May 03, 2002 10:31 AM
1734 Views
(Updated May 03, 2002 10:59 AM)
Introduction:
Mouthshut as you all know is powerful medium of exchange between consumers. A review, in my opinion is not just written for the literary satisfaction of the author, but also needs to have useful information about the product.
Why Rate:
The default mode on MS allows us to see the reviews that are highly rated, when we chose a product. It is therefore vital that all of us rate reviews we read, so that a member who is looking for information on products, services or places gets to read the best reviews. If that does not appeal to you, look at this, you don’t get any points for simply reading a review, while you get points for rating it. At least for the points you should be rating it(don’t ask me what to do with the points though).
Criteria:
The two most important things about a review is that
a) it has to provide as much information about product/ service/place/person in question
b) it has to do justice to the topic under which it is written.
Length of a review:
There are times when a product/ service has so many pros and cons that cannot be listed out in one review due to the limit on the characters that can be used, in that case the author could just list out what he/she thinks is vital from his/her point of view. There are also times when a product/service does not have enough features that can be written as a long drawn out review; in that case a brief concise review will suffice.
What I also look for in review in addition to quality and quantity of information is:
How it is presented.
How honest it appears to me.
How logical the arguments, views or explanations are for or against the product.
How well the review is formatted(Use of paragraphs, punctuations, bold, italics etc).
How much care is taken while writing review(too many spelling errors show carelessness).
Quotations and references if used, is credit given to where it belongs.
Optionally some humor.
The Ratings
Highly recommended
A review that fulfils most of the above criteria besides being informative and in the right topic gets a HR from me any day. Besides this, there are certain reviews that have a relaxed rating criterion from my side. These happen to what is now more popular as the 5/10/20 reviews. Under this topic a member lists his/her favorite products, services, and people. I believe that everyone has their own choices, as long as its presented well, with justification and its not completely vague, you will get an HR from me whether I agree with your list or not.
Recommended
A review that fulfils some of the above listed criteria gets an R rating from me.
There is a raging debate on length of the reviews on MS. Some like it short and sweet. Some like it long and informative. I certainly belong to second group. My theory is this, If the topic allows, a member has to put in all the vital information, in the review. There is no point leaving out information in the name of brevity. Also writing a review just pointing out just the pluses or just the minuses is not my idea of a balanced review.
If I find a review that’s too brief in my opinion and if I feel the author has left out some information, I rate that review R.
Also an extremely useful review(content wise), but with very poor format and careless spellings might get rated R by me.
Somewhat Recommended
A review that does not address at least a few of the criteria mentioned at the beginning gets an SR. Also for following reasons:
Extremely careless with spellings and formatting
Extremely one sided and it to me looks like an hate review
Wrong category.
A review that’s written like a telegram, with no beginning and no end.
Review in which the author claims “I have no first hand experience of the product, but I am writing from what I have heard or read about it.”
Not Recommended
I rarely NR a review and that happens when the following things take place:
When an author has copied a review directly from somewhere else
When an author has simply written something to fill up 100 words. As in repeated a few words again and again, cut and pasted the same lines two three times.
If the review is in very poor taste, in an abrasive language, spreading contempt(don’t we have enough of that in the world already), alleging, accusing or harassing members needlessly.
Exceptions:
I must add here that, I relax my criteria for the first review of any member. This is because I have received a great deal of support from senior members when I first started writing at this site and a few words of encouragement and guidance does help a great deal.
Often I have had a debate within me as to should I rate a review on the basis of agreement with its content or the way it is written. Well I have set two different criteria now. When it comes to personal choices and tastes I rate on how a review is written.
But in the case of products that are universal and I have used and experienced well enough to know how good or bad it is for sure, I rate according to how much I agree with the review. If the review gives me enough reasons to go against my own judgment it gets HR, if it just makes sweeping statements without justifying them it gets an R or SR, how much ever witty or well written it is.
General tips on rating:
First and foremost read as many reviews as possible and please rate all reviews that you read.
Try and be objective and honest while you rate.
Do not rate the author, rate the review. In the sense avoid revenge-rating.
Always(I repeat Always) follow up your rating(if it’s different from that of the others) with a comment to justify it. This is applicable especially if you have rated a review lower. Its not just vindication of your stand but also something that will help the author.
When abstaining from rating a review, the reasons if mentioned in the comments section would be very useful.
If you have rated a review low for some reason and mentioned the same in the comment, if and when you receive an M2M from the member stating that the review has been edited, please read the review from the beginning and re-rate it. To re-rate a review all you have to do is click on the new rating that you wish to award. It is not compulsory that the rating needs to be changed jus because a review has been edited. But more often than not, edited reviews are much better than the original ones.
Since there is no separate topic for commenting, let me add something about commenting also in this review. Please be polite with your comments. Make comments an interactive forum, not a forum to harass people or run them down.
Most importantly develop your own criteria for rating reviews and stick to them as long as you are convinced that your criteria are sensible.
These are just the criteria that I follow while I rate a review, hope it was helpful to you all. I also hope all you will read, rate and comment on this review…
