simper: :| :(


To aid accessibility I've suggested some alt-text for these:

Very Happy
Smile
Simper
Gosling
Cry

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jiggles
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by jiggles » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:21 am

Not good is worse than not very good.

Not very good to me says “I could be better”, while not good says “I am doing bad”

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RichardUK
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by RichardUK » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:22 am

I would take from it

Not Good - not good at all, not even a fait glimmer of goodness

Not Very Good - still not good good but could be moderately good or be experiencing certain aptitudes to the day that are good (just not very good obviously)

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Drumstick
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Drumstick » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:22 am

Not good.

Something deemed "not very good" can still be "good", but not "very good".

Last edited by Drumstick on Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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That's not a growth
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by That's not a growth » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:22 am

Cuttooth wrote:
Knoyleo wrote:
Cuttooth wrote:A better scale:

:D :) :simper: :| :(

Truly unambiguous and international


Wait :| means 'neutral' hang on

:D :) :| :simper: :(

No wait...


Maybe

:D :) :| :( :x

Also, I agree. 'Not very good' isn't a great choice there.

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Tsunade
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Tsunade » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:45 am

I always thought
Not very good: can still get some use out of it
Not good: pretty much useless.

Ludo is gooseberry fool!
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Jenuall
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Jenuall » Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:50 am

Image

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Tomous
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Tomous » Tue Oct 13, 2020 10:12 am

That survey is really not good.

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OrangeRKN
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by OrangeRKN » Tue Oct 13, 2020 10:42 am

It's either a fumbled attempt to make a unipolar likert scale, failing to account for the general interpretation of litotes that would put "not very good" further left on the scale than "not good", or it's a deliberate attempt to try and skew responses towards the left (which the slightly unusual ordering would support given the left side bias in responses).

This post took me 15 minutes to write

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Knoyleo
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Knoyleo » Tue Oct 13, 2020 10:52 am

OrangeRKN wrote:It's either a fumbled attempt to make a unipolar likert scale, failing to account for the general interpretation of litotes that would put "not very good" further left on the scale than "not good", or it's a deliberate attempt to try and skew responses towards the left (which the slightly unusual ordering would support given the left side bias in responses).

This post took me 15 minutes to write

The ordering in my OP is actually my fault, the survey as is runs the other way, from not very good on the left, to very good on the right.

pjbetman wrote:That's the stupidest thing ive ever read on here i think.
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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Victor Mildew » Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:00 am

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Knoyleo
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Knoyleo » Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:07 am

Don't very know

pjbetman wrote:That's the stupidest thing ive ever read on here i think.
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Hypes
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Hypes » Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:14 am

Not very good is gooder than not good

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Cuttooth
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Cuttooth » Tue Oct 13, 2020 12:25 pm

Double not good

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Qikz
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PostRe: Which is worse: "not good" or "not very good"?
by Qikz » Tue Oct 13, 2020 12:27 pm

Knoyleo wrote:Don't very know


:lol:

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