Curious about how other people use the favourite button, and what kind of ratings they give their favourite stories.
For me, whether or not I favourite something is completely separate from what I think of the actual of the story, its just about whether or not I love it, so my lowest rated favourite story is The Gift (from The Sarah-Jane Adventures), I gave it two stars because its pretty bad, but I still love it because it used to be on CBBC all of the time when I was younger, and so when I watch it now it reminds me of the love for the whole show I had back when it aired. Similarly favourited Love and Monsters while only giving it 3 stars, despite its obvious flaws it was my favourite episode for a long time growing up so it still has a special place in my heart to this day.
In the converse direction, there are stories I’ve given high ratings, or even five stars to, but that I’ve not favourited. Like Blink for example, which I gave five stars to because I think its pretty close to perfect, I just don’t love it the same way that I do the stories that I have favourited
Most of my favourites have at least 4 stars and I don’t think I have any conscious criteria for if I favourite something or not, but if I had to come up with one it would probably be if it comes up quickly when favourite stories.
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No - to be a favourite, it has to be highly rated for me. Delta, Inferno, Midnight are 5s and favourited.
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Interesting question and I agree that favourites don’t necessarily have to be the same as 5-star stories. If they are the same then what’s the point of the separate distinction?
My lowest rated favourite currently is The End of Time Part 1. That story has all kinds of problems but also I love it 
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My rule of thumb when marking my favourites (whether a Doctor Who story or any movie or book) is that I need to have rated it highly (a 9 or a 10 out of 10). There are stories that I don’t rate highly but find enjoyable because they are so bad that they are good, but for it to be my favourite, it needs to be good and enjoyable.
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So like an extra mark of recognition to give to something you’ve already rated five stars basically.
That’s very different from me, being able to favourite stories is one of my favourite things about this website specifically because I can acknowledge things as being bad at the same time as marking it as something that might hold a special place in my heart. (and it also means I don’t subconsciously inflate my scores as much)
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For me if it is a 4.5 or 5.0 it gets favourited. For me the favourite means that in a couple of years I can go and pick something that I’ve forgotten about and watch/listen/read again. So more of a personal reference point.
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Mine is 3 stars, Doom Coalition 4.3 The Side of the Angels and it’s not because I really like the episode - to be honest, I find it complicated and convoluted, but I am also currently utterly obsessed with Veklin and Ollistra and this is such a good episode for them.
In general, my favourites are all 4 or 5 stars, and of my 58 favourites, 43 are 5 stars. I have no hard and fast rules for favouriting stories, and though I try not to favourite every story I really like to keep them a bit special, every episode I have favourited is one I’ve watched/listened to multiple times and it has, in some way or another, consumed my brain for at least a short amount of time. I guess favourites are ones I’m obssessed with
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All of my favorites are rated five stars, but I am no stranger to adding/removing selections at whim. I’m not the sort of person who likes to choose favorites, generally speaking, because it’s such a definitive word; so it’s difficult for me to determine the difference between a favorite and a story I just really enjoyed.
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Battlefield and Fugitive of the Jadoon are both 3-star favorites. Favorite to me is very much an emotional reaction seprate from (but related to) story quality
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I have 54 favourited stories, only 17 of which are 5 stars (and 27 5 stars in total)
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I was sure I had something rated quite low in my favourites, but apparently not. My lowest rated favourite is Minuet in Hell, rated 4/5. Everything else is 4.5-5/5. I’m sure that if I relistened to it the rating would reduce and it might lose its favourite status, especially since listening to more audios, but I enjoyed it so much on first listen that I immediately went and listened to it again, so it must be worth something.
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I have 31 favorites and all but one are 5.0 or 4.5 stars. My lowest rated favorite is Snakedance with 4.0 stars.
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I haven’t used the favourite feature as much, maybe I should!
I don’t expect any favourite story of mine would be anything below 4 stars. I do try to add some objectivity to my ratings, but they’re still ultimately personal, it seems.
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Nobody says you should 
it’s there for those who want to use it and there’s no set rule for how you use it. I love how differently all of us define what a “favourite” story is and use the heart icon accordingly!
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I decided at some point to dedicate my favorites to being my current top 20 stories. All of them are at least 4 stars, most are 4.5-5. And I’m pretty sure I have nothing rated 4.5 or higher that isn’t a favorite.
https://tardis.guide/user/flora_snow00/my-stories-favourites/
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I don’t actually remember if I’ve favorited it or not, but I think I’ve both favorited and given a rating of 3 stars to The Psychic Circus, which, despite being kind of a mess that doesn’t in any way fulfill the potential that a prequel to The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (my favorite televised Doctor Who story, incidentally) could have, is a story I’ve listened to at least three times and had fun with every time.
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