Comments! Good or bad, sarcastic or sad, humorous or plain moron, subtle or explicit, enthusiastic or depressive...All kinds of comments!
Well, the ’C’ in my review title of course stands for commenting.
We human beings are so touchy about comments made about us- our habits, our actions, our looks, our tastes. Most of us have an instinct of feeling accepted or rejected with just one comment that someone makes about us. We feel skyhigh when someone we admire says nice things about us. And we just want to sulk or pack our bags or hit back at a negative comment. Constructive criticism is much often used term but its sparsely used.
Coming to MS, there have been a lot of instances where a comments section has turned out to be more popular than the actual review itself for the sheer interaction generated. A lot has been said about How to comment and not to comment. I agree with most of the viewpoints.
I have a few sugegstions to make. I am not sure whether these points have been brought about earlier. If yes, I would like to see them take effect ASAP.
Currently Mouthshut goes by the method of reading(of course), rating(buttons at the bottom) and then the comments section. First, going to the comments section takes you through the list of comments and everyone would agree that we cannot resist the temptation of scrolling past them.
The point I want to make is:
The existing comments influence our comments on the review more than the actual review itself.
I have been victim of getting lost in reading and enjoying comments left by others and totally forgetting the basic reason I am there: To comment.
Suddenly, I am reminded that I need to leave a comment of my own! By that time, I have either the herd mentality wherein I praise or lambast the review as almost everyone has done that or react to the existing comments. In this entire process, the actual reviewer’s viewpoint is lost. I donot have any objection to a healthy interaction that goes on when people agree or disagree with each other in the comments section but we forget that the comments section was meant for the review and the reviewer in the first place and not as our own battlefield to settle scores. An entertaining/interesting/controversial comments section is most welcome but please, first give the actual reviewer his due!
Suggestion: Hide the comments section before the reader enters his comments. After he rates the review, bring up a pop-up comments box wherein he can enter his own comments and hit submit. As soon as he does that it takes him to the entire comments section. His subsequent comments can be based on the existing comments but the FIRST comment has to be his own and in no way influenced!
Bottomline: By doing this, we will achieve two things.
Make commenting a pre-requisite in order to go comments section.
Encourage active reading and commenting based on reader’s own response.
I know there must be downside to my suggestion. I can think about some of them right now! But, for now, I request you to just rate and comment what your first reaction is!