― from Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

Ah! How wonderful to have half stars here when rating a book.  

But, this goodreads escapee has a few questions about the star ratings if anyone can be of help.

I'm happy to contribute ratings and other content to this site, but want to first make sure I won't be accidentally skewing the book data...

For example, amazon rating scale versus goodreads rating scale:

I mean, of course, everyone can rate however they will (not like any site using star ratings can read your mind to know your point of view -- or any rate at least not until goodreads starts sourcing out their mind-reading shelf name censors).  But, I have a couple of questions.

     Do the star ratings show in an average or aggregate on book pages?

     What does booklikes consider the stars to be?  

Yes, I know I can email support to ask.  I did.  Here's what they said: