In reply to Michael Gordon:
> Exactly. Both the grade and quality are just suggestions from the FA before the route is repeated and consensus starts to emerge. I don't see what's wrong with them offering an opinion.
That's fine if the opinion is a genuine one and within the bounds of reasonableness, but (as I suggested in the OP) the opinion can be ridiculously biased, or even an out-and-out deception. Of course, this is also OK in all but the very short term, if the process you mention (the emerging of consensus) actually takes place: the trouble is, I don't think it does much of the time. On UKC we get some patchy voting at best, which almost never leads to a change in the actual star rating. With my OP, I was hoping to find out if UKC approves the changing of obviously wrong star ratings by moderators (I'm still somewhat in the dark about that).