I recently received two 3 ratings on quizzes in one of my newest series as well. It killed the second quiz of those two, because it got very little plays after that. It might be abuse. But it might also be the fact that, although I thought they were very nice ideas with good execution, others thought of them as only mediocre. Don't forget that it's very hard to look at your own quizzes objectively, because you worked so hard on them. I'm not saying that your quizzes are bad (I wouldn't know, I haven't played them), but there might be a possibility that somebody genuinely thinks that they are not as great as you do. If I get a bad rating, which frequently happens, I try to ask myself first: "Was this really a good quiz idea? Could I improve something? Could it be too long/short/hard/quirky/...?" I
do agree that accompanying comments with ratings would be great, but it's not a perfect world and people will often rate a quiz badly if they don't like it and move on. Nothing we, or Sporcle, can do about that.
As for 3 ratings being the new 1-bombs, I don't really buy that. I give 3 ratings as well, and never to abuse someone. Remember that a 3 rating might be given because someone thinks your quiz is just... ok. Not great, not bad, but exactly in the middle. Even though a rating of 3 can completely kill a quiz, 3/5 probably be perceived (especially by casual quiz players) as neutral. And mathematically, it is. If a 3 rating is considered bad, that leaves only 3 rating possibilities, and soon a 4 rating will be considered bad meaning that you would have to rate a quiz you like five globes, also if you merely
kind of like it.
Lastly, the ratings system of Sheldon is only helpful if one bombs are actually
one bombs. If, like you hypothesize, 2 and 3 ratings are also trolls abusing the ratings system, it would make it impossible to tell whether there's abuse or a bad quiz. Example: 2x1, 0x2, 0x3, 4x4, 6X5 = possible abuse, 1x1, 1x2, 2x3, 3x4, 6x5 = probably a quiz that is not well-liked across the board.
P.S. The subject of one bombs is somewhat of a throdden path here on Sporcle University. If you would like to know most peoples' opinion on the matter, you could look
here or
here or
here or
here or
here or
here. Ok, the last one is actually just pictures of puppies to cheer you up.