Why a blank is kept blank rather than scored
On the scoring layer of this site a criterion is left unrated when a vendor publishes nothing usable about it. Scoring that as a one would put an absent statement and a weak one in the same bucket, and those are different findings. As of 2026-09-12.
| What the cell holds | What it means | How it affects the average |
|---|---|---|
| A blank | Nothing usable is published on that point | The row is averaged over six criteria, not seven |
| A two | Something published, and it is weak or hard to reach | Counted, over all seven |
| A one | The floor: the subject is not addressed at all in that column | Counted, over all seven |
Inclusion rule. The three values a thin cell can hold on this rubric, with what each one does to the row average. A value that never occurs in the table is not listed. Order. From the value that is excluded from the average to the values that are counted.
1The difference is whether reading more carefully would help
A low score means a buyer can find the answer and will not like it. A blank means the answer is not there. One of those is solved by reading, the other is not solved at all from public material, and flattening them destroys the more useful fact.
2Two blanks in one column changes what the average means
Where a criterion is unrated, the row average covers six criteria instead of seven, so it is not directly comparable with a fully rated row. That is one of the reasons the per-criterion and per-cell pages exist.
3A blank is often one sentence from being a score
Most blanks in the cost column here are one published figure away from a value. A rate against a second, or a credit rate with the credit price beside it, would fill the cell without any change to the product.
4A blank on one route does not mean a blank everywhere
A vendor can leave a consumer product unpriced while publishing a full developer rate grid. The rubric reads what the tool itself publishes and the ledger reads the rate page, which is why one channel can be unrated on cost and carry four ledger rows.
5Averages over different denominators are not comparable
Two rows here are averaged over six criteria because one cell is blank. Setting those averages beside a fully rated row compares numbers computed differently, which is the mistake the per-criterion and per-cell pages exist to prevent.
The safer habit is to ignore the average and read the columns a production cannot compromise on. For most jobs one or two criteria are binding, and an average is a summary of seven questions that the reader only asked two of.
A definition entry: what the term means, and the figures vendors put in public about it, each figure read on 2026-09-12. Related: Credit hold, Draft pass.
6Inside a generated second
Price aside, what goes into the seconds behind “An unrated cell” is described in SceneMixer's guides:
On a segment’s card, Insert adds a blank segment right after it: write its header and shots.
SceneMixer, Inserting and Deleting Segments (read 2026-10-13)
The shot seconds in the storyboard add up to the segment length, so editing them changes it.
SceneMixer, Fixing One Shot Without Redoing Everything — “Can I change the duration of a segment?” (read 2026-10-13)